Katya stood in the middle of a strange room with a box in her hands, unable to understand how her life had turned into this nightmare. Just a month ago, she and Anton had been dancing at their own wedding, swearing eternal love to each other, and now… now she was staring at faded wallpaper with little roses and trying to accept that this was her home from now on.
“Katya, why are you just standing there?” Anton entered the room, dragging another box behind him. “Come on, unpack faster. Mom will call us for dinner soon.”
“Anton, I still don’t understand why we had to move in with your mother. We had a rented apartment…”
“How many times are we going to talk about this?” he snapped, waving his hand irritably. “I already explained: why pay rent when we can live for free? Mom is alone in a three-room apartment. There’s enough space for everyone.”
“But we agreed that we would live separately…”
“Katya, DON’T START again! The decision has been made. And besides, Mom is the mistress of the house now, so listen to her! She’s in charge here, and we’re guests.”
Katya blinked in confusion. Guests? In the house where they were supposed to live?
“What do you mean, guests? Anton, we’re a family…”
“Exactly! A family! And in a family, there has to be a hierarchy. Mom is the elder, so she makes the decisions. You understand that older people must be respected, don’t you?”
At that moment, Lidia Petrovna, Anton’s mother, entered the room. She was a woman of about fifty-five, with a neat hairstyle and a cold look in her eyes.
“Antosha, sweetheart, I prepared bed linen for you. Katya, I hope you know how to cook? Tomorrow morning you’ll need to make breakfast for three. I get up at seven, Anton at eight. And yes, the food in the refrigerator is arranged strictly by shelves. Don’t touch what’s mine.”
“Lidia Petrovna, I work. I have to be at work by nine…”
“Then get up earlier!” her mother-in-law cut her off. “No need to lounge around. In our family, women have always gotten up early and made breakfast for the men. Right, Antosha?”
“Of course, Mom,” Anton nodded. “Katya will get used to it.”
Lidia Petrovna looked her daughter-in-law up and down appraisingly.
“And one more thing, girl. We have our own rules here. Laundry is on Tuesdays and Fridays, cleaning is on Saturdays. No guests without my permission. After ten in the evening, no noise. I’m the only one who watches the television; I have my own programs. Is that clear?”
“But…”
“NO ‘BUTS’!” Anton interrupted sharply. “Mom said it, so that’s how it will be. If you don’t like it, no one is forcing you to stay.”
Katya stared at her husband in shock. Was this really the same man who had whispered tender words in her ear just yesterday?
A week passed. Katya got up at six in the morning, made breakfast, ran to work, came back, and then cooked again, cleaned, and did laundry. Lidia Petrovna controlled her every move.
“Katya, you’re frying the eggs wrong! You have to do it on low heat!”
“Katya, why did you move the vase? Put it back!”
“Katya, what kind of skirt is that? Respectable women don’t dress like that!”
Anton seemed not to notice what was happening. He came home from work, kissed his mother on the cheek, and sat down to watch television. Whenever his wife timidly tried to talk to him, he brushed her off.
“Oh, come on, Katya. Mom is just worried about us. She only wants what’s best.”
“Anton, she makes me report every single coin I spend!”
“And she’s right to do it! No need to throw money away. Mom saved her whole life, and that’s how she managed to keep this apartment.”
That evening, Katya was sitting in the kitchen, chopping vegetables for a salad. Lidia Petrovna was hovering over her.
“You’re grating the carrot wrong! Look, this is how it’s done! And what is this you’ve decided to make for dinner? Salad? My Antosha loves meat!”
“There are cutlets. I made them…”
“Cutlets? Let me see… Ugh, what is this? Too much bread, too little meat! This won’t do!”
“Lidia Petrovna, I followed the recipe…”
“What recipe? I’ve been cooking for thirty years. Don’t teach me! THROW this away immediately and make it properly!”
“But… it’s food. It would be a shame to throw it out…”
“What?! Are you talking back to me?! ANTON! Come here!”
Anton reluctantly tore himself away from the television.
“What happened, Mom?”
“Your wife is being rude to me! I told her the cutlets were inedible, and she argues!”
“Katya, why are you upsetting Mom? Apologize immediately!”
“What should I apologize for? I spent a whole hour cooking…”
“APOLOGIZE, I said!” Anton roared. “And remake dinner!”
Katya clenched her teeth to keep from crying.
“I’m sorry, Lidia Petrovna.”
“That’s better! And remember, girl: in this house, MY word is law! Clear?”
That night, Katya couldn’t fall asleep for a long time. Anton was snoring beside her while she stared at the ceiling and thought: how had this happened? Where was the loving man who used to carry her in his arms?
The morning turned out worse than usual. Katya overslept — the alarm hadn’t gone off. She jumped up at half past six and rushed into the kitchen. Lidia Petrovna was already sitting at the table with a stone-cold face.
“You’re late! What, were you and Anton entertaining yourselves until the middle of the night? Instead of going to bed properly and getting up on time!”
“The alarm broke…”
“Excuses! You’re simply irresponsible! Anton, look who you brought into this house!”
Anton came out of the bathroom, drying his hair with a towel.
“Mom, what is it this time?”
“Your dear wife overslept! I’m sitting here without breakfast!”
“Katya, what’s wrong with you? You know Mom gets up early!”
“I’ll make something quickly…”
“NO NEED!” Lidia Petrovna stood up. “I’ll be late for work because of you! Now I’ll have to go hungry all day!”
“Mom, don’t exaggerate…”
“I’m exaggerating?! I, who raised you and spent sleepless nights over you?! This is the gratitude I get!”
The workday passed in a fog. Her boss reprimanded her for being inattentive, and her colleagues asked if everything was all right. Katya only nodded and smiled. What could she say? That she had turned into a servant in her own home?
That evening, the moment she stepped through the door, she heard shouting from the living room.
“Katya! COME HERE IMMEDIATELY!”
In the living room, Anton and Lidia Petrovna were standing by an open cabinet.
“What is this?!” Anton pointed at a shelf. “Did you touch Mom’s documents?”
“I… I was just dusting…”
“And you moved everything!” Lidia Petrovna shrieked. “Everything was in order there! Receipts, certificates! Now it’s all mixed up!”
“I put everything back carefully…”
“CAREFULLY?! Do you even understand what you’ve done?!”
And then something inside Katya snapped. A month of humiliation, a month of silence, a month of endurance — it all burst out.
“GO TO HELL, BOTH OF YOU!” she screamed so loudly that the glass in the sideboard trembled. “I’VE HAD ENOUGH! What am I to you — a slave?! I run around all day like a cursed woman, and all you do is nitpick!”
Anton and Lidia Petrovna froze with their mouths open.
“You… how dare you speak like that…” her mother-in-law began.
“THIS IS HOW I SPEAK! I’m sick of it! I’m a human being, not a robot! I have a job, I have my own life! And you? You sit here like spiders, sucking all the life out of me!”
“Katya, calm down…” Anton tried to intervene.
“SHUT UP!” Katya turned to her husband. “Who are you, anyway?! A man or Mommy’s little boy?! Why did you get married — so you could bring your mother a free servant?”
“How dare you…”
“YES, I DARE! Lidia Petrovna, you are a toxic old woman! You’ve hidden your son under your skirt and won’t let him live! And you, Anton, are a rag! A RAG, do you hear me?!”
A deathly silence fell over the apartment. Lidia Petrovna turned pale, clutched her heart, and sank onto the sofa.
“Anton… son… she… she…”
“Mom! Mommy!” Anton rushed to his mother. “Your heart? Medicine?”
“Nothing will happen to her!” Katya stomped her foot in fury. “She’s putting on a performance! She’s used to keeping her little son under control with manipulation!”
“Katya, HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND COMPLETELY?!”
“No, I’ve finally come to my senses! You know what? I’M LEAVING! To hell with both of you! Live here together, Mommy and her little boy!”
Katya rushed into the bedroom and began throwing her things into a bag. Anton flew in after her.
“You have no right! You’re my wife!”
“I was your wife! WAS! Now it’s over! You can crawl back under your mother’s skirt!”
“How dare you… You’ll regret this! You’ll be lost without me!”
“I’LL BE LOST?!” Katya burst out laughing. “I worked like a horse for two years while you were ‘looking for the right job’! I’ll be lost?! Go to hell!”
“You… you’re not who I thought you were!”
“And you’re a bastard! A BASTARD hiding behind Mommy’s skirt!”
A moan came from the living room. Anton rushed there, then back again.
“Katya, come to your senses! We love each other!”
“LOVE?! Are you mocking me?! What kind of love is it when you let your mother humiliate me?! When you force me to serve her?!”
“She’s not humiliating you, she’s raising you!”
“RAISING ME?! I’m twenty-six years old! Do I need to be raised?!”
Katya zipped up her bag and went into the hallway. Lidia Petrovna was sitting on the sofa, pressing a handkerchief to her chest.
“Ungrateful girl! After everything we’ve done for you…”
“WHAT have you done for me?!” Katya interrupted her. “Turned me into a maid? Thank you very much! To hell with both of you!”
“KATYA!” Anton shouted. “Don’t you dare speak to my mother like that!”
“And I’m not going to anymore! GOODBYE! And may you both sink into the ground!”
Katya ran out the door and slammed it loudly behind her. She ran down the stairs and out into the street. The February air burned her lungs. Only then did she realize she was crying. But they were not tears of grief — they were tears of relief.
She took out her phone and called her friend.
“Alyona, can I stay with you for a couple of days?”
“Katya, what happened?”
“I left Anton.”
“What?! How?! You just got married!”
“I’ll tell you later. Can I come?”
“Of course, dear, come!”
In the minibus, Katya turned off her phone. She knew Anton would keep calling. But she didn’t care. Let him live with Mommy. Let her make his breakfasts and wash his socks.
Three months passed. Katya rented a small studio and lived peacefully. Things were going well at work — management had appreciated her new project and promised her a bonus. Anton tried calling during the first few weeks, then went quiet. Katya didn’t even want to think about him.
One evening, she was sitting at home watching a series. The doorbell rang. Katya was surprised — she wasn’t expecting guests. She looked through the peephole and saw Anton standing on the landing. He had lost weight, was unshaven, and wore a wrinkled jacket.
“Katya, open up! I need to talk!”
“GO AWAY!”
“Katya, please! It’s important!”
“I don’t care!”
“Katya… Mom died.”
Katya froze. Slowly, she opened the door.
“What?”
“Two weeks ago. A heart attack. I… I didn’t know how to tell you.”
Katya said nothing. Yes, Lidia Petrovna had been unbearable, but she had never wished death on her.
“My condolences,” she said dryly.
“Katya, may I come in?”
“Why?”
“I need… I need to talk. Five minutes.”
Katya reluctantly let him in. Anton entered the room and sat on the edge of the sofa.
“After you left, Mom… she took to her bed. She kept lamenting that I was a failure, that I couldn’t even keep my wife. Then she started demanding that I bring you back. She said it was hard for her without a servant.”
“A servant?! Is that what she called me?”
“Yes. When I said you wouldn’t come back, she… she flew into a rage. She said I was worthless, that she had wasted her whole life on me. That she should have had a second child — maybe that one would have turned out useful.”
Katya listened silently. Anton continued:
“And then… then she brought a woman home. Rita. She said, ‘Here, this will be your new wife.’ I didn’t even know her! Mom found her somewhere and made some kind of arrangement. Rita moved in and started running the household. Mom praised her, saying, ‘Now this is a real woman, unlike your Katya.’”
“And?”
“And then, a week later, it turned out Rita was a fraud. She had Mom wrapped around her finger. Mom signed a power of attorney for the apartment over to her. And that was it! The apartment is no longer ours! When Mom found out… she had a stroke. Right in court, when it turned out the documents were real.”
Katya looked at her ex-husband and didn’t know what to say.
“I’m left with nothing,” Anton continued. “No apartment, no mother, no wife. I’m living in a friend’s storage room. I work as a loader. I was fired from my previous job because after Mom died, I started drinking.”
“What do you want from me?”
“Forgive me. I realized what a fool I was. I let my mother humiliate you, and I humiliated you myself. You were right — I was a rag, Mommy’s little boy. And this is how it ended.”
“Anton, leave.”
“Katya…”
“LEAVE, I said! I don’t need your apology! Go and live however you can!”
Anton stood up and shuffled toward the door. At the threshold, he turned around.
“You know… before she died, Mom said, ‘You’re a fool, Anton. Katya at least showed some character and stood up for herself. But that Rita pretended to be a quiet little lamb and fooled us completely.’ She understood, but too late.”
“May she rest in peace,” Katya said. “And now leave. And never come here again.”
Anton nodded and left. Katya closed the door behind him and leaned her back against it. Her heart felt strangely light. She was free — truly free. And now Anton could deal with the consequences of his own childishness himself. As for Lidia Petrovna… well, greed and the desire to control everything had led her to a sad end. She had pushed a fraudster onto her son, thinking she had found the ideal daughter-in-law. But that woman had fooled them completely and deprived them of everything.
Katya returned to the sofa and turned the series back on. Life went on. Her life, which she was now building herself, without toxic relatives and a spineless mama’s boy for a husband. And it was wonderful.
A year later, Katya met Mikhail, a colleague from a neighboring department. He was a mature, independent man who had lived separately from his parents since the age of eighteen. They got married after a year and a half of dating and immediately bought a small apartment with a mortgage. Their own home, their own life, their own rules.
One day, while walking in the park, Katya saw Anton. He was sitting on a bench with a bottle of beer, unshaven, in dirty clothes. He looked ten years older. He saw her and wanted to say something, but Katya walked past without even turning around.
Everyone has their own fate. And everyone reaps what they sow.
