“How do you mean you won’t let me into your apartment?” Margarita asked in disbelief, instinctively placing a hand on her belly. “I’m seven months pregnant. I could give birth any moment!”Raisa stood motionless in the doorway of her own apartment, right on the threshold.
She didn’t step back. She didn’t give way. She blocked the entrance like a wall. In the hallway, two huge suitcases and several cardboard boxes were lined up, as if Margarita’s move-in had already been decided. Beneath the loose tunic, the pregnant belly bulged like a half-sphere—impossible not to notice.
“I won’t let you in,” Raisa said quietly. “This is my apartment.”Margarita blinked, as if she didn’t understand the words.“Raya, have you lost your mind? Styopa is your husband. That means this is a shared apartment. And I’m his sister. I have nowhere to live!”
A tired smile appeared at the corner of Raisa’s mouth.“He was my husband. Three weeks ago he filed for divorce. And the apartment isn’t shared. My aunt gave it to me before the marriage. The deed is in my name.”
Margarita shook her head nervously, then stepped closer, as if she meant to simply push past her.“Don’t do this to me! You can’t throw a pregnant woman out onto the street!”Raisa raised her hand.
“Stop. I really am sorry. But this is not my problem. You have parents. You have a brother. You also have the child’s father. Why should you live with me?”“Vadik left me…” Margarita said bitterly. “There’s no room at my parents’ place.
And Styopa said you’d definitely let me in. You have three rooms and you live alone!”At the sound of that name, Raisa’s voice turned cold.“Styopan said that? The same Styopan who terrorized me for months, demanding I sign the apartment over to him?
Who screamed that I was greedy because I wouldn’t ‘share’?”“Alright, he went a little too far…”“A little?” Raisa laughed sharply. “I had to take sedatives because of him. First he demanded a share, then he wanted to sell it, then he tried to move his parents in here.
When I said no, he threatened me with divorce. Well, he got it.”At that moment, Nina Pavlovna—Margarita’s mother—appeared on the stairs. She wore a strict suit, her face tense, her voice commanding.
“Raisa, good thing you’re home. Help Rita bring her things inside.”“I’m not bringing anything in,” Raisa replied dryly. “She’s not moving in.”“What do you mean she’s not? We discussed this!”“You discussed it among yourselves. Without me.”
Her mother-in-law narrowed her eyes disapprovingly.“You’re selfish. You have a big apartment, and she’s a pregnant woman. This is basic human decency.”“And where was your decency when your son insulted me?” Raisa snapped. “When he threw my belongings out the window?”
“Don’t exaggerate. Styopan is emotional. As a husband, he had the right to expect something.”“He had no right,” Raisa said firmly. “This is my separate property. Legally.”“The court will decide that.” Raisa laughed.
“It already did. They didn’t even accept the claim. That’s why this whole performance is happening.”Margarita then tried to slip past her.“Raya, let’s just go inside… let’s talk it out…”“No.”Raisa bent down, grabbed one of the suitcases, and hurled it toward the stairs with all her strength.
The second suitcase and the boxes followed.“I’ll call the police!” Nina Pavlovna screamed.“Go ahead,” Raisa said, breathing hard. “And tell them how you tried to move into someone else’s apartment without permission.”
The door slammed shut. The lock clicked.Raisa leaned against the wall. She was shaking from adrenaline, but inside she felt light. Free.Two months later, the divorce was finalized. The apartment remained hers. Styopan’s lies backfired, Margarita’s story unraveled.
Everyone paid their own price.In a café, Raisa lifted her cup.“To a new life. To learning how to say no.” And when a stranger approached her with flowers, Raisa already knew: those who protect their boundaries are eventually rewarded by life.
