After overhearing a conversation between her husband and her mother-in-law, she began waiting for the right moment to take revenge
Yulia stood frozen, barely breathing, afraid to make even the smallest movement. At the same time, she silently thanked fate for giving her this chance — the chance to discover the true nature and intentions of the people around her.
What she had managed to overhear was so vile, so unacceptable, that she could not simply leave it as it was. She had to act. Quickly. Decisively.
I can’t believe it. Was I wrong all these years? Did I really trust a traitor? she thought as she hurried home, never letting her mother-in-law know that she had come by.
It was Yulia’s last day of vacation. After finishing everything she had planned, the young woman decided to visit her mother-in-law. For several days now, her husband’s mother had been asking Yulia to help her hang the curtains in the living room.
“Yulia, I need your help. I took the curtains down ages ago and washed them in the machine, but I can’t hang them back up. My back hurts, and they’re heavy. You understand, I simply can’t manage on my own. Besides, you’re on vacation anyway,” her mother-in-law had complained.
“Wouldn’t it be easier to call a cleaning service? They could wash the windows and hang the curtains for you,” Yulia suggested, not wanting to waste even one day of her short vacation on her mother-in-law.
“Oh, what an idea. I’m not used to throwing money around. I don’t have extra cash lying about,” Lidia Romanovna replied irritably.
“Listen, I’ll give you whatever amount you need,” Yulia offered, hoping to avoid losing an entire day.
“No, that’s unnecessary. I don’t want strangers in my apartment. You’ll come and help when it’s convenient. I’m not rushing you,” her mother-in-law insisted.
And so that day, Yulia decided it was time to go to her husband’s mother and help with the curtains.
First, she called Lidia Romanovna to check whether she was home. But her mother-in-law did not answer.
“Fine, I’ll go anyway. She can’t have gone far,” Yulia decided.
Her husband, who was supposed to be at work, did not answer either. She had only wanted to tell him that she would be delayed at his mother’s place.
But when Yulia approached the five-story apartment building where Lidia Romanovna lived, she suddenly saw Boris’s car parked outside.
“Well, well. What is he doing here? Has he also come to hang curtains? Interesting… Why is he at his mother’s during work hours?”
Yulia quickly climbed to the third floor, where her mother-in-law’s apartment was located. The door was slightly open, and fragments of a conversation between Boris and his mother reached her ears. But the strangest thing was the child’s stroller standing near the entrance.
This is strange. What on earth is going on here? Yulia thought.
She quietly slipped inside, trying not to make the door creak. She stopped in the hallway and decided to listen to what Boris and his mother were discussing so emotionally.
What happened next forced thin, fragile Yulia to press herself into the narrow space between the wardrobe and the hallway wall. Her mother-in-law sometimes stored old boxes and folded packaging there — anything she thought might “come in handy” one day. At that moment, the space was empty, and the hallway was dim. Both things worked in Yulia’s favor.
As she listened more closely, Yulia heard another voice. It belonged to a woman she did not know. But the strangest thing of all was the presence of a small child in her mother-in-law’s apartment. The child was whining and distracting the adults from their serious conversation.
“No and no! How do you imagine this, Borenka? Letting Polina and Seva stay with me is only half the problem. But how am I supposed to explain it to your wife? Yulia isn’t stupid. She’ll figure everything out. Your wife knows perfectly well how I feel about strangers living in my apartment,” Lidia Romanovna said angrily.
“You’re making a problem out of nothing. Tell her you’re short on money and decided to take in tenants,” her son instructed her. “Besides, it won’t be for long. A month, maybe two.”
“Living with a small child? Just look at him. Spoiled, fussy, and he listens to nobody,” the irritation in his mother’s voice was impossible to miss.
“Mom, he’s an ordinary child. All kids are like that. You’ve just forgotten. Tell Yulia that some acquaintances asked you for help and you couldn’t refuse,” Boris said nervously.
Yulia could hear it clearly.
“And I’ve been telling you for ages, Borya, buy an apartment for me and Sevochka. I asked you the moment he was born. But you don’t care about us. Not about me, not about your son. And now we’re wandering from one place to another like homeless people,” the unfamiliar woman said sharply.
What? Boris’s son? What did I just hear?
Yulia almost stepped out of her hiding place to confront her husband and this unknown woman right then and there.
But she barely managed to stop herself. She needed to hear more. She needed the details of this filthy betrayal.
“What are you talking about, Polina? You know my situation. I could barely find the money to pay for your one-room rental. And now I have no choice but to move you to my mother’s place. We need to wait. All of us need to wait,” Boris tried to sound convincing.
So that’s it. They’re all in this together. My husband and my mother-in-law, who knew perfectly well that her son had another woman and a child on the side. Disgusting.
Yulia could hardly contain herself.
“And how are we all supposed to live here? Look what that child is doing. He’s completely uncontrollable. You should raise your child better, young lady!” Lidia Romanovna snapped again.
“Oh, please. Do you think I’m thrilled about living here? Don’t make me laugh. Sharing an apartment with some strange old woman is hardly my dream either,” Polina answered rudely.
“What insolence! Boris, couldn’t you have chosen a better woman? She’s insulting your mother! Why should I tolerate this?” Lidia Romanovna said loudly.
“Stop arguing! Both of you! Right now, we need to think about how to pull this off properly. How to convince my wife to sell her apartment and give me the money. I’ve already started talking to her about opening my own business. A car repair shop or maybe a car wash. I told her I can’t keep traveling on business trips and working myself to death for someone else while bringing home pennies.”
“And what did she say?” Polina’s tone suddenly changed. “Did she agree to sell the apartment?”
“Well… not yet. Obviously, she feels sorry about selling an apartment she inherited from her parents. And giving me all the money for a business is a risk. My wife isn’t stupid. She understands that perfectly well. She also realizes we’d have to rent a small place for a while until the business starts making profit. That’s what’s slowing her down,” Boris continued. “She knows it won’t be soon before she and I buy a new apartment.”
“Not you and her. You and us,” his mistress corrected him. “And very soon.”
“Yes, of course. Us. You, me, and our son. I’m doing all this for you. Why else would I be putting on this whole performance? Do you think it’s easy? Not at all. And on top of everything, I have to pretend to be a loving husband, sleep with her, so Yulka won’t suspect anything,” Boris said cynically.
For a moment, Yulia felt sick. It seemed as if she might faint right there in her mother-in-law’s hallway.
Trying to breathe evenly and make no sound, she quietly slipped out of her hiding place and left the apartment.
No, she did not reveal herself to those three. She did not tell them that she knew everything now. She would do things differently.
Yulia would take revenge on Boris.
Once outside, after catching her breath and feeling a little relief, she headed home. She needed to think everything through. She needed to survive what she had just heard. And she needed to make the only correct decision.
Why did they do this to me? Was I such a bad wife? Such a terrible daughter-in-law? I loved my husband and respected his mother. Why? Is it because after five years of marriage I still haven’t been able to get pregnant? But it could still happen. And is that really a reason to run to another woman and father a child outside the marriage? she thought through tears.
Yulia had suggested adoption. She had suggested IVF. But Boris had always refused. He brushed her off like an annoying fly, repeatedly assuring her that he did not really need any of that.
Yulia was a strong woman. She had learned that about herself after losing both of her parents, one after the other. Their deaths had been unbearably painful, but she had decided she would keep living no matter what. She would try to become happy — in memory of her mother and father.
When she met Boris, Yulia believed he was the man who would become her reliable partner in life. He had been caring and attentive. He had convinced her of his great love. He had promised that only he could make her happy.
“Yes, of course. He made me happy… Clearly, he tried very hard,” Yulia said with a bitter smile.
But what shocked her most was the cold cynicism with which her husband had prepared to strip her of everything. He wanted to leave her without a home, abandon her, and run off to another woman with her money.
Of course, Boris could never legally take possession of her inherited apartment or the money from its sale. Yulia understood that perfectly well. But today she had learned that a plan had already formed in his mind — a plan to use lies and manipulation to trick his wife out of everything she had.
“That will never happen, my dear,” Yulia said firmly.
That evening, Boris came home. He behaved as usual. He hugged her, kissed her on the cheek, and asked what was for dinner. After eating, he went to bed, saying he was tired from work.
It took all of Yulia’s strength to remain calm. She could barely restrain herself from showing Boris how she truly felt.
The next day, he brought up the apartment again.
“Come on, Yul, let’s finally make a decision. We can manage in a rental for a couple of years. We’ll survive. But afterward, we’ll live properly. I’ll have my own business, and we’ll buy another apartment — the one we really want, bigger, in a good neighborhood. Then we can start thinking about children,” Boris said, carefully choosing the most persuasive words.
“I’ll think about it. Maybe you’re right. Maybe we really do need to change something in our lives,” Yulia replied. “When you get back from your business trip, we’ll deal with it right away.”
“Really? That’s great! That’s the right decision. No point dragging it out once we’ve decided. Maybe you can start looking for buyers while I’m away? And when I return, I’ll begin negotiations about buying the repair shop. It’s time to start.”
Boris did not even try to hide his joy. He was surprised by how easily everything had worked out.
A couple of days later, he left on a two-week business trip. And Yulia, without wasting a single minute, began putting her plan into action.
She called a realtor she knew and asked him to urgently find buyers for her apartment. Even if the price had to be slightly lower, the main thing was speed. Then she went to work and submitted her resignation. After that, she began selling the furniture and household appliances from the apartment.
To her surprise, people called nonstop after seeing the listings. Everything was sold within days. By the time the first potential buyers came to view the apartment, it was almost empty.
She sold her parents’ apartment to a pleasant elderly couple, who offered her a good price.
Only one thing remained — filing for divorce. Yulia took care of that on the last day before leaving for a large regional city, where her university friend Maria lived.
Masha had been inviting her there for a long time.
“Leave that Boris of yours and come here. Make up your mind, you won’t regret it. I’ll get you a job at my company. Specialists like you are needed desperately.”
In her new city, Yulia planned to gradually buy a new home and start a new life — far away from traitors who smiled to her face.
Now let them receive exactly what they deserved. Her despicable husband and his mother, who would have to live under one roof with the rude, quarrelsome mother of her grandson.
When Boris returned from his business trip, he could not get into the apartment. He tried calling Yulia, but she had blocked her ex-husband’s number.
With deep satisfaction, she imagined Boris’s face when he entered what he still thought was her apartment and saw complete strangers there, calmly informing him that the place now belonged to them.
May you like
Served them right. That was exactly how people like them deserved to be treated.
And Yulia now had a new, interesting life waiting for her in a big city. The most important thing was not to lose hope — and to keep believing that something better was still ahead.
