Many people thought Natasha was a bit simple. She had lived with her husband for sixteen years, raising two children: Tanya was fifteen, and Dima was eight. Her husband cheated on her openly—starting on the third day after their wedding, when he had a fling with a waitress at the restaurant. And that was only […]
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Marina was carefully watering the violets on the windowsill when a crash and her husband’s irritated grumbling rang out. “Damn it! That palm again!” Andrey was rubbing his bruised knee and glaring at the culprit. “Marina, when are you going to move that green monstrosity? I trip over it every single day!” “Andryusha, where am […]
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Arina froze in the bedroom doorway, watching her husband, Dmitry, adjust his tie in the mirror. “Dima, have you seen my sapphire earrings? The white-gold ones Mom gave me for my thirtieth.” Dmitry kept fussing with his tie without turning around. “No, I have no idea where they could be. Why, are they missing?” Arina […]
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— “Which apartment are you planning to split?” the wife asked. — “Fine,” the husband answered roughly. “Either way, half the apartment is mine.” Marina shook her head. — “Let’s consider that your family spent that money remodeling the home of their grandson and son,” she explained firmly. “You wanted to start a new life—please, […]
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“Come in, Marina. Dinner needs to be cooked—the groceries are in a bag in the kitchen. The laundry’s in the basket. Wipe the dust in the living room; I haven’t gotten around to it in ages,” the future mother-in-law rattled off, and then, as if casually, added, “And Vanya and I will watch a movie […]
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When Lena stepped off the train, it was still dark. She hadn’t told anyone she was coming back. She bought a ticket for early morning, took the last car, didn’t read, didn’t look out the window. She only listened to the clatter of the wheels—as if they were tapping out what she still hadn’t said. […]
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Yulia sat at the kitchen table, peering out the window where a fine autumn rain was falling. A cup of long-cold tea stood nearby. She tried to understand when everything had gone wrong—when the chill between her and Boris had turned into an entire wall of ice. — Sashenka, careful there, — Yulia said in […]
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Marina frowned. A letter with the bank’s logo lay on the kitchen table—the third one this month. She reached for the letter opener, her heart beating out of rhythm. Something was wrong. “Dear Viktor Nikolaevich… payment overdue… subject to penalty… collateralized property…” Collateralized property? What property? “Vitya!” she shouted, holding the letter between two fingers […]
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Alina stood by the kitchen window, watching the autumn leaves slowly settle onto the asphalt of the courtyard. Behind her came familiar sounds: children’s laughter, the shuffle of slippers across the parquet, the refrigerator door slamming. She didn’t turn—she knew she’d see the same scene she’d seen every day for the past three months. Inga […]
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The dream of a house by the sea had been a family dream for many years. Inna remembered how, as a child, sitting at the table in the tiny kitchen of their Khrushchev-era panel apartment, she and her mother and father would leaf through photos of the seashore and imagine how one day they would […]
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