My Husband’s Relatives Took Over the House for the Whole Summer, So I Decided to Leave with the Children — Andrei’s Smile Immediately Disappeared

When Andrei took the fourth suitcase out of the trunk, I realized that not guests but a new life was moving into my home.

It was the last evening of May. The asphalt in the yard still held the heat of the day, while Nina Pavlovna’s enormous bag fell onto the ground in front of our entrance as if it were supposed to stay there forever.

“Where should I put this food processor?” she asked, placing her hand on a cardboard box.

I looked at Andrei.

“A food processor?”

“Mother brought hers,” he told me, tightening his grip on the suitcase handle. “What happened?”

“You told me they were coming for two weeks.”

Nina Pavlovna looked at us in surprise.

“Who said two weeks? Oksana told me we were staying until the end of August. The children also start school in September.”

At that moment everything became clear. Only I knew about the “two weeks.” The others had already planned the summer.

We lived in a three-room apartment. The bedroom was ours, the small room belonged to Lesha and Kata, and there was a sofa in the living room for Nina Pavlovna. Andrei had bought this apartment before the marriage, and only his name was written on the ownership certificate. We had lived together for eleven years, but that evening I felt for the first time that I was a guest in this house.

Oksana came with her twelve-year-old son, Pasha. The children threw their bags into my children’s room. Pasha pulled his favorite blanket away from the bed from Kata.

“This is my place now,” he said.

The cat looked at the blanket and said nothing more.

I went into the kitchen. An old magnet hung on the refrigerator, shaped like a small red house, on which Kata had carved her initials three years earlier. I touched it with my fingers so I would not cry.

Andrei followed me.

“Marina, don’t make scenes. It’s family.”

“It is family when you notify everyone in advance.”

“Mother has no money for a hotel.”

“Do I?”

“You’ll be at home, won’t you.”

“And what will I do? Feed six people, wash, clean, and say thank you?”

Andrei rolled his eyes.

“The children will help you at least.”

At these words something broke inside me. Lesha was ten, Kata was seven. They were already afraid to return to their own room.

At eleven at night, while the guests were laughing in the living room, I took out my old bag in the bedroom. Inside was a small green notebook in which I had written down the family expenses for years. Every utility bill, the children’s medicine, school money, groceries. Andrei always said that all of this was “common money,” but when it came to the apartment, suddenly it became only his property.

I took my phone and wrote to the owner of a small apartment nearby. I had seen this apartment only once, two weeks earlier.

The answer came immediately: “If you pay today, you can move in tomorrow.”

I looked at the screen for a long time. Then I transferred the money from my savings.

In the morning I told the children nothing. I had them pack their clothes, removed Kata’s small red-house-shaped magnet from the refrigerator, and put it in the bag.

“Where are we going?” Lesha asked quietly.

“Where our beds are still waiting for us.”

At eight o’clock Andrei was getting ready to leave for work. In the kitchen Nina Pavlovna was already boiling coffee, while Oksana was frying eggs in my frying pan.

“Are you taking the children to my mother’s for a few days?” Andrei asked.

“No. The children and I are renting an apartment.”

The key he was holding stopped in his hand.

“What do you mean, renting?”

“Exactly what you heard.”

“Marina, don’t be foolish.”

“For eleven years I took care of this house. Now you take care of them.”

Oksana raised her head from the frying pan.

“We aren’t forcing anyone to do anything.”

“The suitcases didn’t come down by themselves,” I said.

Andrei leaned toward me.

“This is my apartment.”

“I know. That is why I left it to you.”

I put the keys on the table, took the children by the hand, and walked toward the door. Behind me I heard Andrei’s voice.

“Marina, if you leave, don’t come back!”

I did not close the door. I only stopped.

“You remember those words yourself, Andrei.”

We entered the new apartment that same evening. The rooms were small, and the sound of a tram came through the window. But for the first time in several weeks, the cat slept peacefully.

The next morning Andrei sent me twenty-three messages. At first he begged me, then threatened me, and finally wrote only one sentence: “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

I did not answer.

Instead, at noon someone knocked on my door. A lawyer stood on the threshold, holding a brown folder.

“Mrs. Marina, I have to hand this to you,” he told me. “Please sign for receipt.”

My hand moved toward the folder…

My fingers touched the edge of the folder, but I immediately pulled back.

“Who sent you?”

“Andrei’s lawyer. This is only a warning.”

“About what?”

The lawyer shifted his eyes toward the children. Lesha stood in the hallway, while Kata clung to his shirt.

“About removing your belongings from the apartment. Also, he has not given consent to changing the children’s address.”

I felt cold in my stomach.

“He is their father, but their life is not for him alone to decide.”

“The court will decide that,” he replied.

I did not take the folder.

“Tell Andrei that I do not intend to return to his house. But I also do not intend to spend the whole summer with his relatives.”

The lawyer smiled, as if he had heard all this before.

“Madam, the apartment belongs to him. You have no claim there.”

“Not the apartment. I demand the truth.”

That same evening my friend Elena came. She opened the green notebook, read through all the transfers, and was silent for a long time.

“Marina, you participated in the purchase of this apartment.”

“I gave him the money. But there is nothing in the documents.”

“Maybe not in the documents, but everything is recorded at the bank.”

Elena showed me an old recording on her phone. Andrei’s voice could be heard there, clearly and unhurriedly.

“Marina must not appear formally. If she finds out that I am also buying with her money, she will complicate everything.”

My breath caught. The recording was two years old. At that time Elena had recorded a business conversation with Andrei and had saved it by accident.

At night Andrei called me.

“Come home tomorrow morning,” he told me.

“Which home?”

He was silent for several seconds.

“The one you will soon no longer have.”

I hung up.

In the morning Elena told me that she had already received an answer from the bank. Then she handed me one sheet of paper.

“This isn’t everything, Marina. The main document is still kept somewhere else…”

I looked at the paper clenched in Elena’s hand and immediately asked:

“Where is the main document?”

“With the notary. But before I show you this, you need to know that Andrei did not hide only the ownership of the apartment.”

That morning we arrived at the notary’s small office. There was an old wooden cabinet in the room, and the smell of dried lavender floated near the window. Andrei was already there with his lawyer, Viktor Lomidze. When he saw me, his face changed.

“What are you doing here?”

“For the same reason you came.”

Viktor arranged several documents on the table.

“Mrs. Marina, I advise you not to act emotionally. Your husband is demanding that the children’s residence be changed immediately and that you refrain from entering his apartment.”

“It is his apartment,” I said. “But he knew that money from my inheritance went into the purchase amount.”

Andrei chuckled.

“You’re starting this now? You spent that money on our wedding.”

Elena placed a bank statement on the table.

“No. The money was transferred before the apartment purchase, exactly to the account from which the seller was paid.”

Andrei’s smile disappeared.

Viktor took the document.

“This still does not prove that you demanded a share.”

“That is why I brought this,” I said.

The notary opened a dark-covered folder and took out an agreement. My signature was clearly visible there. An agreement made with Andrei one day before the marriage: the money received from my inheritance was going into the purchase of the apartment, and in return I and the children had the right to permanent residence.

Andrei stood up from his chair.

“This agreement is canceled!”

“No,” the notary said calmly. “There is not a single document about its cancellation.”

“Marina, you told me you would never use this!”

“I did not use it. You used our home against me.”

At that moment Elena turned on her phone. Andrei’s voice from two years earlier sounded in the room.

“Marina must not appear formally. If she finds out that I am also buying with her money, she will complicate everything.”

The recording ended.

Andrei stood frozen. Viktor slowly lowered his head.

“Is that your voice?”

Andrei could not answer.

“I was simply planning how to protect the property,” he said at last with difficulty.

“From whom?” I asked. “From your own wife?”

The notary pushed the documents toward me.

“You have the right to demand your share, protection of your right of residence, and reimbursement of the expenses you paid alone.”

Andrei took his phone and called someone.

“Mother, everyone get out of the apartment. Right now.”

Nina Pavlovna’s shouting could be heard from the other side.

“We can’t bring Marina into the house because of us!”

Andrei ended the call, and for the first time I saw his hands begin to tremble.

I thought the main battle was over. But that same evening I received a message from an unknown number: “If you present this document in court, Andrei’s secret will no longer be only the apartment. Meet me tomorrow at the old station. Come alone…”