Senya’s packing made such a racket that the entire apartment echoed with the sound of his frustration. Jackets thrown carelessly on the floor, a dramatic slam of the wardrobe door, and the suitcase handle yanked so violently that it almost broke off.
“At least react a little,” he muttered, looking at Vera, who was calmly cleaning the stove. He had made sure to storm into the kitchen, hoping his wife would see the emotional storm he was creating as he packed.
“Did you need something?” she asked quietly, without turning around.
Senya had been expecting tears, perhaps some desperation, begging him to stay, and clinging to him with words like “I need you.” That’s how abandoned wives are supposed to act, right? But not Vera. She seemed perfectly fine with his departure.
“You know, you’re to blame,” he continued, walking in circles around her, forcing her to look at him. “You’ve become cold. You’re always tired, no femininity left. Always talking about the house, the kids, your mother. And me? I’m suffocating in all this domesticity.”
“Then leave if it suffocates you,” Vera replied flatly, putting down her rag.
Senya was taken aback by her reaction. No tears, no desperate pleas—just calmness. He had been living with Katya for the past two weeks, and in his mind, Vera was supposed to be sad, broken, begging him to stay. But she wasn’t. She seemed almost indifferent.
“You just let me go like that?” he shouted. “I’ve been with you for twelve years! We have two kids!”
“They’ll stay with me,” Vera said, removing her rubber gloves and tossing them in the trash, as if throwing away everything from their past twelve years. “You go. You seem happier with Katya.”
For a moment, Senya wanted to throw something, smash a plate, but he stopped himself. Instead, he grabbed the suitcase he had forgotten to zip up, cursed as his belongings spilled out, and stormed out of the apartment. He slammed the door, the classic exit of a man who thought he had the last word.
Out in the hall, Senya’s anger continued to swell. He left with a scandal, thinking he would humiliate Vera. He imagined telling his friends how she cried and begged him not to go. But when he left, all he got was her calm “go.”
It was too easy. And somehow, it hurt. Senya thought Vera hadn’t realized it yet, that she would regret his departure.
He then made it his mission to show her just how wrong she was. To complicate her life and show her what she had lost. And the best way to do that? Through the kids.
His son and daughter still reached out to him, even though they stayed with Vera after the divorce.
“I don’t want your kids interfering with us living together,” Katya said when Senya told her about seeing the children.
“They won’t,” Senya reassured her. “They’re just kids. They want to see their dad. I can’t say no.”
“Of course you can,” Katya snapped. “Just pay the alimony.”
Senya shrugged. “Don’t worry. I’ll see them when you’re not around.”
A month passed. Vera didn’t call or ask for help, although Senya knew she needed it. He heard from his son that Vera wasn’t crying, wasn’t falling apart. She was handling everything on her own. It was as if she was showing him, “Look how well I’m doing without you.”
Senya couldn’t let that happen. He had to restore his image as the “good dad.”
During one of their rare meet-ups, his son complained:
“Mom’s been really strict lately. She took my tablet away for a week!”
“And she scolded me when I bought chocolates and soda!” Nika added.
“Mom doesn’t love us.”
“I love you,” Senya replied, listening to their complaints, then taking them to the store to buy junk food, ice cream, and candies.
“What if Mom sees?”
“Just hide it well,” Senya said with a sly grin. “Eat it when she’s not around.” He knew his kids were naive enough to get caught. And sure enough, they did.
When Nika pulled out the melted chocolates from under her pillow, messing up her sheets, Vera went ballistic.
“Where did you get this?!” she yelled, realizing the fresh, ironed sheets were ruined.
“Dad bought it,” Nika admitted, terrified.
“Give it back. All of it. NOW!”
“But, Mom!” Nika protested.
“Quickly!”
“Really, Dad loves us more than you!” Vanya interrupted.
“One more word, and two weeks without the tablet!” Vera hissed.
Senya heard about the situation and decided to keep playing the role of the “cool dad,” letting them eat whatever they wanted, playing on tablets until late, and not doing homework. His goal was to make Vera look like the “bad cop.”
“Of course we can have ice cream,” he said, buying the kids ice cream on a chilly March evening. “Mom always forbids everything.”
“Yeah,” they nodded. “She’s a bore: ‘Put on your hat, button your jacket…’”
“It’s warm now. You don’t need a hat,” Senya said generously, even though it was 5°C and windy.
He allowed everything. No restrictions. He gave in to whatever they asked, becoming the “fun” dad.
Katya, though she didn’t want to interfere, was getting uncomfortable with Senya’s parenting style. Even she, as an outsider, was shocked by his lack of discipline.
“You’ve got some foreign way of raising kids, don’t you?” she remarked. “They need rules.”
“Don’t interfere,” Senya snapped. “These are my kids. I know what I’m doing.”
Katya raised her eyebrows but nodded.
“Okay. But I’m not participating in this. They’re not coming here anymore. Got it?”
“Yeah…” Senya replied absentmindedly.
Meanwhile, Vera was dealing with her own struggles, caring for her sick mother after surgery. For a while, she didn’t press the kids about anything. But then, suddenly, the kids became seriously ill. First, Nika, then Vanya, both with fevers and coughs.
Nika was upset about not being allowed to play on her tablet, and Vanya whined. “You can’t play, the doctor said no!”
“That’s because Mom says so! Dad would let us,” Vanya complained.
“Mom doesn’t let us do anything!” they both grumbled.
Vera didn’t continue the argument. She just tried to get the thermometer.
In the hallway, Nika quietly said to Vanya, “Mom’s turned into a real monster. It’s because Dad left her.”
“Yeah. Dad’s so happy now, that’s why he loves us more. He lets us do whatever we want. It’s better with him. He lets us have ice cream even when we’re sick.”
Vera heard all of this. She sat down, stunned. It was painful to hear.
The next day, after seeing the kids off to school, Vera said, “You can go to Dad’s now.”
“Really?!” Nika asked, surprised.
“Yeah, you can go,” Vera replied calmly, “I’m a bad mom, I forbid everything. Dad lets you do everything, so go live by his rules. I’m letting you go.”
She packed their clothes, called a taxi, and sent them off to their dad’s house.
Vera closed the door behind them. Then, for the first time in a long time, she allowed herself to lie down and take a sedative, finally falling asleep in silence.
“And Dad Didn’t Expect It”
Two years later, Senya realized that Katya wasn’t going to last. He tried to reconnect with his kids, thinking maybe they still needed him. But Vanya had grown up and stopped seeing him as a role model.
Senya thought he could win back Vera and their family, but when he tried, he saw that things had changed. He had lost them. He had done exactly what he set out to do, and now he realized that they had moved on without him.
Vera, the kids, and their new life had no place for him anymore.