Candles. Definitely candles. I placed them all over the table, trying to create that very atmosphere I’d been dreaming about all year. A white tablecloth, crystal glasses we’d received as a wedding gift and never once used, a bouquet of white roses in the center. Everything had to be perfect. My birthday—December twenty-third—always got lost […]
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When I got married at thirty, I didn’t have a penny to my name. No, I wasn’t poor—I just had no savings, no inheritance, no financial cushion. My wife, Anna, came from the same kind of family, where every kopek was accounted for. Her only close relative was her father, a quiet, taciturn man […]
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Alina sat at a massive oak table covered with countless fabric swatches. She smoothed each piece carefully with her palm, lifted it to the light, and studied the way the silk or satin shimmered. A smile glowed on her face—inside every scrap she could already see a piece of the future, her celebration, her […]
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The doorbell rang sharply, slicing through the quiet of Saturday morning. Alina flinched, nearly spilling her coffee on the table. Who could it be at nine in the morning? Her friends always warned her before dropping by, and couriers usually called first. She opened the door and froze for a moment, not understanding who stood […]
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— An hour of nannying costs six hundred rubles. That’s twelve hundred from you, Lenochka. Transfer to my phone number—you know it.” Larisa Pavlovna wasn’t joking. She stood in the doorway of my entryway, adjusting her flawless blowout, holding a small leather-bound notebook in her hands. In it, she had just—right in front of me—made […]
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So, how much did you manage to click today?” Sergey’s voice from the hallway was rough, soaked in street-cold and fatigue. “Come on, quit playing with your toys—I’m hungry.” Marina didn’t answer. She only pressed the headset tighter to her ear, eyes fixed on four faces divided by thin gray lines on her monitor. Her […]
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Yulia Antonovna had long served in the Grigoryev household — Vladimir and Lyudmila. Today the owners had gone somewhere, and the maid, having finished all her chores around the house, sat down to rest by the window. Suddenly, her attention was drawn to a little boy on the street. Skinny and clad in tattered […]
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Since you bought that damn boat so you could take your buddies fishing on it, I’m not going to sit at home either! My daughter and I are going to Turkey on our own, and you can live with your friends and that boat from now on!” Lena said it to her husband the moment […]
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Lera woke up not to an alarm clock, but because the room was stuffy—like a rush-hour bus where the driver forgot to turn on the AC and the passengers are convinced fresh air is bad for your health. She automatically stared at the ceiling: a spider in the corner seemed like the only living […]
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We were celebrating our little boy’s first birthday. Guests, presents, laughter. I thought it was the happiest day of my life. But then the door flew open, and she walked in—my mother-in-law. Without even looking at the guests, she jabbed a finger at me and screamed, “That child isn’t my Pavel’s! I’ll expose you for […]
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