— Evelina couldn’t take it anymore. — My salary has always been higher! I pay more than half of the mortgage! I pay all the utility bills!
— Don’t shout at my son! — the mother-in-law tried to stand up but winced in pain. — He’s in a serious condition.
— The doctor said it’s nothing dangerous, — Evelina snapped.
At that moment, a nurse peeked into the room:
— Please keep it down. This is a hospital, not a marketplace.
Evelina took a deep breath.
— I came to see how you are feeling and what you need. I can bring the necessary things tomorrow.
— I don’t need anything from you, — Timur ground out. — Just don’t touch my mother’s bags. She is going to live with us, and that’s final.
— And let my things stay in the apartment where I left them, — added Klavdiya Gennadyevna.
Evelina stared at them in silence, feeling something inside her snap. Before her were two complete strangers. Not the husband she had loved. Not the mother-in-law with whom she had tried to maintain polite relations. Two strangers, united against her.
— Fine, — she finally said. — Get well soon.
Returning home, Evelina stood in the hallway for a long time, looking at her mother-in-law’s bags, which now seemed like ominous harbingers of the collapse of her family life. She slowly took off the festive dress, which now looked ridiculous, washed off her makeup, and put on a house t-shirt. In the kitchen, she poured herself a glass of wine. The very one she and Timur were going to open after the restaurant to continue the celebration at home.
On the table lay documents from work: a description of the new position, the contract, a list of priority tasks. Tomorrow she was scheduled to give her first presentation as head of the department. Her phone beeped with a message. It was her friend Marianna: “How was the promotion celebration? Tell me everything.”
Evelina set down her glass. How could she explain that instead of a celebration, she got the collapse of everything she considered her life? How to describe the moment when the person you love turns into an aggressive stranger?
“Can’t today,” she wrote. “I’ll tell you later.”
Marianna called back immediately, but Evelina rejected the call. She needed to think. Alone. She went into the study — her personal corner in this apartment. This is where she worked when she had to take projects home. This is where she planned their family budget. This is where she dreamed of a future that had now crumbled like a house of cards.
Her mother-in-law’s bags were already by the sofa. In one of them, she could see picture frames: Timur as a child, her late father-in-law, some relatives. Things with which Klavdiya Gennadyevna was going to fill their space, pushing out everything that belonged to Evelina.
“I won’t let this happen,” flashed through her mind.
She returned to the kitchen and got a notebook. In neat handwriting, she began to make a list: call a realtor, inquire about rental apartments, check personal savings, consult a lawyer about property division, prepare for tomorrow’s presentation. The handwriting was steady, but inside, everything was boiling.
Five years of marriage. For five years, she had been building a relationship with a man who, at a crucial moment, chose not her, but his mother. Who allowed his wife to be treated like a servant. Who lied to the doctors, accusing her of aggression that never happened.
Evelina remembered their first meeting at a corporate party where Timur worked as a systems administrator. He seemed so reliable, calm, attentive. He invited her to the movies, gave her flowers, listened to her stories about work. When he introduced her to his mother, she was friendly and welcoming.
“What a smart girl,” Klavdiya Gennadyevna would say. “And a beauty, too. You’re lucky, son.”
When did that change? At the wedding, her mother-in-law was still smiling, although she made sarcastic remarks about Evelina’s dress, the menu choice, the guests. After that came the random unannounced visits, calls at inconvenient times, questions about their income, hints about grandchildren. Evelina always tried to be patient. “She’s just worried about her son,” she told herself. “She’s lonely, she’s old-fashioned.” Excuses she had fed herself for years. But what happened today crossed all boundaries.
The absurdity of the situation was striking. A person bursts into someone else’s house uninvited, announces that she will live there, and gets indignant when the owners try to object. Evelina glanced at the clock. Almost midnight. Tomorrow would be a tough day; she needed to at least try to get some sleep. But thoughts swirled in her head, giving her no peace.
The morning began with a call from the hospital.
— Hello, — Evelina said sleepily.
— Good morning, — the voice of yesterday’s doctor came through. — I wanted to clarify something about your relatives.
— Yes?
— Yesterday we conducted an additional examination and found that your mother-in-law, in addition to the fracture, has a crack in her hip joint. Nothing fatal, but she will require a longer stay in the hospital and then rehabilitation.
— I understand. — Evelina sat up in bed. — Anything else?
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