After four years of marriage to Maxim, the heroine of the story found herself thinking more and more often about the problems in their family. She was very close to her father, who had raised her alone and, in order to give his daughter a good start in life, had given her their large family apartment, while he himself moved into the modest one-room apartment that had belonged to her late grandmother. Her relationship with her husband was overshadowed by his mother, Elena Sergeyevna, who constantly criticized her daughter-in-law and demanded excessive attention. Maxim, being a “mama’s boy,” often spent evenings and weekends at his mother’s place, leaving his wife alone.
The conflict that destroyed their marriage erupted after yet another visit from his mother-in-law. She spent a long time complaining about the terrible condition of her private house — the leaking roof and the broken boiler — and asked for financial help. After she left, Maxim had a conversation with his wife that shocked her.
He suggested a “brilliant” solution to his mother’s problem.
“Instead of your father, my mother will move into his apartment,” he declared.
“What do you mean?” his wife could hardly believe her ears.
“I mean exactly that. She is my mother. And your father is almost seven years younger than her. He can live in a rented place for a while. It won’t kill him.”
The heroine was stunned by the audacity of the proposal — to evict her own father from his apartment for the sake of her mother-in-law’s comfort. She pointed out to her husband how absurd the idea was.
“Your mother, forgive me, is a stranger to me and my father.”
“I’ve already decided!” Maxim stomped his foot.
“Then pack your things and leave,” she said clearly.
That same evening, Maxim, still failing to understand that his demand was an act of betrayal, packed his belongings and went to his mother. The next day, the heroine told her father everything. He fully supported her decision and remarked that he had always considered Maxim a “slippery type.”
She filed for divorce. Her ex-husband never called or wrote to her even once. Left alone, she eventually realized that the breakup had been for the best, and she was even glad they had not had children. She found peace and freedom, enjoying the silence of her apartment and understanding that it was better to be alone than with a person who was so easily willing to sacrifice the people closest to her.
