But yesterday, standing in that entryway and listening to the insults, she had finally made up her mind. She promised herself she would not tolerate that treatment for one more second. At the wine bar, Katya was already waiting at a table by the big front window.
When Anna walked in, her friend jumped up and hugged her hard. She whispered that she was proud of her for finally doing something so brave. Anna felt a sudden lump rise in her throat.
She tried to remember the last time anyone had said something that warm and sincere to her. Her husband never had, and nothing of the sort could be expected from his mother. At work, praise was always tied to results and deadlines.
Anna sank into the chair and admitted how exhausted she was. She said she was tired of always being the one at fault. She was tired of apologizing to her husband’s family for what felt like simply existing.
Katya nodded, poured red wine into two glasses, and proposed a toast to freedom and to Anna finding herself again. They clinked glasses, and Anna took a small sip of the dry wine with its hint of cherry.
It suddenly hit her that she hadn’t just sat with a friend and talked from the heart in ages. For the last few years, every evening had been scheduled around her husband’s family. There was always something to do: help her mother-in-law cook, feed her husband, or clean someone else’s house before guests arrived.
Katya asked her to tell the whole story from the beginning. Anna started with how she had arrived tired after a hard day at work. Galina Petrovna hadn’t even offered her food, just pointed her toward a bucket and a wet rag.
While she was mopping, Anna overheard the loud conversation in the next room. Her voice shook with anger as she repeated the things her mother-in-law had said about her being useless. Galina Petrovna had complained to her friend that Anna couldn’t cook and wasted money.
She also claimed Anna was refusing to have children just so she could keep her figure and her job. Katya nearly choked on her wine, remembering the original agreement Anna and Igor had made. Anna said bitterly that her mother-in-law had never cared one bit about their private decisions.
That controlling woman genuinely believed she had the right to decide everything for them. The worst part was that spineless Igor always sided with his mother. He would stand there in silence while Galina Petrovna called his wife a selfish career woman in front of guests.
Her mother-in-law constantly demanded an accounting of every little purchase, humiliating a grown woman. Her endless “advice” was really just criticism in disguise. Yesterday, Anna had looked at herself in the mirror and been startled by the deadness in her own eyes.
She realized she had been willing to endure almost anything just to preserve the illusion of a normal family. In that moment, she understood clearly that she did not want to be that woman anymore. She did not want to look back one day and regret the years she had wasted on ungrateful people.
Katya asked what happened right after that realization. Anna told her how she dropped the mop back into the bucket and walked out without a word. Her mother-in-law shouted after her, but Anna never even turned around.
At home, she spent three hours carefully planning her independent future. She found a suitable apartment and made a list of the things she had bought herself, along with photos of the receipts. Then Anna transferred her rightful half of their shared savings into a separate account.
When she described her husband’s response to the divorce message, Anna gave a tired, bitter smile. Igor had blamed it on hormones and told her to calm down and stop overreacting. Katya called him what he was: a self-centered man who minimized other people’s feelings.
Anna corrected her and said he was, first and foremost, a classic mama’s boy. For three years she had naively hoped he would change and start standing up for her. But she finally understood that his mother’s comfort would always matter more to him…
