“You have to sign the documents and sell your apartment. I’ve already found buyers,” my husband announced to me.
Sometimes I look at my husband and don’t know whether to laugh or cry. You know that feeling when someone close to you says something so absurd that you want the ground to swallow you up? And while doing it, he puts on an intelligent expression and speaks in the tone of an Oxford professor! But what happened today broke every record. I couldn’t even think of what to say at first when Pavel came out with yet another one of his “brilliant” theories. I had to remind my dear husband who in this household was actually responsible for common sense.
A phone call interrupted my thoughts.
“Mommy, how are you doing?” Katya’s voice always has a calming effect on me.
“Everything’s fine, sweetheart. How are you? Do you see Misha often?” I asked.
“Sometimes,” my daughter laughed. “We went to a concert together yesterday. A band from St. Petersburg came to town.”
“That’s good, that you stick together,” I smiled into the phone. “When you’re in an unfamiliar city, it’s important to have your own people around.”
“Yes, we try. By the way, I found a job! I teach English to preschoolers at a language school. The pay isn’t much, but it’s enough to live on.”
“Let me send you some money,” I immediately fussed. “A young woman needs…”
“Don’t even think about it, Mom,” Katya gently interrupted me. “I have everything I need. You’d better finish paying off your mortgage sooner and go somewhere on vacation. You deserve it.”
That’s what my Katya and Misha are like—independent and caring. My son followed in the footsteps of his grandfather, my father. He’s training to become an officer in the Strategic Missile Forces. My father, by the way, rose to the rank of colonel.
Pavel, my second husband, walked into the kitchen. I had separated from the father of my children a long time ago, and it had been ugly. It happened like something out of a joke: the children and I went to the seaside and came home a day earlier than planned…
“Igor, perhaps you’d like to introduce us to the lady?” We froze in the doorway, staring at the half-naked couple. The children saw everything too. After something like that, the decision came instantly—we didn’t need a husband and father like him.
Back then, we were living in a rented apartment. But that incident seemed to give me strength. I pulled myself together and took out a mortgage. Soon I would make the final payment, and the apartment would belong completely to us.
But why am I dwelling on the past? I needed to feed my husband.
“What do you want, stew or pilaf?” I asked, putting my phone aside.
“Stew,” Pavel replied. “I love it, just like the Finns do.”
“Maybe you mean Belarusians?” I smiled. “It’s considered one of their national dishes.”
But my husband stubbornly stuck to his opinion, pulling his trademark know-it-all face. Arguing was useless—it would only waste time.
While Pavel eagerly devoured his dinner, he casually mentioned:
“Vika called this afternoon. She wants a new smartphone. Says her old one is terrible.”
“Old?!” I nearly dropped my fork. “You bought it for her birthday last year!”
“It’s not exactly old…” my husband hesitated. “It’s just that a new model came out, and everyone at her university has one. She doesn’t want to stand out.”
“Of course. After all, you’re a millionaire, not a truck driver,” I sighed. “You’ve spoiled your daughter, Pasha. Completely spoiled her.”
“She’s my only child,” my husband began singing his favorite song. “She grew up without a mother…”
Those heart-wrenching stories stopped affecting me long ago.
“Pasha, in case you’ve forgotten, I raised two children on my own too! Igor sent pennies—barely enough for bread. And look at them now. Katya found a job so she wouldn’t be a burden on me, so I could pay off the mortgage faster. Do you see the difference?”
There was nothing he could say to that. Pavel sighed.
“I already transferred her the money.”
“Wonderful!” I threw up my hands. “So you’re broke again?”
My husband nodded guiltily. It was the same old story. All Vika had to do was call, and her father’s salary vanished like dew in the sun. Then we spent the rest of the month living on my money.
“I’ll take a couple of extra jobs,” Pavel promised. “A farmer asked me to transport his harvest…”
“And is he going to make you rich?” I snorted as I cleared the dishes. “You’ll probably earn just enough for Vika to buy a new dress for the club.”
His daughter was the complete opposite of my children. They were like water and fire. She had quickly figured out that her father was soft-hearted and wrapped him around her finger however she pleased. It irritated me beyond belief. She studied in the same city as Katya and Misha, but looked down on them, considering them “nerds.” I didn’t particularly care what she thought of them, but her childish arrogance had become extremely tiresome.
Take her last visit, for example. We had a serious argument that time.
“Daddy, give me some money!” Vika began the moment she walked through the door. “I met some girls from school, and we want to go to a new club called Riviera.”
Pavel checked his bank balance and immediately looked discouraged.
“Vika, I only have a couple thousand left. You should have warned me earlier. I could have figured something out…”
“How boring,” she grimaced. “I come to see my own father…”
She didn’t even mention my name!
“And my father offers me pocket change,” Vika continued indignantly. “How am I supposed to look my friends in the eye?”
Pavel turned crimson, began mumbling apologies, and motioned for me to follow him into the kitchen. The moment we stepped out, he started talking quickly.
“Sveta, help me out. Lend her about seven thousand. I’ll pay you back.”
“You’re being modest today,” I said sarcastically. “Why not make it fifteen thousand? Hold on a minute, I’ll go print some money.”
“Why are you always against everything?” my husband snapped. “My daughter came to visit…”
“So what?” I shot back. “Should we call in a circus with clowns too? Maybe hire an orchestra? Two thousand isn’t enough for her…”
“Sveta, please,” Pavel looked ready to get down on his knees. Clearly, he was terrified of looking bad in his daughter’s eyes. “The girl wants to relax with her friends…”
“Let me explain how the world works,” I said sharply. “Who pays for the apartment? Me. Who buys the groceries? Me again. Household supplies, utility bills, and all those other ‘little things’—also me. And now you want me to finance your daughter’s whims?”
Pavel silently lowered his head. What could he say? His income really had been poor lately. But there was no explaining that to Vika.
I decided to find a middle ground and went back into the room, where she was scrolling through her phone with a sour expression.
“Alright, princess. Since you’ve honored us with your visit, here’s a compromise. Your father gives you two thousand, and I’ll give you two. That’s all. And remember, this money was earned through honest work.”
“You call what you do hard work?” Vika sneered. “You just sit in an office and shuffle papers around…”
“It’s fascinating how well you understand the work of a financial director,” I said with a smirk. “But back to the point. Either you take four thousand or you get nothing.”
Vika was silent for a moment, then graciously condescended.
“Fine. I’ll take your pennies.”
“Pennies?!” I burst out laughing. “Have you ever earned even one ruble yourself?”
“I’m studying. It’s too early for me to work,” she waved me off. “Later I’ll have everything—a car and an apartment!”
“Remind me, you’re studying psychology, right?” I smirked. “I’m afraid without connections in show business, you may have trouble earning enough for all that.”
Vika only snorted in response, declared that she didn’t need anything from us, and rushed off to meet her friends.
Pavel immediately turned on me, claiming everything was my fault.
“Are you sure?” I narrowed my eyes. “Wasn’t it you who raised her this way? And do you know what will happen next? She’ll use you and throw you away the moment she realizes there’s no more money to squeeze out of you.”
We had a huge argument that evening—so bad that Pavel went to sleep in the garage.
And suddenly I caught myself wondering: how was my life any different from that of a single woman? I received neither support nor help from my husband—emotionally or financially.
He came back in the morning looking rumpled, gloomy, and hungry. He said he had understood everything, that I was right about Vika and that he needed to be stricter with her. I breathed a sigh of relief. Had he finally understood?
But I celebrated too soon.
A couple of months passed peacefully. Nothing suggested that a storm was coming. But Pavel ruined everything one far-from-wonderful evening.
I was preparing for my children’s arrival and working away in the kitchen.
“Hi!” he appeared with a mysterious expression. “Something smells delicious! Chicken?”
“Duck,” I corrected him. “Wait a little. The kids will arrive soon, and we’ll all have dinner together.”
“Before they get here, we need to talk,” my husband hesitated. “You should sit down…”
“I can listen standing up,” I said tensely. “What happened?”
“You have to sign the documents and sell your apartment. I’ve already found buyers,” my husband announced.
I thought there was nothing left in the world that could surprise me. I had been prepared for anything—for him to tell me he had been abducted by aliens or that he had won the lottery—but not this.
“Pasha, maybe you should see a doctor?” I touched his forehead. “Strange. You don’t seem to have a fever…”
“I’ve thought everything through,” he rattled on. “Vika needs to get established in the city, you understand? It’s the regional capital. There are huge opportunities there!”
“Let her get established. I’m all for it,” I nodded. “But what does my apartment—my home, my fortress—have to do with that?”
“I want to sell it and buy Vika a place to live,” my husband said, waving his arms around.
“Brilliant plan, General,” I laughed. “And where exactly are we supposed to live? In your truck?”
“Why in the truck?” he fussed. “We’ll rent something at first…”
“And then what?”
“Everything will work itself out. It’ll all go smoothly!” he assured me with the expression of a Nobel Prize winner.
And that was when I realized—it was over.
Pavel would never change, and neither would his daughter. They had both grown accustomed to living at someone else’s expense: she lived off her father, and he lived off me.
“You know what, darling? Pack your things and go back to your garage,” I said firmly. “I don’t need a ‘wise man’ like you for a husband. Make your daughter happy on your own, without involving me. You can carry out your grand plans all by yourself.”
He tried to object, but the look on my face made it clear that arguing would be pointless. Until the very last moment, I had hoped he would come to his senses and change his mind.
But he didn’t.
When the children arrived, I greeted them deep in thought.
“Mom, are you alright?” Katya asked anxiously. “You’re so pale…”
“Everything’s fine, my dears,” I smiled. “It’s just that today is an important day. I said goodbye to my old life. Pavel failed to justify my trust. But you know, forty is a very good age to start clearing unreliable people out of your life.”
