Sofia placed the last box of belongings on the floor and looked around the room. A week ago, she had been a bride trying on her dress with her heart fluttering, and now… Now she was standing in the middle of someone else’s home, unable to understand how she was supposed to live here.
Her mother-in-law’s apartment was impressive. Parquet floors that creaked underfoot, heavy curtains, obviously expensive furniture, but everything felt somehow too much like a museum. Sofia was afraid to touch anything.
“Why are you just standing there?” Polina Vladimirovna appeared in the doorway. “Your things won’t unpack themselves.”
“I’ll do it now,” the daughter-in-law said quickly, opening a box.
“And put everything away neatly. I keep order in my home.”
The girl nodded as she took out her dresses. Vadim had cleared half of the wardrobe for her, but there still wasn’t enough space. Back home in Kaluga, she had had an entire room. Here, she had to squeeze herself into a tiny space.
“How’s it going, sunshine?” Vadim wrapped his arms around her waist.
“Fine. I’m settling in little by little. It’s just somehow scary…”
“Don’t worry! Mom is strict, but fair. She’s just anxious. Her son got married, and a stranger appeared in the house. That’s normal.”
“A stranger…”
The phrase stung. Sofia turned to her husband.
“How long will we be staying here?”
“Well… until we save up for an apartment. Why rush? It’s convenient here, spacious. Mom cooks wonderfully.”
“Vadim!” his mother called out sharply. “Come here.”
“I’m coming, Mom!” the young man kissed his wife on the forehead. “We’ll talk later.”
Sofia was left alone. She carefully took out her favorite books by Tolstoy and Akhmatova. Maybe she could show them to her mother-in-law and tell her she liked reading too? Polina Vladimirovna was an educated woman, a doctor. Surely they would find common ground.
Muffled voices came from the kitchen. The girl had not intended to eavesdrop, but the words reached her on their own.
“Just look at the way she walks! Dragging her feet like some beaten-down peasant woman!”
“Mom, she isn’t a peasant. Kaluga is a city. Almost 350,000 people live there.”
“A city to you, perhaps. Not to me. And what kind of manners are those? Yesterday she didn’t offer me her hand, today she sat at the table silent as a stump.”
“She’s shy.”
“Shy! The Romanovs were never shy! We knew how to behave in any society.”
Sofia froze with a book in her hands. The Romanovs? What did the royal family have to do with anything?
“Mom, we aren’t living in the nineteenth century.”
“Exactly! But upbringing has not been canceled. I saw her parents at the wedding. Her father is a factory worker, her mother sells things in a shop. Where would culture come from there?”
“They’re good people.”
“Good… And what use is that? They didn’t raise their daughter properly. At the table, she holds a fork like a shovel, speaks with a provincial accent. Horrifying!”
Sofia quietly closed the door and sat down on the bed. Her heart was pounding wildly. She had never had an accent. And she held her fork normally. Or didn’t she?
Back home, people didn’t have conversations like this. Her parents worked, got tired, and no one humiliated anyone. The neighbors lived simply, without pretensions or claims of aristocratic roots. But here…
Dinner turned into an exam. Polina Vladimirovna watched her daughter-in-law’s every movement.
“Put the napkin on your lap.”
“Cut the bread with a knife, don’t break it.”
“Keep your back straight.”
Sofia tried to remember every word her mother-in-law said, but the comments kept coming. Her head spun from the tension.
“Do you have any rules at all in Kaluga?” Polina Vladimirovna suddenly asked.
“What do you mean?” the girl did not understand.
“Well, at the table. Do you have any etiquette?”
“Of course. Standard etiquette.”
“Standard for whom? For peasants?”
“Mom!” Vadim frowned.
“I am simply asking. Or are you going to forbid me from taking an interest in your wife’s level of culture?”
Sofia swallowed. Her cheeks burned with shame.
“We are not peasants. My parents…”
“Yes? And who are they?”
“My father works at a factory, and my mother is a sales consultant.”
“Well, there you go,” Polina Vladimirovna nodded with satisfaction. “That explains everything.”
The daughter-in-law put down her fork because she could no longer eat.
“Excuse me, I’m full.”
She got up and left the kitchen, feeling her mother-in-law’s triumphant gaze on her back.
“You see?” she heard from behind the door. “No composure at all. And the Romanovs always knew how to keep their face in any situation.”
Two months passed. During that time, a certain pattern emerged in their life. When the front door slammed in the morning and Vadim’s footsteps faded away, the atmosphere in the apartment immediately changed.
“At last, we can speak openly,” Polina Vladimirovna said, entering the kitchen as Sofia was finishing her coffee.
While her son was home, the mother-in-law played the role of a caring mother: sometimes she made comments, sighed about the disorder, but nothing more. But as soon as Vadim left… it began.
“I have to go to work soon,” Sofia said, standing up.
“You’ll make it. Go into the bathroom and look at what you left there.”
The daughter-in-law returned with a comb in her hand.
“And what is this?”
“A comb. I forgot to put it away after my shower.”
“You forgot!” Polina Vladimirovna folded her arms across her chest. “And who is supposed to clean up after you? Me?”
“No, of course not. I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.”
“It won’t happen again? Seriously? And what was lying on the sink yesterday? Your hair tie. The day before yesterday, hairpins…”
Sofia remained silent. Every day, her mother-in-law found something to criticize.
“There was always order in my home. And now there’s mess everywhere.”
“Polina Vladimirovna, I’m trying…”
“Don’t make me laugh!” the mother-in-law smirked spitefully. “Admit that this is how things are done in your village. You throw your things wherever you like. Like in a barn!”
“I’m not from a village.”
“What difference does it make? The provinces. Apparently everyone there lives like pigs.”
Sofia felt something tighten inside her. For two months she had been silent, enduring everything, but now…
“Excuse me, but we are not pigs. We are people!”
“Really?” Polina Vladimirovna raised an eyebrow. “You can’t even clean up after yourself.”
“I know how to clean. I just sometimes miss small details.”
“Small details! There are no small details for the Romanovs. Upbringing and culture are in our blood.”
“Oh, really?” Sofia could not hold back. “My parents raised me too! They raised me to be honest and kind!”
“Honest and kind… and sloppy!” Polina Vladimirovna laughed.
Sofia’s face flushed red.
“I am not sloppy!”
“You are sloppy if you leave a pigsty behind you!”
“What pigsty? A comb on a shelf is a pigsty?”
“For me, yes. I am used to order!”
“Then tell me right away what can and cannot be done in this house! Instead of nitpicking every day!”
Polina Vladimirovna narrowed her eyes.
“Are you raising your voice at me? In my house?”
“I am not raising my voice. I am asking!”
“Who are you, in general, to ask me for anything?”
“I am your son’s wife.”
“For now. But that won’t last forever, by the way.”
Sofia froze. The room became quiet.
“What do you mean?”
“Hmm. Do you think Vadim doesn’t see what you’re like? You can’t cook, you can’t clean, you can’t behave in society.”
“That’s not true!”
“It is true. And sooner or later he will say it himself. Then we’ll see where you go. You’ll go back to your Kaluga!”
Sofia grabbed her bag.
“I’m late for work.”
“Run, run. Just remember, I’ve already seen through you. And Vadim will see through you too.”
At work, Sofia could not calm down. By lunchtime she felt better, but the bitter aftertaste remained.
In the evening, Vadim returned home in a wonderful mood.
“Hi, sunshine. How was your day?”
Sofia lied and said everything was fine, but after dinner she decided to tell her husband what had happened.
“Vadim, I need to talk to you.”
“About what?”
“About your mother. This morning she… we had a fight.”
“A fight?” her husband was surprised. “About what?”
“About a comb. I left it in the bathroom, and she started yelling that I was filthy and sloppy.”
“Sonya, don’t exaggerate… That can’t be.”
“No! She said I live like a pig, and you… the Romanovs… aren’t like that.”
Vadim frowned.
“Mom can be harsh, but…”
“She said that one day you would see through me and I would go back to Kaluga!”
“She really said that?”
“Exactly that. Word for word!”
Vadim was silent for a moment.
“All right, I’ll talk to her. But don’t provoke her either, okay? Just clean up after yourself.”
Sofia looked at her husband. Even now, he had not taken her side.
“All right,” she quietly agreed.
After the conversation with Vadim, the girl hoped that at least something would change. But the very next morning, as soon as the door closed behind her husband, Polina Vladimirovna entered the kitchen with such a look on her face that it was immediately clear… things would only get worse.
“Went tattling to your husband? Satisfied?”
The daughter-in-law put down her cup and looked at her mother-in-law.
“I simply told him what happened between us.”
“Excellent! Now listen to me!” Polina Vladimirovna sat down opposite her and fixed her with a piercing stare. “If you run to Vadim again to complain, you will regret it very much.”
Something in the mother-in-law’s voice had changed. Before, she had at least tried to appear polite from time to time, but now she did not even hide her anger.
“Do you think I don’t understand what you’re doing? You want to turn me against my son? You’re wasting your effort. He will always choose his mother.”
“Polina Vladimirovna, I don’t want to turn anyone against anyone…”
“Don’t lie to me! I’ve known for a long time what you’ll only think of tomorrow!”
Sofia tried to stand, but her mother-in-law continued.
“Where are you going? I haven’t finished yet. Remember this, my dear… If you keep snitching, I’ll make your life so miserable that you’ll run away from here yourself.”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you think I won’t find a way to deal with you? I’m a doctor, sweetheart. I know how to handle hysterical women!”
The next week became a true hell. Polina Vladimirovna seemed to have broken loose. Every day, every little thing became a reason for attacks.
“Hair in the bathroom again! Are you shedding like a stray dog?”
“What is that rag you’re wearing? Do you buy clothes at the dump? It even smells unpleasant!”
“God, why did my son ever get involved with such a slob?”
And in the evenings, when Vadim came home, she turned into the kind mother again.
A few days later, Sofia tried to talk to her husband again.
“Vadim, your mother is crossing every line. Today she said I dress like I get my clothes from a garbage dump. She is humiliating me!”
“Sonya, enough already!” her husband brushed her off. “I’m swamped at work, and you’re here with your stupid complaints.”
“Stupid complaints? I’m telling you that your mother insults me every day!”
“I don’t understand what the problem is. She lives in her own apartment and expresses her opinion.”
“Vadim, she humiliates me every day! Do you hear me?”
“She is not humiliating you. Don’t dramatize! Maybe you really are doing something wrong?”
Sofia looked at her husband in confusion.
“So you think I’m to blame?”
“I think you’re both grown women. Sort it out yourselves!”
There was no point in complaining anymore. Vadim simply did not want to hear her… But the girl wanted to share her feelings with someone, so on Saturday she met her cousin at a café. Alika was cheerful and energetic, as always.
“Sonya!” Alika hugged her tightly. “We haven’t seen each other in ages. How’s married life? Is your husband spoiling you?”
“Alika, I can’t take it anymore,” Sofia barely held back tears right there in the café.
“What happened?” the girl immediately grew serious.
“My mother-in-law… She’s simply destroying me. And Vadim… he doesn’t believe me.”
“Tell me everything from the beginning!”
Sofia told her cousin everything: the daily insults, Polina Vladimirovna’s two-faced behavior, how her husband dismissed her complaints.
“I see,” Alika said with displeasure. “Classic manipulator! We had plenty like that in my course!”
“What should I do? I don’t understand anything anymore. And Vadim doesn’t support me…”
“Then show him reality!”
“How?”
“Record your conversations on camera.”
Sofia nearly jumped.
“What? Alika, have you lost your mind?”
“What’s so terrible about that? She insults you and doesn’t even blink! Shameless old hag!”
“That’s… somehow vile!”
“Vile?” Alika smiled sarcastically. “And what would you call what she’s doing? Sonya, you’re too kind. Sometimes you need to know how to show your teeth!”
“But how would that even work? I’d be spying in someone else’s home…”
“In the home where you live! And it’s not spying, it’s defending yourself.”
Sofia shook her head.
“No, that’s wrong…”
“And what is right? Enduring her behavior until you have a nervous breakdown? Or letting your husband close his eyes to the truth?”
“But still…”
“Listen, there are tiny cameras. The size of a button. You can put them anywhere. No one will notice.”
The girl remained silent, thinking over her cousin’s words.
“Imagine,” Alika continued, “you show your husband a recording where his precious mommy calls you a stray dog. What will he say then?”
“But he’ll find out about the camera!”
“So what? Tell him you had no choice, because there was no other way to get through to him.”
“Where do they even sell those?”
“There are plenty online. Or in specialty stores. I can look for one if you decide.”
Sofia thought for a moment and looked out the window at the passersby.
“Sonya, do you hear me?”
“I hear you. It’s just… it sounds so disgusting.”
“You know what’s disgusting? When a grown woman pours dirt on a young woman every day. And then pretends to be a saint! A descendant of the Romanovs! What nonsense she came up with!”
Sofia nodded. Alika was right, but the idea still felt repulsive inside.
“Think carefully,” her cousin said, paying for the coffee. “Otherwise she’ll drive you into depression with her tricks.”
On the way home, the girl thought about her cousin’s suggestion. Secretly recording her mother-in-law… It went against all her principles. But what else could she do? Vadim wouldn’t listen, living like this was impossible, and leaving…
At home, Polina Vladimirovna was once again acting like an angel.
“Vadik, tomorrow Lyudmila Stepanovna and I are going to an exhibition, and then she’ll drop by our place.”
“All right, Mom. You’ll get out and enjoy yourself.”
“And what will you two be doing?”
“We’ll stay home. I need to sort through some documents.”
Sofia listened to their sweet conversation and remembered Alika’s words. Maybe her cousin was right. Maybe it was time to stop being a doormat.
After speaking with his mother, Vadim came into the kitchen, where Sofia was washing the dishes.
“Sonya, tomorrow Lyudmila Stepanovna is coming to Mom’s. For the whole evening.”
“So what?” the girl did not understand why her husband was telling her this.
“Mom asked… well, for you to sit in the room. Not come out until her guest leaves.”
Sofia froze with a plate in her hands.
“What do you mean… not come out?”
“Well, they need to talk, spend time together alone…”
“So you’re suggesting that I sit locked up all evening? Are you out of your mind?” his wife slowly placed the plate in the drying rack.
“Not locked up! Just in the room. Only for one evening.”
Sofia turned to her husband. He said it so easily, as if he were asking her to take out the trash.
“Vadim, do you understand what you’re saying?”
“What am I saying that’s so terrible? Mom asked, I passed it on.”
“You’re asking me to hide from the guests!”
“Not hide, just…”
“Sit in the room like a punished child!”
Vadim grimaced with irritation.
“Sonya, don’t dramatize! Lyudmila Stepanovna is Mom’s old friend. They have things to talk about without outsiders.”
“So I’m an outsider in this house? Well, thank you!” Sofia’s voice trembled.
“You misunderstood…”
“I understood everything perfectly! Your mother thinks I’m an outsider, unworthy, and you agree with her!”
“God,” Vadim tiredly rubbed his forehead. “Why create problems out of nothing? You’ll sit in the room for one evening and that’s it. Is that so difficult?”
Sofia looked at her husband and realized that in that moment he inspired nothing in her except disgust.
“And what if I don’t agree?”
“Sonya, don’t complicate things! I’m tired of fighting over nothing! Over trivial things! You’re starting to stress me out!”
The woman understood that her husband truly saw nothing humiliating in it. For him, it was an ordinary request from his mother, and it had to be fulfilled.
“And if your mother asks me not to have dinner with you? Will we do that too?”
“Stop making up nonsense!”
“It isn’t nonsense! Today I have to sit in the room, and tomorrow what?”
“Tomorrow nothing! They asked once, so you’ll do it once!”
“Vadim, don’t you understand? This is humiliation!”
“What humiliation?” the young man hissed angrily. “This is basic respect for your elders! For the mistress of the house!”
“And when will there ever be respect for me?”
“Sonya, I already told you! I don’t want to listen to your complaints about Mom anymore! I’m sick of it!”
His wife smiled desperately.
“I see.”
“What do you see?”
“Everything. Your mother’s friend will come tomorrow. I’ll sit in the room.”
“Excellent,” Vadim nodded. “Thank you for understanding!”
Her husband went into the living room, and Sofia remained alone in the kitchen. Her hands were shaking. She wanted to scream, to cry, but most of all she simply wanted to disappear.
The next day, after Vadim left for work, the woman took out her phone and found Alika’s number.
“Alika, the camera…”
“You’ve decided?”
“Yes. Please find one.”
Two days later, the camera was installed: tiny, unnoticeable, hidden behind books on a shelf in the living room.
On Thursday morning, Polina Vladimirovna did not keep her waiting.
“So, did you enjoy sitting in the room?”
Sofia said nothing, checking whether the recording had started.
“Good girl, you obeyed. I thought you’d start acting up again.”
“Polina Vladimirovna…”
“What?” the mother-in-law sat down on the sofa. “Are you offended? You shouldn’t be. Lyudmila Stepanovna is a respectable woman, a professor. It would have been unpleasant for her to drink tea with someone like you.”
Sofia listened carefully to her relative.
“She is used to cultured people, not dirty village girls. It’s good that you didn’t crawl out. Otherwise I would have been ashamed for my son.”
“I am not dirty.”
“Oh really? Then what are you? A princess?” Polina Vladimirovna laughed. “Have you looked at yourself in the mirror? Your hair is like a scrubbing rag, your clothes are cheap. Lyudmila Stepanovna would have immediately understood whom Vadik dragged home.”
“And whom did he drag home, in your opinion?”
“The first provincial girl he came across. With no family, no background. You latched onto a rich man, yet you have nothing to give in return!”
The woman remained silent, feeling everything boil inside her.
“Do you think I don’t see what you’re doing? You want to become the mistress here? It won’t happen. This is my home, my family. And you are temporary here.”
“Really?”
“Of course. Do you think Vadik is a fool? No!” Polina Vladimirovna waved her hand. “Sooner or later, he’ll send you back to Kaluga. I’m just waiting for it to happen. I can hardly wait!”
When her mother-in-law went to the bathroom, Sofia turned off the recording. That was it! Now she had proof.
On the weekend, when Vadim and his mother went to the doctor for a routine checkup, Sofia took out her suitcase. She carefully packed her things, took her documents and money, and left the tiny camera and a sealed envelope on the kitchen table.
In the hallway, the woman stopped for a second and looked around the apartment. Three months ago she had entered this place as a happy bride, and now she was leaving as…
The door quietly closed behind her.
Vadim came home at around three. He had left his mother at the clinic for procedures, so now he finally had time to have a normal, human lunch.
“Sonya, are you home?” the husband called from the doorway, taking off his jacket.
Silence. Strange. Usually she always came out into the corridor.
The man looked into the bedroom: empty, the bed made. He stepped toward the wardrobe, pulled open the door, and froze: half of Sofia’s things were gone. Everything inside him instantly turned cold.
On the kitchen table, right in the center, lay a white envelope, and beside it, a tiny camera.
Vadim unfolded the note.
“Vadim, I am leaving. My patience has run out. I can’t do this anymore. For three months, I tried to get through to you, to explain what was really happening, but you simply brushed me off.
The camera on the table has a recording. Listen to how your mother spoke to me when you were not around. Just sit down and listen.
Maybe you will finally understand that I am not hysterical and that I wasn’t making anything up. Or maybe you’ll decide I’m a bitch for turning on a camera in secret. I no longer care.
I’m going to my parents. Please don’t call me, don’t write to me. There is no point. Our marriage has come to an end.
Sofia.”
His hands trembled as he tried to connect the camera to his laptop. A video opened on the screen: their living room, Sonya sitting in an armchair with a mug of tea. A minute later, his mother appeared in the frame.
“So, did you have fun sitting in the room yesterday?”
Vadim froze. He did not recognize that voice at first. His mother never spoke like that. Not in front of him.
“Good girl, you obeyed,” the voice continued from the speakers. “I thought you’d start throwing one of your hysterics over nothing again.”
It was unbearable to keep listening. His mother methodically, with icy calm, dragged Sonya through the dirt. She scolded her for her village origins, for her lack of “breeding.” And at the end, she threw in: “I can hardly wait for you to pack your things and get out of here.”
Vadim slammed the laptop shut with force. Nausea rose in his throat.
And then, as if on cue, his phone rang. The screen showed: “Mom.” The man swallowed the lump in his throat and answered.
“Vadik, hi. I got stuck at the clinic, the procedures are taking a long time. Is everything all right at home?”
“Mom,” her son’s voice sounded unusually quiet. “Why did you ask Sonya not to come out of the room when your friend came over?”
There was a second of silence on the other end of the line.
“Well… Lyuda and I hadn’t seen each other in ages, we wanted to chat calmly. Why?”
“Calmly? Or were you simply ashamed to show Sonya?”
“What strange questions you’re asking, Vadik…”
“Answer directly. Are you ashamed of my wife?”
“Listen,” his mother began chattering indignantly. “Lyudmila is a woman from our circle. And Sofia… well, she’s a simple girl.”
“So she isn’t our equal, right?”
“I didn’t say that!”
“What did you say to her, Mom? What did you say to her every single morning while I wasn’t home?!” Vadim broke into a shout.
The line went very quiet. Only the woman’s heavy breathing could be heard.
“How do you… who told you that?”
“It doesn’t matter how! Did you call her dirty? Did you tell her to move out?”
“Vadik, you don’t understand, it was all taken out of context…”
“I understood everything perfectly! For three months you devoured her and pushed her out of the house! And I, like an idiot, didn’t believe her!”
“I wanted what was best for you!”
“For me?! You’re sick in the head!”
“What?! How are you talking to me? I am your mother!”
“And Sonya is my wife! She was. Until you drove her away!”
Vadim ended the call and blocked the number. His hands were still shaking. He opened the messenger and quickly typed to Sonya:
“Forgive me. I watched everything. Please come back. Let’s talk.”
The reply came only after two endless hours.
“I’m not ready to talk.”
Vadim immediately wrote:
“Sonya, I talked to Mom. She won’t come anywhere near you again, I promise.”
“It’s not just about her, Vadim.”
And then it dawned on him. It really wasn’t about his mother. It was about him…
The next month turned into hell. Vadim rented an apartment and called Sonya every day until her phone nearly rang off the hook. He wrote long messages, apologized, begged.
“Sonya, let’s just meet,” he pleaded when she picked up the phone one day. “We’ll sit in a café and talk calmly.”
“What do we have to talk about, Vadim? For three months I begged you to listen to me. You didn’t believe me and didn’t want to know anything.”
“I was a complete fool, Sonya! My eyes were blindfolded. Now I’ve seen everything for myself!”
“It’s too late.”
“But I admit that I’m guilty! I’m ready to do anything you say, to fix everything!”
“And I’m not ready to trust you again. Do you understand? Just like you didn’t trust me once.”
“Sofia, can’t we at least try to start over?”
“No. We can’t.”
The last time the spouses spoke was already in December. Heavy wet snow was falling outside the window.
“I filed for divorce,” Sonya said calmly. Without resentment or anger. And that made it even more frightening.
“Don’t… Sonya, let’s wait, don’t make a decision in the heat of the moment…”
“Vadim, that’s it. Enough. I’m going back to my parents in Kaluga. I feel good and peaceful there.”
“And Moscow feels bad?”
“In Moscow, every corner reminds me of how I was humiliated while the person closest to me simply brushed me aside.”
There was no point arguing. Vadim silently hung up, understanding that he had destroyed everything himself.
He never contacted his mother again. She called from other people’s numbers, waited for him near his workplace, wrote messages full of tears and reproaches, but Vadim deleted them without reading. What was the point? The family could no longer be restored.
Now, in the evenings, sitting in a strange rented apartment, Vadim replayed the same scenario in his head again and again. What if, the very first time Sonya tried to complain, he had simply hugged her and listened? What if he had not laughed it off and defended his mother?
But time cannot be turned back. And sooner or later, one always has to pay for mistakes.
