— We’re getting a divorce.
Maxim tapped his glass on the table so hard that the champagne splashed onto the tablecloth.
The guests froze; Tamara Ivanovna dropped her fork. Vera was slicing an apple for her son — into small pieces, wedges — while staring at the knife.
— Maxim, what are you talking about? — Tamara Ivanovna stood up, running her hand along her watch. — It’s my anniversary, there are guests at the table.
— Mom, it’s fine. I’ll leave the apartment to her, let her live with the kid. I’m not an animal. I’m moving in with Karina — she’s alive, not a robot.
His sister, Okszana, giggled, waiting for a scandal. But Vera just wiped the knife and folded the napkin.
— Maxim, open your banking app.
He raised his eyebrows, reached into his pocket, and tossed the phone onto the table.
— Look. Everything’s clear, the workday is over, there’s money.
Vera took the phone, checked the balance, and nodded.
— I see. But tomorrow morning your paycheck will be deducted. The mortgage and the truck. There won’t be enough money.
Maxim went pale and pulled the phone back.
— What paycheck?
— For Mom’s classes. The holiday dinner. A gift for Okszana — you sent it to her yesterday. You settled the credit card two days ago. The payments didn’t disappear.
Tamara Ivanovna clenched her fist on her watch, and Okszana put down the fork and stood.
— Vera, are you joking? — Maxim shrugged, his voice trembling. — You have a good credit history; cover it for a few days, I’ll pay you back.
Vera slowly shook her head.
— If you want a divorce? Great! Then you pay.
— What do you mean?
— Like this. You’re a free man. The apartment is yours, the decisions are yours, Karina is yours. You pay. I’m done with all the back-and-forth.
Maxim jumped up; the chair fell immediately. He paced the room and then turned to his mother.
— Mom, do you hear me? She’s your wife, you have to help her!
Vera looked into her mother’s eyes.
— The watches are nice. But the day after tomorrow there’s another paycheck — your car. The loan is on Maxim. You can return the watches to the store if you want.
Tamara Ivanovna jumped, grabbing her son’s wrist with both hands.
— What? Maxim, you didn’t tell me!
— Mom, it’s nothing, I’ll handle it! — Maxim paced between the table and the window, his face red. — Vera, enough!
Vera stood and went to the coat rack. At the door was a suitcase — packed in advance. Maxim froze.
— You… packed in advance?
— I just counted the money, Maxim. I’m an accountant, it’s not hard. — She put on her coat, buttoned it up. — You can submit the divorce papers anytime.
Child support will be deducted from your salary, a quarter. Plus the loans. Calculate what will be left for Karina and the little white thing.
Denis stood at the door with a backpack on his shoulder. He didn’t look at his father.
Tamara Ivanovna grabbed her son’s finger.
— Maxim, do you understand that everything will be deducted tomorrow? Watches to the pawnshop? Selling the car?
Okszana leaned forward, her voice sharp.
— Vera, are you serious? — she looked at Max. — Yesterday you gave me money for my nails, I already booked! At least give me that back!
Maxim flinched, staring at Vera.
— You can’t leave! You have to help, we’re family!
Vera turned to the door, looking at him for a long time — with tired calm.
— Family, Maxim, is when we’re together. You chose Karina. Live with her.
The door closed quietly. Tamara Ivanovna sighed, pulled down her watch, and Okszana frantically dialed something on her phone. Maxim immediately sat on the chair, burying his face in his hands.
The next morning, Maxim was called by the bank. He had slept in, after drinking with the guests.
— We notify you that the payment did not go through. Please top up the balance within three days, or interest on overdue payments will begin.
Maxim sat down, staring at the phone. He remembered — Vera, the suitcase, Denis at the door, his mother with the watch. Everything came back at once.
He called Vera. Once, twice, three times. She didn’t pick up. He wrote: “Come back, let’s talk properly.” Then: “You can’t be serious?” And then just: “Vera.” Read. No reply.
Maxim threw the phone, pacing through the apartment. It was empty — not because of furniture, but because of absence. There was no scent of creams on the shelf, no child’s slippers by the door, no tablet on the charger.
The phone rang again. It was his mother.
— Maxim, I was thinking — maybe you should go to the pawnshop with the watches? Or ask Karina if she’s so happy? I won’t sell the car, I need it.
He held the phone silently, his fingers going white.
— Hear me? You took out loans, and now I have to solve it?
— I’ll handle it — he said through gritted teeth, then hung up.
Handle it. How? Child support, loans — will there be enough for the bus, food, cigarettes? Karina? She texted him yesterday that she needed money. Disappeared for two hours, then sent some vague message about a difficult period.
By noon Maxim became unbearable and went to Karina. He bought flowers at a little kiosk — cheap chrysanthemums; no money for anything else.
Karina didn’t open immediately. She was in a robe, without makeup, hair in a loose bun. She looked tired, not happy at all.
— Maxim, I wrote — let’s not rush.
— I just wanted to see you. — He handed her the flowers, but she didn’t take them, crossing her arms over her chest.
— Look, I’m not ready. You have a lot of problems — divorce, loans, a child. I don’t need that. I’m thirty-two, I want a light life, not someone else’s troubles.
— Everything will work out, just give me time!
Karina sighed, putting her hand to her face. In her eyes, Maxim saw something he hadn’t noticed before — indifference.
— You’re great. But I need a man who’s already solved everything, not someone just starting. Sorry.
She closed the door. Gently, almost silently, but permanently.
Maxim stood there with the flowers in his hands, looking at the closed door. For the first time in many years, he was left. He didn’t leave, he didn’t decide — he was cast out like a useless object.
That evening, the phone rang again in the apartment. It was Tamara Ivanovna.
— I’m pawning the watches. I got a third of their value back. That covers one paycheck. One, Maxim. The rest is your problem.
He put the phone down, without waiting for a reply. A minute later, Okszana texted: “Bro, seriously. Give back the money for the nails. I need it.”
Maxim sat on the couch in the empty apartment, staring at the ceiling.
Vera didn’t reply, Karina closed the door, his mother pawned the gift, his sister demanded the money back. Everything he thought was his — apartment, freedom, new life — had turned into a trap.
He opened the banking app, checked the remaining balance. After every paycheck and child support, less was left than he had spent over the weekend. For gas, food, cigarettes — and no Karina, no light life.
Maxim called Vera again. This time she picked up — after a long ring, almost before hanging up.
— What? — The voice was cold, unfamiliar.
— Vera, let’s meet. I understand everything. I was stupid. Come back.
Pause. Long, heavy.
— No.
— How come? I admitted my mistake!
— Maxim, you didn’t make a mistake. You just fell into a trap. Two different things.
She hung up. Maxim stared at the dark screen, feeling cornered for the first time in years. Because of his own decisions, his own overconfidence, thinking everything would solve itself.
Vera sat with Denis on her mother’s couch. They watched a cartoon, the boy already sleepy, cuddling to his mother. The phone lay nearby, screen down, occasionally vibrating — Maxim texting, calling, texting again.
— Mom, will we stay here now? — Denis mumbled sleepily.
— For now, yes. Then we’ll find our own place.
— Dad?
Vera stroked his head, pulling him closer.
— Dad will see you when he wants. But we are no longer together.
Denis nodded and looked back at the TV. Vera knew — it was hard for him, everything inside was chaotic, but he kept quiet, not wanting to upset her. And that hurt the most — seeing the child already learning to endure blows.
The phone vibrated one last time. Vera picked up and looked at the screen: “Vera, I understand everything. Sorry. Come back.”
She read it, blocked him, and put the phone down. The kitchen at her mother’s smelled of soup, it was dark outside, Denis slept beside her. Vera closed her eyes and exhaled slowly and deeply — as if releasing all the accumulated tension from her body.
Maxim was left — with loans, an angry mother, a money-demanding sister, and Karina, who had closed the door.
In the apartment, which was no longer home but a cage. And he — here, with his son, with his own peace. And for the first time in many years, that peace wasn’t a mask, it was real.
