A July evening in the two-room apartment on Stroiteley Street was especially stifling. Irina sat in an armchair by the window, turning over in her mind the events of the past few weeks. A thirty-five-year-old elementary school teacher, she had always been observant and good at noticing details that slipped past others. Those traits […]
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My name is Marina. I’m 29 years old. I’m Anya’s older sister — the one who was always held up as an example to her in childhood. Until one day, I simply stopped being noticed as soon as the younger sister was born: bright, loud, irresistible. Anya always knew how to be the center […]
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“Earrings!” her mother-in-law snapped. “The ones I gave you for the wedding. Take them off right now.” “Lyudmila Borisovna, I… I don’t understand,” Kristina began. “Why are you—” “Just take them off,” the woman cut her short. “They’re my earrings. I changed my mind about giving them to you. And I want them back.” […]
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I stood at the entrance to the restaurant, holding my daughter’s hand. Kira was tired after the clinic, cranky, and hungry. We had just gone in for her vaccination, and I had promised her something tasty afterward. The restaurant was nearby, and I also wanted to check how things were going there. I hadn’t […]
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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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