“What, you won’t pay for your son to go to the seaside?” — His wife saw how embarrassed her husband became and answered exactly as she should have
Valentina was sitting at the kitchen table, sorting through utility bills, when she heard Sergey talking on the phone in the hallway. His voice was quiet, almost guilty—the same tone he always had when Irina called.
“I understand, I understand… Yes, of course, the boy needs a vacation…” she heard fragments of the conversation. “It’s just that money is a little tight right now…”
Valentina grimaced. She and Sergey had been living together for three years now, and these conversations still hadn’t stopped. Maxim, Sergey’s seven-year-old son from his first marriage, certainly needed his father’s support. But why was it that every time the conversation was about the child, Irina and her own needs inevitably got woven into it?
“All right, all right… I’ll transfer it tomorrow,” Sergey ended the call and came into the kitchen with a tired face.
“Again?” Valentina asked without looking up from the papers.
“Max needs money for camp. A children’s sanatorium in Anapa.” Sergey sat down across from his wife and rubbed his temples. “Twenty thousand.”
“Twenty?” Valentina said in surprise. “For a children’s camp? Did you ask what exactly that money covers?”
Sergey blushed. In that blush, Valentina read everything.
“Seryozha,” she began carefully, “who is going to this camp with Max?”
“Well… Irina, of course. He’s still little.”
“I see.” Valentina put the bills aside and looked closely at her husband. “And how much does a camp voucher cost for a seven-year-old child? Without an accompanying adult?”
“How would I know…” Sergey avoided her eyes.
“Find out.” There was no aggression in Valentina’s voice, only exhaustion. “Just find out.”
The next day Sergey came home from work looking darker than a storm cloud.
“Well?” Valentina asked without even turning away from the stove.
“The child’s voucher costs eight thousand,” he said quietly. “The adult one is twelve.”
Valentina turned off the gas and faced her husband.
“So out of twenty thousand, eight goes to Maxim, and twelve goes to Irina?”
“She can’t send him alone!”
“Seryozha, the child is seven. Proper camps have counselors, medical workers, entertainers. Children aren’t abandoned to fend for themselves.”
Sergey sat down at the table and put his head in his hands.
“She says Max won’t go without her. He’ll cry.”
“Did you ask Max?”
“No…”
Valentina sat down beside her husband. In three years of living together, they had never had a serious fight. She loved Sergey—reliable, honest, hardworking. But these constant financial injections into his ex-wife’s life were beginning to wear her down.
“Seryozha, let’s count.” Valentina took a sheet of paper. “Child support—fifteen thousand a month. Plus additional expenses: clubs, clothes, medical treatment. On average, it comes out to about twenty-five thousand a month. And now vacations too.”
“Do you want me to abandon my son?”
“I want you to understand the difference between taking care of your son and supporting your ex-wife.” Valentina spoke calmly, but there was determination in her eyes. “Tell me honestly: when Irina asks for money for Maxim, does she spend it only on him?”
Sergey was silent.
“Seryozha, answer me.”
“I don’t know… Maybe some of it goes to herself…”
“Some of it?” Valentina snorted. “And what does Irina live on? She doesn’t have a permanent job, does she?”
“She does odd jobs sometimes…”
“Sometimes. And mainly she lives on the child support you supposedly pay for your son.” Valentina stood up and walked around the kitchen. “Do you know what angers me most? Not that she spends your money on herself. It’s that she does it through the child.”
“What do you mean?”
“She has taught Max to ask you for money. A seven-year-old child calls his father and says, ‘Dad, Mom said you won’t buy us a camp voucher.’ Can you imagine what is going on in that boy’s head?”
Sergey turned pale.
“She doesn’t say that…”
“She doesn’t? Then who does? Did Max come up with asking for exactly twenty thousand himself? Specifically for a camp in Anapa? What, has he been studying travel agency price lists?”
Valentina sat down across from her husband and took his hands.
“Seryozha, I’m not against you helping your son. But I am against you being used. And most importantly, I am against a child being used for that.”
“What do you suggest?”
“I suggest we be honest. With ourselves, with Irina, with Maxim.” Valentina spoke firmly. “You pay child support—that is your responsibility as a father. But you are not responsible for supporting your ex-wife. And you are not responsible for paying for her vacation.”
“But if Max doesn’t go to camp…”
“He will go. But for eight thousand, not twenty. And if Irina wants to go on vacation too, let her earn the money herself.”
Sergey fell silent. Valentina could see him struggling—with his habit of giving in to his ex-wife, with his guilt, with his desire to be a good father.
“And if she forbids Max from going without her?”
“Then it will become clear who really needs this vacation,” Valentina answered dryly.
For several days Sergey tormented himself, but eventually he called Irina and said he could pay only for the child’s voucher. The scandal was enormous. Irina shouted into the phone so loudly that Valentina could hear every word from the next room. But Sergey stood his ground.
“Fine,” Irina finally said. “But Maxim won’t go without me. He’ll sit at home and think about what a greedy father he has.”
And she hung up.
Valentina came over to her husband and hugged him by the shoulders.
“You’ll see, in a week she’ll call and agree.”
But a week passed, then another, and Irina remained silent. Sergey grew nervous. He called Max, but the boy answered in monosyllables and quickly handed the phone to his mother.
“Maybe I should still give her the twenty thousand?” Sergey said one evening. “I feel sorry for Max.”
“And I feel sorry for you,” Valentina replied. “And I feel sorry for our vacation, which we canceled because we don’t have money.”
Sergey sighed. It was true: they had planned to go to her parents’ dacha, but they had to give it up—all their spare money was going toward “additional expenses” for Maxim.
“Seryozha, answer honestly: what matters more to you—our vacation or Irina’s vacation?”
“Ours, of course…”
“Then hold firm. Time will show who is right here.”
And time really did show it. At the end of May, when camp vouchers were already running out, Irina came to their home. Unexpectedly, without calling. Valentina opened the door and saw a slender blonde in an expensive dress standing on the threshold, with a seven-year-old boy beside her who had big sad eyes exactly like Sergey’s.
“Maxim wants to talk to his father,” Irina said without greeting her.
Valentina let them into the apartment. Sergey came out of the room, saw his son, and his face lit up.
“Max! How are you, son?”
The boy looked at his father seriously, like an adult.
“Dad, why don’t you want me to go to the seaside?”
Valentina saw Sergey’s face tighten. Irina stood nearby with a pleased smile.
“Max, I do want you to go. But…”
“But what?” Irina took a step forward. “What, you won’t pay for your son to go to the seaside?”
Valentina saw how embarrassed her husband became and understood that her moment had come. She went up to Maxim and crouched down beside him.
“Maxim, do you know what a talented mother you have?”
The boy looked at her in surprise.
“She is so smart, so beautiful, so capable,” Valentina continued, not taking her eyes off Irina. “She can easily earn money for any vacation. She just sometimes jokes like this with your dad, pretending she can’t. Although she knows perfectly well that your dad can’t earn enough for the kind of expensive vacation she wants.”
Irina’s face changed before their eyes.
Maxim turned to his mother.
“Mom, is that true?”
Irina stood there with her mouth open. Valentina continued:
“Of course it’s true. Your mother is just being modest. She can work, earn money, and provide for herself and you. She doesn’t need help from your dad. Right, Irina?”
Everyone looked at Irina. Maxim with curiosity, Sergey with astonishment, and Valentina calmly and expectantly.
“Is it true, Mom?” the boy repeated.
Through clenched teeth, Irina forced out:
“It’s true.”
“Then we’ll go to the seaside ourselves?” Maxim brightened.
“Yes,” Irina answered barely audibly. “Ourselves.”
“Hooray!” Maxim hugged his mother. “And I thought we weren’t going!”
Irina took her son by the hand.
“Come on, Maxim. We need to go.”
When the door closed behind them, Sergey stood in the hallway for a long time.
“You understand she’ll turn Max against me now, don’t you?” he finally said.
“Possibly,” Valentina agreed. “Or maybe the opposite. Maxim is a smart boy. Sooner or later he will understand who truly loves him and who uses him.”
“And what if he doesn’t?”
Valentina approached her husband and took his face in her hands.
“Seryozha, you can’t control what Irina says and does. But you can control your own actions. You can be an honest father who doesn’t buy his son’s love, but earns it. You can show Maxim what dignity and self-respect are.”
Sergey hugged his wife.
“Thank you,” he whispered. “For being here. For not letting me make mistakes.”
A week later, Maxim called by himself. He said he and his mother were going to his grandmother’s dacha, and that was good too, because there was a river there and he could swim. He also said he wanted to come visit his father and get to know Valentina better, because she seemed very smart to him.
Irina stopped calling with requests for money. At least for the next few months. And Sergey and Valentina did eventually go to her parents’ dacha, where they spent two wonderful weeks swimming in the lake and reading books under the apple trees.
Sometimes in the evenings, Valentina thought about that conversation. About how important it is sometimes simply to tell the truth—without aggression, without accusations, just stating the facts. Irina really was a capable woman. She really could work and earn money. And she really did understand who the mistress of that home was.
Not because Valentina was evil or cruel. But because she simply did not allow herself to be manipulated. And she taught her husband the same.
Maxim came to visit them more and more often. Irina did not interfere—apparently, she had realized that the game was over. The boy turned out to be truly smart and sensitive. He never asked his father for money, but he happily accepted gifts. And each time, he grew more attached to Valentina.
“Why don’t you and Dad have children?” he asked once.
“Do you want a little brother or sister?” Valentina smiled.
“I do,” Maxim answered seriously. “But only if you’ll be good parents. Not like Mom.”
Valentina did not ask what he meant. Children see more than adults think. And Maxim clearly saw the difference between a home where he was loved and a home where he was used.
That evening, when Sergey drove his son home, Valentina stood by the window for a long time, looking out at the summer evening. Life is a complicated thing. There are no clear rules by which one can live. But there are principles that help preserve human dignity. And one of the main ones is not allowing yourself to be manipulated, even when it is done in the name of love.
Family is not only about feelings, but also responsibility. And boundaries. And the ability to say “no” when necessary. Even when it is difficult. Especially when it is difficult.
Valentina smiled as she remembered Irina’s face that day. The woman had realized she had met a worthy opponent. Not an enemy—an opponent. Someone who would not play by her rules, but would not take revenge either. Someone who would simply protect her family. Calmly, methodically, without unnecessary emotion.
And that turned out to be the most effective way.
