Marina was frying pancakes in the kitchen when there was a knock on the door. Standing on the doorstep was her mother-in-law, Raisa Nikolaevna, with a cold, stern expression.
“I didn’t come here for no reason,” she said, stepping inside without waiting for an invitation. “This is serious.”
“What’s going on?” Marina wiped her hands on a towel, forcing a tense smile.
“Yulia and Oleg have been living with me since the wedding. The apartment’s too small, it’s cramped with the three of us. Your grandmother’s place is empty. Let the newlyweds move in.”
“No. After everything that’s happened—definitely not,” Marina replied firmly, crossing her arms.
“What have I done wrong?” Raisa Nikolaevna asked, genuinely confused, as if she truly didn’t understand.
Marina still remembered how, a month ago, she had been upset about Yulia’s wedding. She wasn’t sure what to gift, especially since her relationship with her sister-in-law was warm and almost friendly. She had been certain that they would be among the first to be invited. After all, Yulia had borrowed fifty thousand rubles from them for the wedding.
“What if we’re not invited at all?” her husband Alexei had joked at the time.
“Nonsense. You’re her brother, how could you not be invited?” she had replied, still hopeful.
Marina had already pulled out her best dress and shoes, anticipating the invitation. But as the wedding day drew nearer, there was still no invitation. None from Yulia or from her mother-in-law. Three days before the event, Marina bitterly realized they had simply been crossed off the list.
Tears streamed down her face as she put the dress back into the closet. Alexei, as usual, remained calm. “I’ll just get some extra sleep this weekend,” he said simply.
A couple of days after the wedding, Raisa Nikolaevna called, saying she would stop by. Marina decided to ask her directly.
“Why weren’t we invited?” Marina asked.
“Well… we decided to invite only the younger ones. You’re both over thirty,” Raisa Nikolaevna mumbled uncertainly.
Marina almost believed her. But later, when she ran into her mother-in-law’s aunt in the store, she learned that both older relatives and distant family members had attended the wedding. No one mentioned anything about age.
“Why weren’t you there?” the aunt asked, surprised.
Marina felt a wave of shame wash over her. Ashamed of the people who should have been family.
She told Alexei everything when she got home, and he suggested calling his mother.
“Raisa Nikolaevna, tell me the truth: why weren’t we invited?” Marina asked firmly. “I just spoke to your sister — she named everyone who was at the wedding.”
“We decided to invite only the ‘important’ people,” Raisa Nikolaevna replied indifferently. “Those who could offer something valuable or help in the future.”
“And the fifty thousand we gave Yulia—wasn’t that valuable?”
“You could have gotten it back. If it had been a gift, that would be different.”
Marina didn’t recognize this woman anymore. Had they really turned them into nobodies?
Two weeks later, Raisa Nikolaevna showed up again, unannounced, without any apology.
“Your apartment is empty, and we’re cramped,” she began, feigning concern.
“It’s not yours. Let it stay empty. You don’t need to maintain it,” Marina snapped.
“Why are you so angry? We’re family,” Raisa Nikolaevna asked.
“Family? You only remembered us when it became inconvenient for you. Before that, we were invisible,” Marina’s voice shook with anger.
“What did we do to you?”
“Do you really not understand?” Marina shouted. “You humiliated us, ignored us, and now you want the keys? Do you even know that Yulia never returned the money?”
“If you don’t let us in, you’ll never see us again,” Raisa Nikolaevna said boldly. “Think about it.”
Marina snapped. She grabbed a cup of water and splashed it in Raisa Nikolaevna’s face.
“Aleks… say something!” Raisa Nikolaevna screeched, wiping her face with her sleeve.
“The people you invited should be helping you now,” Alexei answered calmly.
Raisa Nikolaevna, not saying another word, turned and stormed out, slamming the door behind her.