Mom, stop pressuring me, stop saying the same thing over and over! How much longer can this go on?,» Irina Andreevna’s son, Alexander, protested. «Do you even have any other topics of conversation? Anything at all, just as long as it’s not about Alina?»
«Sash, stop defending her already!» the mother calmly replied to the man. «You are either so stupid, or simply blind, that you can’t see her true nature! This woman is leading you nowhere, you will ruin your life because of her soon! Can’t you see and understand that?»
Sasha got up from the sofa in the living room and began to nervously pace back and forth across the room. «Is this why you called me here?» Alexander fretted. «Just to ruin my mood again? I’ve already told you, and I’ll repeat it just for you! Don’t dare touch Alina, don’t dare pick on her at all! And where do you even get such thoughts about her? What made you think that my wife is cheating on me? Is it some kind of maternal jealousy, or what? You were just fine with Alina a couple of months ago! Why did you suddenly decide to ruin everything so drastically?»
«Was it me who decided?» Irina Andreevna widened her eyes in surprise. «Think with your own foolish head about what you’re saying! You well know that I would never resort to such things in life and would not tell you anything like that, let alone make anything up, if there wasn’t a real reason for it! And your Alina, I know for a fact, is not just cheating on you somewhere with someone, she’s doing it all in our apartment while you’re at work! And I, son, will prove it all to you.»
«Prove it first, mom! Then you can throw your accusations around! And by the way, if you ever dare say something like that about my wife again, like you did recently, I will never speak to you again! Not even come to visit!» Alexander furiously told his mother.
«Listen, save your threats for your little wife, got it?! If you talk to me in that tone again, you and your little Alina will be living in a rented apartment! We and dad have been trying everything for you, and you just put on your rose-colored glasses and won’t even listen to me! Not only that, but you even try to threaten me! Be thankful that I haven’t told dad yet! When he finds out, he won’t even discuss it with you, he’ll just kick that tramp out of the apartment, and that’s that!»
«Just try to pull something like that, just try! And you’ll have no son anymore!» Sasha yelled back hysterically.
«Calm down your hysteria, Sashenka!» his mother requested. «Show that temper to your wife! Or I’ll forget you’re all grown up, I’ll take a stick and give you a good beating! Like in childhood!—laughed the mother.—Such an unfinished hysterical boy! I should have beaten you more when you were a child!»
«Get lost!» Sasha barked and sprang from his seat.
He rushed into the hallway, hurriedly put on a hat, threw on a jacket, jumped into his shoes, and bolted from his parents’ apartment, shouting and complaining as he went.
«Go on, run, run!» his mother yelled after him. «Consider it settled!» she added more quietly, closing the door behind her son. «I’m coming for you, so that you’ll have nowhere else to go!»
Upon arriving home, Alexander was very angry at his mother.
When he entered the apartment, his wife Alina, as usual, was busy lying all day in bed in the bedroom and staring at her phone, posting her photos online and browsing other people’s profiles.
«Why are you so displeased?» Alina asked Sasha when he didn’t even greet her. «What happened?» she tensed a bit.
«Yeah, something happened! It was at mom’s, that’s what happened!»
«Why have you started arguing with her lately? And besides, your mom has changed in the last few months! She used to be constantly friendly and kind! Maybe you’ll finally tell me what’s going on with her?!»
«Are you really ready to hear it?» the husband asked more softly.
She looked at him questioningly, not answering his question.
«Alright!» said Sasha. «Mom thinks you’re cheating on me, Alin! But I have absolutely no idea why she thinks that!»
Alina’s face changed immediately after these words. She now looked like a thief caught red-handed. But Alexander paid no attention to this. None at all. He was so sure of his wife that he couldn’t even entertain a thought against her.
«And why would she accuse me of that? Was she holding a candle or something?»
«That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to tell her, but she’s stuck in her own opinion, and nothing else matters to her!»
«It’s shocking… I certainly didn’t expect that from your mom! Now I understand why she became like that! It must be age-related, she’s apparently starting to lose her mind, seeing all sorts of nonsense!»
«Yeah, I’m starting to lean towards that too! She doesn’t even want to listen to me, at all! She thinks she’s absolutely right, and that’s it! And today, can you believe it, she told me that we’ll soon be living in a rented apartment!» Sasha complained.
«What’s that all about all of a sudden?» the woman was outraged. «Can they actually evict us? On what grounds? That I’m supposedly cheating on you here?» Alina blurted out, then suddenly realized she said too much.
But Sasha didn’t take those words seriously.
«I don’t know, Alin, for me, this is the number one question today! I just can’t understand what’s going on with my mother! It feels like she’s quietly losing her mind, and that’s why she starts to say all sorts of nasty things to me!» Alexander mumbled annoyed. «Listen, is there anything to eat? I was at mom’s, we started arguing, I freaked out and didn’t even eat!»
«There’s nothing!» the wife calmly replied. «Order something!»
«Alin, what did you do all day again?» he suddenly asked his wife. «You couldn’t make anything for dinner in a whole day?»
«Let’s not take out your relationship with your mother on me right now, please! You argued with her, not with me!» Alina replied sharply.
«What does my mother have to do with it? The question I asked you has nothing to do with mom! I’m just tired of eating takeout food, I want you to cook something for me! You’re home all day anyway, only going to your fitness clubs and salons! And your schedule is so busy that you can’t make dinner for your husband?»
«Sash, calm down, I understand, you argued with your mother and all that, but let’s not take out your negative emotions on me! Okay? I’ll order everything myself right now! And you go wash up, change…»
Alina got up from the bed, took her phone, and went to the kitchen. Leaving Sasha alone in the room so he wouldn’t ask her any more uncomfortable questions.
The next morning Sasha left for work early. Alina woke up around eleven o’clock and first thing, wrote a message to a contact in her phone labeled «Sveta — nails.»
«Don’t come today. The old lady somehow knows everything. Let’s postpone our meetings for a while.»
But before she could send it, someone rang the doorbell.
Alina threw on a robe and went to see who it was.
At the door stood a young, tall, fit, twenty-year-old guy.
«I just wrote to you…»
«Well, I’m already here anyway!» he replied, smiling.
«Alright, come in,» Alina grabbed his hand and pulled the young man toward her.
And as soon as he stepped over the threshold of the apartment, they embraced and passionately kissed. Not even bothering to close the front door.
From the door opposite, a good acquaintance of Irina Andreevna watched this scene through the peephole. She immediately, without leaving her observational post, dialed Alexander’s mother’s number and informed her of what was happening.
It took Irina Andreevna no more than five minutes to get ready and head to her son’s house. She quickly called a taxi, as her husband was at work at the moment, and called Sasha to drop everything and rush home. Sasha tried to object, but his mother’s arguments made him reconsider and not argue.
«Don’t you dare call your Alina! Don’t scare her off!» warned the mother.
«Mom, okay! But I’m warning you right away, if this is just another one of your antics, I’ll never speak to you again!» Sasha declared.
The mother agreed and told him to stop talking and hurry home while it was just beginning.
Irina Andreevna arrived at her son’s home about ten minutes before Alexander himself. Using her keys, without waiting for her son, she opened the door.
Soft music played in the apartment, and laughter and conversation came from the bedroom. The woman, without taking off her shoes or coat, headed straight for those voices.
With a sudden movement, she flung open the bedroom door and saw what she had repeatedly told her son. At that very moment, Alina and an unknown young man were engaged in what Sasha very much did not want to believe.
«Irina Andreevna?» Alina said in a surprised tone, widening her eyes. «What are you doing here?» The woman quickly threw the man off her and got up from the bed.
«What am I doing here? Are you seriously asking me that now?» smirked Irina Andreevna. «I’ll show you what I’m doing here, you filthy sha…!»
«Don’t you dare talk to me in that tone and insult me in my home! How did you even get into the apartment? Do you have keys?»
«I’ll show you where your home is! I’ll show you your apartment! You’ve really become shameless, beauty!»
«Who is this anyway?» the young man suddenly spoke up.
«Who are you and what are you doing here? My son will be here soon, and you’ll get the full program, believe me! And you’ll get it too, you miserable mattress!» Irina Andreevna simultaneously seethed and rejoiced.
«Listen, granny, don’t scare me!» the young man rudely replied. «Or it might turn out very badly for you and your son!»
«Vitya, shut your mouth!» Alina yelled at him. «And you, Irina Andreevna, had no right to barge in here like this without warning!»
«I’ll show you my rights, you’ll be searching for the fifth corner in the room! I’ll show you everything right now!» said the woman and left the bedroom.
Alina and Vitya began to get dressed immediately, Alina managed to throw on a robe, and Vitya only managed to find his underwear and pull them on.
Irina Andreevna opened the bathroom and took a good, heavy wooden mop. And with this mop, she went to fulfill the promise she had just made to the two of them.
Vitya got hit first, he didn’t even have time to cover himself. Irina Andreevna brought the mop down directly on his head. He screamed and clutched the painful spot. Then he was hit several more times with the mop. And, as the woman thought, all the guy’s bravery was just in his words. He merely covered himself with his hands and yelled insults at her.
Next up was Alina. She decided to defend Viktor and shield him with her body. Alexander’s mother, seizing the moment, swung the mop at the woman’s head. With such force that Alina immediately began to scream and threaten her mother-in-law with the police.
«I’ll put you in jail,» Alina screamed. «I’ll sue you! You’ll answer for everything!» the daughter-in-law protested.
«Please do,» Irina Andreevna replied. «At least I’ll have some satisfaction! Just so you know, my friend lives here, and she’ll gladly confirm that you attacked me, and I was defending myself! And now Sasha will come, and he’ll fix you too!» she said with a satisfied voice.
And she hit them both several more times with the mop.
Just as she said these words, the apartment door opened, and Alexander walked in. The mother went back out to the hallway and turned to him with a satisfied face.
«I told you so, but you didn’t believe me! Or look at these lovebirds here!» she called him into the bedroom.
In the bedroom next to the bed stood Alina with disheveled hair, trying to wrap herself in her robe as tightly as possible. And next to her, still half-naked, in only pants, stood a man who Sasha recognized as his wife’s fitness trainer.
«Alina! What is this?» Sasha asked.
«Sash, I’ll explain everything…» the wife attempted to justify herself.
«What’s there to explain, I just caught you two naked on each other! What else are you planning to explain to him?» Irina Andreevna interjected.
«Pack up, and get out of here! Nicely!» not wanting to hear anything more, Alexander said, clenching his fists in anger. «And you too, before I maim you!» he addressed the lover of his wife.
«Just touch me with a finger!» the lover tried to show his bravery again.
«No, I definitely won’t use a finger!»
At the moment when Vitya tried to walk past Sasha and leave the room, the man couldn’t resist and still smacked the guy in the temple with his fist. Vitya couldn’t stay on his feet and fell to the floor.
Alexander wanted to continue roughing up the young man, but his mother didn’t let him. Motivating by the fact that this misunderstanding wasn’t worth breaking his life over.
Alina was kicked out of the apartment, which Sasha’s parents had bought for him, that same day. No words made Alexander show even a trace of sympathy for the traitor. He didn’t let her take anything that he had bought for her with his own money from the clothes. She left with only what she had come with one and a half years ago. And Sasha was little concerned about the rumors that he was supposedly a miser, kicked poor Alina out, and even kept her things.
He dealt with the things in a wiser way. After they divorced, he simply asked his mother to take these things to a place where they would find a better use. They would be given to people in need.
And he apologized to his mother. And promised that he would never treat her the way he had done recently. For if it weren’t for his mother, he would still be in the dark, and his wife would continue to cheat on him with everyone.
