– Tanja, transfer thirty-five thousand rubles to my card, the payment is due tomorrow according to the schedule – said Igor, without taking his eyes off the laptop screen, where he was once again fighting tank battles.
Tanja froze with the iron in her hand. Steam hissed from the appliance, enveloping the ironing board in a white mist. She slowly placed the iron back on its stand, then measured her husband’s broad back, stretched tightly in a home T-shirt.
This was the monthly ritual – “transfer me money” – that had been going on for four years, but on this gloomy November Tuesday, something inside Tanja broke.
– Igorek – she began quietly, trying to keep her voice from trembling – you don’t have a single kopek? Last week I bought groceries for ten thousand, paid the utilities. Only crumbs are left until payday.
Igor chuckled unsatisfactorily, removed his headphones, and spun around in his office chair. His face showed the expression of a hurt child who didn’t get chocolate.
– Tanja, we agreed on this. Right now, there’s a seasonal slump in work, no orders.
You know I work by percentage. And the bank won’t wait. I already got a reminder message from my mother. Do you want debt collectors to harass her? Don’t forget, she has high blood pressure.
– Your mother has high blood pressure, and I have a printing press in the drawer? – Tanja pulled the iron cord from the socket. – Igor, I’ve been paying the loan for four years.
For four years, I’ve given seventy percent of my income for an apartment where I am nobody.
– Again the same! – Igor raised his eyes. – How many times do we have to go over this?
We’ve discussed it a hundred times: it’s in your mother’s name because she gets a favorable rate as a veteran and retiree. We saved a lot of money! It’s for our family!
– What family, Igor? – Tanja went to the window, where the November rain pounded hard on the glass. – Legally, this family has no share in the apartment.
There is the owner – Anna Petrovna. And we are tenants who pay for her property. Or rather, I do. Because your “seasonal slump” somehow lasts all year.
– Are you accusing me of money? – the man’s voice turned into a shriek. – How mercantile you’ve become! I also invested! I painted the apartment, wallpapered it!
– The wallpaper came from my premium funds. Igor, I’m tired. I went to the dentist today; I need a crown. It costs money. I have no money because the loan is due tomorrow.
I wear a five-year-old winter coat. And last week your mother boasted about her new fur coat, because, of course, she sets aside her pension, and the children help around the apartment.
– Don’t you dare count my mother’s money! – Igor jumped up from the chair. – That’s vile! She let us live in the apartment, and you…
– She let us live in an apartment that I pay for? What nobility!
– Enough! – shouted Igor. – Transfer the money, I don’t want to be embarrassed at the bank tomorrow, and heat up dinner, I’m hungry.
Igor put his headphones back on, signaling with his entire body that the conversation was over. Tanja stared at her husband’s nape, feeling a chilling emptiness spread in her chest.
Love, patience, hope – all vanished suddenly, replaced by cold, calculating clarity.
She quietly left the room, took out her phone, and opened the banking app. Forty thousand rubles sat in the account. Just enough for the loan payment and a little for food. Her finger hovered over the “transfer” button.
Then she remembered yesterday’s conversation, which she had accidentally overheard. Anna Petrovna had come for a visit, drank tea in the kitchen while Tanja was at the store.
When she returned quietly and opened the door, she heard her mother-in-law’s voice from the kitchen, talking to Tanja’s sister-in-law – Lena.
“Yes, Lenochka, everything is going according to plan. The apartment is paid for, properly. The renovations were done well; Tanja is diligent, cleans everything. Once she pays, we’ll handle it. Why should Igor care?
He’s unreliable; the wife… today one thing, tomorrow another. You with the kids will need it more, you’re a single mother. I’ll transfer the ownership to you later, don’t worry. For now, they just need to pay.”
Tanja tried to convince herself that she had misunderstood. It couldn’t be that her own mother-in-law spoke like that to her son, or that the mother-in-law spoke to her daughter-in-law, who had fully devoted herself to them. But today, as she watched her husband’s indifferent back, everything fell into place.
Tanja closed the banking app. Then she opened another – the accommodation booking app.
Ten minutes later she returned to the room.
– Igor.
– So, did you transfer? – he growled, without turning around.
– No.
The game on the screen froze; the tank hit a wall.
– What do you mean “no”? Was there an error?
– No, no error. I will not pay.
Igor finally turned around. His face showed genuine shock and fear.
– Are you joking? Tanja, it’s the twentieth tomorrow!
– I know. Let Anna Petrovna pay. It’s her apartment. Either you pay, or Lena. She’ll live there later.
– What Lena? Are you crazy? What does my sister have to do with this?
– Igor, I overheard the conversation with your mother yesterday. She plans to give the apartment to Lena when the loan is over. Because Lena has children, and you, quote, “are an unreliable man.”
Igor turned his gaze away. That was enough.
– I knew – Tanja nodded. – And you kept silent. While I worked two jobs, took side jobs, denied myself everything, you knew I was being used.
– Tanja, Lena is alone… it’s hard for her… But the two of us are strong, we’ll buy… we’ll…
– Then buy it. You’re strong.
Tanja rented a small studio. The money was enough – it turned out living alone was three times cheaper than with a “jobless” husband and a loan. She got an expensive porcelain-fused-to-metal tooth, bought a new coat, and enrolled in an English course.
But the apartment story didn’t end there.
A month later, Tanja received a court summons. Anna Petrovna decided to risk everything and filed a lawsuit for “unjust enrichment,” demanding repayment for the four years spent in the apartment.
She claimed there was no lease, and the daughter-in-law used the property and benefits.
Tanja went to a lawyer, an old man with cunning eyes. He laughed for a long time while reading the complaint.
– Well, let’s calculate – he said, wiping his glasses. – Do you have the receipts?
– Of course. Everything is saved. I’m an accountant, I keep everything. Transfers to Igor for the loan, direct transfers to Anna when Igor couldn’t. Receipts for building materials, contract with the renovation team in my name.
– Excellent. We’ll file a counterclaim. We’ll recognize the loan payments as actually completed and demand acknowledgment of your share in ownership.
The chances were slim, as the owner was the mother, but we’ll strain their nerves. Regarding their claim… we’ll prove it was a family arrangement, the apartment use was free, based on a verbal agreement.
Moreover, the renovation and loan payments triple the market rent.
The trial lasted six months. A dirty, unpleasant period. Anna Petrovna simulated heart attacks in the courtroom. Igor sat with his head down, muttering something when the judge asked questions.
Many interesting things came to light. Igor not only didn’t work properly but secretly took out microloans for his “wants,” and now debt collectors harassed not just his mother but Tanja as well, even though the divorce was underway.
In the end, the court dismissed the mother-in-law’s claim.
Tanja’s counterclaim for recognition of ownership was also dismissed (as the lawyer had warned, you can’t go against the law – the owner is the owner), but the judge ruled in favor of Tanja for renovation costs from Anna,
as “unjust enrichment” on the owner’s part.
The amount was significant – nearly one and a half million rubles, as Tanja had kept all receipts for the expensive kitchen, plumbing, and furniture that the mother-in-law refused to return.
– I don’t have that much money! – Anna Petrovna screamed after the verdict. – I’m a retiree!
– And the coat? – Tanja asked innocently, walking past her. – The apartment is intact, the coat is intact, and your pension remains – Tanja said, packing her documents on the judge’s desk.
– I only want back what I paid for renovations and the loan. Nothing more.
Anna Petrovna’s voice rose in the courtroom:
– That’s unfair! I let them live there!
– Exactly. And that’s why they received rent – Tanja said calmly, signaling to the judge that the session was over. – That’s it.
Igor sat pale on the bench, head bowed. There was no longer anger, only bitter realization. Behind Tanja, like the rays of a new day, radiated determination and freedom.
After the court, Tanja finally embarked on her own life.
After a weekend at the sanatorium, she returned to the small studio, where every piece of furniture, every book, every little thing was her choice. She no longer depended on anyone, didn’t have to obey her husband or mother-in-law.
A year later, the money she recovered allowed her to buy a new apartment. A place that was truly hers. No more debt, no supervision, only her own choices.
Igor? He and Anna Petrovna disappeared from her life, only a windblown memory remained, which she sometimes recalled with a smile on cold November evenings:
“This was the moment I learned that no one gives you your freedom – you have to claim it yourself.”
And so Tanja learned the most important thing: respecting your own boundaries is not a favor, it is a right.
