“Did you talk to Mom about moving in?” Lenya entered the room, breaking the evening silence.
Lika looked up from her magazine and glanced at her husband in surprise.
“No. Why? We’ve only just settled in. Your mother gave us the apartment herself so we could live separately.”
Lenya sat down on the edge of the sofa, unusually serious.
“I’ve thought it all through. Mom should live with us. It’s our duty.”
“What?” Lika put the magazine aside. “Are you serious? We’ve only been married for three months!”
“If Mom doesn’t live with us, I’ll file for divorce,” the words rang out like thunder from a clear sky.
Lika stared at her husband, trying to understand whether he was joking or not. But his face remained unreadable. Lenya’s eyes, usually gentle and kind, now seemed foreign, cold.
“What are you saying?” Lika stood up, feeling her hands begin to tremble. “Is this some stupid joke?”
“Not at all,” Lenya crossed his arms over his chest. “Mom took care of me all her life. She cooked, washed my clothes, helped me with problems. And now she’s alone, and I have to take care of her. That’s normal.”
“But your mother… she’s only fifty-five! She works, she has her own apartment, her friends, her own life. Are you sure she even wants to live with us?”
“Of course she does,” Lenya snapped. “She’s my mother. Where else would she live if not with her son?”
Lika felt the room begin to spin. She sat back down on the sofa. Memories of the wedding preparations swept through her mind like a whirlwind — Irina Nikolaevna had controlled every detail, from the menu to the color of the napkins. “I have experience, and you’re young, what do you understand?” — a phrase Lika had heard dozens of times during those months. And the prospect of living under the same roof with such a domineering woman…
“I don’t understand where this suddenly came from,” Lika tried to speak calmly. “We never discussed this before the wedding or after.”
“What is there to discuss?” Lenya shrugged, as if they were talking about choosing a movie for the evening. “You’re my wife, she’s my mother. We’re family. Family should be together.”
Lika took a deep breath, trying to gather her thoughts. Something was wrong here. Lenya had never given ultimatums before.
“Let’s just talk to your mother tomorrow, all right? We’ll find out what she wants.”
“I’ve already talked to Mom,” Lenya suddenly began to look like an offended child. “She said she doesn’t want to interfere with us. But I can see how hard it is for her alone. You have to convince her.”
“Me?” Lika couldn’t hide her surprise. “Why me?”
“Because Mom thinks you’ll be against it. That it will be unpleasant for you to live with her.”
Lika opened her mouth, then closed it again. What could she say? Irina Nikolaevna was right. But right now, calming her husband was more important than arguing.
“All right, I’ll talk to her,” Lika said quietly, already understanding that she was getting involved in a complicated game.
Natalya, Lika’s best friend, shook her head as she listened to the story.
“And what are you going to do now?”
They were sitting in a small café near Lika’s office. The lunch break was almost over, but Lika couldn’t leave without sharing everything with her friend.
“I have no idea,” Lika stirred her salad, feeling no appetite. “On the one hand, I don’t want to live with his mother. On the other, I can’t believe Lenya seriously talked about divorce. We only got married recently!”
“What do you know about his relationship with his mother?” Natalya asked. “Maybe there are some hidden issues there?”
Lika thought for a moment.
“They’ve always been close. Irina Nikolaevna raised him alone after the divorce. Lenya told me his father left when he was seven. Since then, they barely communicated.”
“Ah, a classic case,” Natalya nodded with the air of an expert. “A mother pours her whole life into her son and then can’t let him go. My mother-in-law tried that too. But my Sergey set boundaries right away.”
“Except in my case, it’s not the mother-in-law who wants to move in. It’s the son who’s demanding it,” Lika sighed. “And apparently, Irina Nikolaevna herself isn’t eager to come to us.”
“Then talk to her directly!” Natalya exclaimed. “Without Lenya. Find out what she really thinks.”
“You’re right,” Lika nodded, gathering her courage. “I need to meet with her in person. Today.”
Irina Nikolaevna’s apartment was located in an old but well-kept building. Lika had never been there alone, without Lenya, and now she felt awkward as she pressed the doorbell.
The door opened almost immediately. Irina Nikolaevna looked surprised, but quickly pulled herself together.
“Anzhelika? Has something happened?”
“No, it’s just… may I come in? I need to talk to you.”
Irina Nikolaevna silently stepped aside, letting her daughter-in-law into the apartment.
“Tea?” she asked when Lika took off her shoes.
“No, thank you,” Lika swallowed. “I won’t stay long.”
They went into the living room — a bright room with bookshelves along the walls. Lika had always imagined her mother-in-law’s apartment filled with figurines and lace doilies, but it was minimalist and modern.
“So what did you want to talk about?” Irina Nikolaevna sat down in an armchair, gesturing for Lika to sit on the sofa.
“About Lenya,” Lika decided not to beat around the bush. “Yesterday he said he wants you to live with us. That it’s our duty to you. And that if I don’t agree…” she faltered, “he’ll file for divorce.”
Lika expected to see satisfaction on her mother-in-law’s face, or at least the hint of a smile. But Irina Nikolaevna looked stunned.
“What nonsense?” she frowned. “I gave you the apartment precisely so you could live separately, as your own family. Why would I move in with you?”
“But Lenya said he talked to you…”
“Yes, he did,” Irina Nikolaevna sighed. “He came the day before yesterday and started saying that I must be lonely, that I’m getting old…” she snorted. “I’m fifty-five, I have a job, friends, I go dancing twice a week. What loneliness? That’s exactly what I told him.”
“And what did he say?”
“He got offended. Said I was pushing him away, that he felt bad without me,” Irina Nikolaevna suddenly looked at Lika with concern. “Tell me, does he… manage on his own? Cooking, cleaning?”
Lika felt herself blush.
“Not entirely. I mostly cook. We clean together, but…” she hesitated, “the initiative always comes from me.”
“I see,” Irina Nikolaevna nodded. “My dear girl, do you think I’d be happy to abandon my apartment and move in with you just to continue serving a grown man?” She sighed heavily. “I gave you a place to live so you could live independently! So Lenya would finally grow up.”
Lika stared at her mother-in-law in shock. This was not at all the conversation she had expected.
“I don’t understand…”
“What’s there to understand?” Irina Nikolaevna gave a bitter smile. “I did everything wrong. After my divorce from Vitya — Lenya’s father — I threw all my strength into my son. I earned the money myself, solved all the problems myself. And my son grew up thinking that was how it should be — someone would do everything for him. And here is the result: a thirty-year-old man who can’t imagine life without his mother’s care.”
Irina Nikolaevna fell silent, staring somewhere past Lika.
“I thought marriage would change him,” she continued more quietly. “That he would take responsibility for his family, become a support for you. But apparently, he simply decided to replace one woman who does everything for him with two.”
Lika didn’t know what to say. Irina Nikolaevna, the strict and domineering woman she had been a little afraid of, suddenly appeared in a completely different light.
“I don’t want to divorce,” Lika finally said. “I love Lenya. But living as three…”
“No one is going to live as three,” Irina Nikolaevna said firmly. “You are his wife, not his nanny. And I won’t keep nannying him anymore. It’s time for Lenya to grow up.”
“But how? He’s insisting…”
For the first time during the whole conversation, Irina Nikolaevna smiled.
“Here’s what we’ll do, Anzhelika. Come to my place tomorrow together. I’ll pretend I only just learned about this idea from you. And believe me, I’ll find a way to explain to my son why it’s impossible.”
“Are you sure?” Lika asked doubtfully. “Lenya is very determined.”
“I’m his mother,” Irina Nikolaevna answered simply. “I know how to talk to him. And you,” she looked carefully at her daughter-in-law, “need to gather courage and stop indulging him in everything. Otherwise, he will never grow up.”
When Lika returned home, she found Lenya waiting. He was sitting in an armchair, impatiently tapping his fingers on the armrest.
“Where were you?” he asked with slight irritation.
“I stopped by your mother’s,” Lika answered honestly.
Lenya’s face brightened.
“Really? You talked to her? Did she agree?”
Lika walked into the room and sat opposite her husband.
“No, Lenya. Your mother doesn’t want to live with us.”
“What did you say to her?” accusatory notes appeared in Lenya’s voice. “You didn’t want her to move in, did you? You talked her out of it!”
“I didn’t say anything,” Lika answered calmly, though everything inside her was trembling. “We simply talked. And she said herself that she wants us to live separately.”
“I don’t believe it,” Lenya stood up and began pacing around the room. “You don’t understand! Mom always took care of me, she was always there. She can’t not want to be with me!”
Lika watched her husband with growing concern. He looked like a child whose favorite toy had been taken away.
“Lenya, tomorrow we’ll go to her together,” she said gently. “You’ll hear it yourself.”
“All right,” he stopped. “Tomorrow we’ll go together. And I’m sure I’ll be able to convince her. And if not…” he looked at Lika again with a heavy gaze, “I wasn’t joking about the divorce.”
Lika felt everything inside her clench. But she remained silent.
The next morning, Lika woke up with a heavy feeling. The upcoming conversation frightened her. What if Irina Nikolaevna changed her mind? What if Lenya really filed for divorce? She lay staring at the ceiling when the phone rang. It was Svetlana Viktorovna, her boss.
“Anzhelika, sorry for the early call, but we have a force majeure situation. Can you come in today? Alla got sick, and we have interviews scheduled all day.”
Lika felt both relief and anxiety. On one hand, it gave her a postponement from the unpleasant conversation. On the other, Lenya would be displeased.
“Yes, of course,” she answered. “I’ll be there in an hour.”
After ending the call, Lika turned to her husband. He was already awake and, judging by his expression, had heard the conversation.
“Don’t tell me you’re working today,” he said through clenched teeth.
“I’m very sorry, but yes,” Lika tried to speak softly. “We have a staffing crisis, and Svetlana Viktorovna personally asked…”
“Is your work more important than family?” Lenya interrupted her. “We agreed to talk to Mom today!”
“We can do it this evening,” Lika suggested, getting out of bed. “I’ll be free by six. Or…” she hesitated, “you can talk to Mom yourself today. And I’ll join you later.”
Lenya looked at her with such outrage, as if she had suggested something indecent.
“You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?” he jumped up abruptly. “You arranged it with work so you wouldn’t have to go!”
“Lenya, that’s ridiculous,” Lika began to lose patience. “I don’t control who gets sick and when. If you want, call my boss and ask her yourself!”
To her surprise, Lenya deflated a little.
“Sorry,” he muttered. “I just already planned everything. I wanted to settle this today.”
“We will settle it,” Lika came over and lightly touched his shoulder. “Just a little later. All right?”
Lenya reluctantly nodded.
The day at the office dragged on endlessly. Between interviews, Lika managed to tell Svetlana Viktorovna about the situation, and to her surprise, her boss reacted with understanding.
“You know, my son was very attached to me too,” she shared. “When he got married, I deliberately stepped back to give the young family a chance to build their own relationship. Sometimes you need to show character and set boundaries — that is what love is.”
“But what if the husband isn’t ready to accept those boundaries?” Lika asked.
“Then you’ll have to choose,” Svetlana Viktorovna answered simply. “Either you become his second mother and wait until it completely wears you out, or you insist on a healthy relationship, risking losing him.”
Those words echoed in Lika’s head all day.
In the evening, while returning home, she received a message from Irina Nikolaevna: “Lenya is at my place. Come quickly.” Lika’s heart skipped a beat. What had happened there?
When she arrived at her mother-in-law’s, Lika found a strange scene: Lenya was sitting on the sofa with eyes red from tears, and opposite him were his mother and… a man of about sixty, whom Lika barely recognized as Lenya’s father from a few old photographs.
“Ah, Anzhelika!” Irina Nikolaevna rose to greet her. “Come in. We’re having a family council here.”
“Hello,” Lika said, confused, looking from one face to another. “What…”
“What is going on?” Irina Nikolaevna finished for her. “I’ll explain now. I invited Viktor,” she nodded toward the man, “Lenya’s father, so he could help us sort out the situation.”
Viktor Sergeevich, a tall man with gray in his hair and some elusive resemblance to Lenya, nodded to Lika.
“I’m glad to finally meet my son’s wife,” he said, and there was sincerity in his voice.
“Sit down,” Irina Nikolaevna pointed Lika to a place beside Lenya. “We were just talking about why it’s important for a young family to have its own space.”
Lenya sat with his head lowered.
“Dad thinks I’m acting like a child,” he said quietly without raising his eyes.
“Not exactly,” Viktor Sergeevich corrected him gently. “I said I understand your desire to be closer to your mother. But I also understand why your mother and your wife believe you need to live separately.”
“Vitya told Lenya something I never spoke about,” Irina Nikolaevna interjected, looking at Lika. “About the reasons for our divorce.”
“That’s…” Lika faltered, not knowing how to react to such openness.
“It has a direct connection to today’s situation,” Irina Nikolaevna said firmly. “Lenya, repeat for Lika what your father just told you.”
Lenya lifted his reddened eyes.
“Dad didn’t leave for no reason,” his voice trembled. “He left because Mom didn’t let him take part in raising me. She believed she could do everything better herself. She didn’t allow him to be a father.”
Lika looked at Irina Nikolaevna, expecting to see outrage or denial. But the woman only nodded sadly.
“That’s true,” she confirmed. “I always thought I knew better how to raise my son. That only I could give him everything he needed. In the end, Vitya left, and I… I raised a boy who doesn’t know how to live independently. And now I’m trying to correct that mistake.”
“And I’m guilty too,” Viktor Sergeevich added. “I shouldn’t have simply left. I should have fought for the right to be part of my son’s life.”
Silence settled over the room. Lika didn’t know what to say. She felt like an accidental witness to something deeply personal.
“I didn’t want you to leave,” Lenya suddenly said, looking at his father. “I always missed you.”
“I know, son,” Viktor Sergeevich looked as if he himself was ready to cry. “And I missed you. That’s why, when your mother called and told me what was happening, I came right away. I don’t want your family to repeat our mistakes.”
“And now listen to me, son,” Irina Nikolaevna leaned forward. “I will not live with you. Not because I don’t love you, but precisely because I do. You are an adult man. You have a wife, a job, your own apartment. It’s time to learn to solve problems independently. And also,” she cast a quick glance at her ex-husband, “your father and I have decided… to try communicating again. To start with, just as friends.”
Lenya stared at his parents with wide eyes.
“You… you’ll be together again?”
“We don’t know,” Viktor Sergeevich answered for both of them. “But we want to try to repair our relationship. And for that, we also need space and time.”
Lenya remained silent, digesting the information. Then he slowly turned to Lika.
“Forgive me,” he said quietly. “I behaved foolishly. Threatened divorce… I don’t want to divorce. I love you.”
Lika felt tears welling in her eyes. She took her husband’s hand in hers.
“I love you too,” she answered. “And I believe we’ll manage. Together.”
Irina Nikolaevna watched them with a gentle smile.
“You see, son, how good it is that you’ll have your own life, separate from ours? And we’ll have ours,” she exchanged a glance with Viktor Sergeevich. “And when you miss us, just come visit. For dinner. We’ll cook together.”
A month passed. Lika and Natalya were once again sitting in their favorite café.
“I can’t believe your mother-in-law turned out to be your ally,” Natalya shook her head as she listened to her friend’s update. “Usually it’s the opposite.”
“I was shocked myself,” Lika admitted. “But the most amazing thing is that Lenya really is changing. Yesterday he made dinner himself. Without his mother’s instructions! And last week he handled the bill payments. Irina Nikolaevna always used to do that before.”
“And how are things with his father? Are they really repairing their relationship?”
“Yes, can you imagine? They see each other every week now. They go to exhibitions together, to the theater. Viktor Sergeevich turned out to be a very interesting man. And he and Lenya have started communicating too — they go to football games, fix things together.”
“And your threat of divorce? Lenya doesn’t bring it up anymore?”
Lika shook her head.
“No, he was very remorseful. He said he simply panicked when he felt that his mother was ‘distancing herself’ from him. And now, it seems, he’s even glad she started building her own personal life.”
Natalya looked thoughtfully at her friend.
“And what if Irina Nikolaevna hadn’t taken your side? What if she had really wanted to move in with you?”
Lika was silent for a moment, considering the question.
“I don’t know,” she finally answered honestly. “I probably would have tried. For Lenya’s sake. But I’m very glad everything turned out differently.”
“And rightly so!” Natalya raised her cup in a playful toast. “To mothers-in-law who understand that the best gift for a young family is their absence from everyday life!”
Lika laughed and raised her cup in return.
That evening, when she returned home, she found Lenya concentrating in the kitchen.
“What are you doing?” she asked, peering over his shoulder.
“I’m trying to make that salad you like,” he answered without looking away from cutting the vegetables. “But I think I chopped up too much of everything.”
Lika smiled and kissed him on the cheek.
“That’s all right. Then we’ll have enough for two days.”
Lenya put down the knife and turned to his wife.
“Do you regret marrying me?” he suddenly asked seriously. “Someone so… useless?”
“Not one bit,” Lika answered sincerely. “We’re all learning something. The main thing is that we’re doing it together.”
Lenya embraced her, and Lika felt that this embrace had become stronger, more confident than before. As if he really was beginning to turn from a mama’s boy into a real man. Her man.
“By the way,” Lenya said, pulling back, “Mom invited us to dinner on Saturday. And Dad too. Are you against it?”
“Not at all,” Lika smiled. “I’ll gladly go.”
She thought about how strangely everything had turned out. The threat of divorce, which could have destroyed their marriage, had ultimately made the family stronger. And not only their little family, but the bigger one too — now including Lenya’s long-absent father.
Sometimes life brings unexpected surprises. And sometimes they turn out to be for the best.
