The mother-in-law solemnly handed over the keys… to an apartment she had long since sold.
“Zinaida Borisovna, are you joking? What kind of circus did you stage at our wedding? You gave us the keys to an apartment that was sold two months ago?”
“So what? I didn’t just give the keys, I also gave an envelope with money. I outdid all the guests! Your relatives looked at me with such admiration and respect!”
“By the way, Sveta, don’t you dare spill that the apartment was sold. Don’t humiliate me!”
Sveta was very lucky with her husband but had absolutely no luck with her mother-in-law.
Zinaida Borisovna was a woman with quirks, and Sveta frankly didn’t like her.
However, Zinaida Borisovna paid her back in kind — at every meeting she criticized her son’s wife and always found something to nitpick.
“This color doesn’t suit you at all! With your figure, Sveta, you should wear something loose and dark to, so to speak, hide all the imperfections.
Why did you put on that tight rag? Do you know what you look like? A caterpillar!”
“Mom, stop it,” Maxim immediately interrupted his mother. “How many times do I have to talk to you about this?”
Sveta was currently undergoing treatment and taking hormones, which is why she had gained a little weight. “Be more delicate!” Maxim added.
“And what am I supposed to do? I’m telling the truth,” Zinaida Borisovna fired back with her trademark line. “That style doesn’t suit your wife. Can’t you see that yourself?”
The first couple of years after the wedding were very hard for Sveta; she didn’t have the courage to snap back at her husband’s mother.
Later, she built up a thick skin and stopped reacting to Zinaida Borisovna’s attacks.
The mother-in-law started her antics on the wedding day itself, when it was her turn and the host handed the microphone to the groom’s mother.
Zinaida Borisovna pulled out a beautiful velvet pillow from under the table, on which lay a bundle of keys. Sveta immediately sensed something was wrong and nudged her husband.
“What is she going to do? What are these keys for?”
“I don’t know,” Maxim whispered, “maybe she’s going to give us her summer house?”
In reality, Zinaida Borisovna, amid loud applause from everyone, gave a touching toast and presented the newlyweds with an apartment.
“A two-room apartment! In the city center! Be happy, my children. Make yourselves a separate nest.”
Maxim nearly fell off his chair — he immediately realized what was going on. The apartment had indeed belonged to Zinaida Borisovna, but she had sold it a couple of months before her son’s wedding.
So, the newlyweds had become the holders of keys to a two-room apartment that now belonged to someone else.
When Maxim explained the situation, Sveta couldn’t hold back. She took her mother-in-law aside and gave her a piece of her mind.
Zinaida Borisovna got offended and didn’t speak to her daughter-in-law for a whole month afterward.
The couple ended up buying an apartment themselves, with a mortgage. They worked tirelessly to pay off the bank as soon as possible.
Once they moved into the new, fully renovated apartment and settled in a bit, they decided to buy a car.
Here, Zinaida Borisovna intervened again:
“Buy a car, and I’ll give you a garage. You’ll drive me around for errands. Of course, only on weekends — I won’t make you take time off work.”
“What, like last time?” Sveta squinted. “Just gift us the keys?”
“Calm down! You still haven’t forgotten the wedding day? Six years have passed. No, I really will give the garage, everything honestly.
Maxim, pick a time. Let’s go to the notary so there won’t be any claims against me later. I’ll handle the paperwork right away.”
Sveta thought then that her mother-in-law wasn’t actually so bad. Yes, quarrelsome and scandalous, but not greedy. The garage truly became Maxim’s property.
They bought a car and once again thanked Zinaida Borisovna for such a generous gift.
For Sveta personally, the “gift” caught up with her three years later.
After burying her mother, Sveta decided to sell a one-room apartment she had inherited.
Upon learning this, Zinaida Borisovna immediately turned to her daughter-in-law with a request:
“Sveta, I heard you’re selling your inheritance? Perfect timing! I found a little summer house, small but very cozy. It has a neat garden and a little orchard! Maybe it’s time I get used to the land.”
Sveta immediately understood what her mother-in-law wanted:
“Sorry, Zinaida Borisovna, but I can’t participate in buying a summer house for you. If it weren’t for serious health issues, I wouldn’t be selling my parents’ apartment.
You know Maxim and I really want children, and I’m doing everything to become a mother. We decided to do IVF, and the money from selling the apartment will go exactly there.”
“But with children, Sveta, you can wait. But my summer house won’t wait! You think clients won’t buy it? It will sell any day now!
You’ll deal with your procedures yourselves, but you’ll give me the money. I really want this little house!”
Sveta refused her mother-in-law, so Zinaida Borisovna turned to her son.
“Maxim, what is this? I’ve done so much for your wife, and she’s ignoring my requests!”
“Mom, what do I have to do with it? I have nothing to do with this apartment, so I can’t manage it. And we really do need the money.
I know perfectly well that you’ll play at being a summer house owner for a couple of months, but in winter you won’t want to visit or check your property, so you’ll dump that responsibility on me.
Then the spring pilgrimage begins; from April to June I won’t have weekends at all. Right, Mom?
Why do you need this summer house? You’re a city person; you won’t spend much time working the land. I don’t want to quarrel with you, but on this matter I support Sveta!”
Zinaida Borisovna was offended. She really wanted to own a small summer house, so she came up with a plan.
The resourceful pensioner showed up at her daughter-in-law’s and son’s apartment and announced:
“Give me the money for the garage!”
“What money, Mom? You gave it to us as a gift!”
“Now I’ve changed my mind,” Zinaida Borisovna barked. “I came to you in a nice way, saved you money back then. And how did you thank me?
Either transfer the garage back to me, and I’ll sell it, or give me the money. That’s my final word!”
Sveta intervened:
“Zinaida Borisovna, a gift agreement has no retroactive effect; it can’t be canceled. And if Maxim refuses to give it back to you? What will you do then?”
“I’ll go to court, make him pay alimony, humiliate him in front of all friends and relatives! I’ll tell everyone how he left his own mother without property! I won’t repeat myself twice: either the garage or the money.”
Sveta got angry and gave her mother-in-law the money after all.
As the satisfied Zinaida Borisovna was about to leave, Sveta suddenly demanded:
“Write a receipt stating that you have no further claims against us and that you won’t bother Maxim about the garage again!”
“Why should I write any receipts? Isn’t my word enough?” Zinaida Borisovna protested.
“Not enough! Zinaida Borisovna, write it. I know you! Come on, I’m waiting.”
With a look of offended innocence, Zinaida Borisovna scribbled a few lines on a sheet, signed it, and tossed it onto the table:
“My foot will never enter this house again,” the mother-in-law threatened Sveta, “until you apologize to me.”
“I knew it! I’m taking a spy into the family! Mark my words, I’ll tell Maxim everything, I’ll call him right now. When he returns from his business trip, you won’t like it!”
Zinaida Borisovna was only upset with her son and daughter-in-law for a few months. Once she became the owner of the summer house, she threw herself headlong into her new obsession — every Saturday at exactly 7 a.m., she would call her son and demand:
“Take me to the summer house!”
At first, Maxim agreed, got up early, picked his mother up by car, drove her to the summer house, and then spent another half day tidying up someone else’s property.
The weekend country lifestyle quickly bored him, and Maxim began ignoring his mother — on Fridays he would turn on airplane mode on his phone and keep it off until Monday morning.
Realizing that her son was avoiding her, Zinaida Borisovna started showing up on Saturdays at their apartment with Sveta:
“Maxim, get up!” the pensioner shouted, standing in the doorway, looking at her sleepy son opening the door. “It’s long past time to go!
Why are you making me drag my bags here? Why is the phone off?”
Maxim had little patience:
“Mom, leave me alone! I’ve already explained that I’m not going to become your personal driver.
I work twelve-hour days; Saturday and Sunday are my legal days off. I want to rest properly, not spend the day dragging myself to the summer house with you!
And I turn off the phone on purpose so you don’t keep calling me!”
“Really, Zinaida Borisovna,” Sveta also voiced her frustration at the mother-in-law’s visits, “if you like digging in the soil — go ahead, no one is stopping you.
Leave Maxim and me alone. We’re not fans of country weekends; on Saturdays, we just want to sleep in! Don’t you understand that?”
“And I don’t think I ever asked you for anything in the first place,” Zinaida Borisovna immediately took a defensive stance. “Why are you sticking your nose in? This is between my son and me — we don’t need you involved!”
“I’ve had enough, Zinaida Borisovna. I’m tired of you. You clearly don’t understand words. Please stop coming here uninvited. Don’t force me to take extreme measures!”
“Extreme measures?!” Zinaida Borisovna shouted. “And isn’t it you, sweetheart, turning my son against me?
Lately, Maxim doesn’t even call me; we barely communicate. I bet you had a hand in that too!”
The argument turned into a full-blown scandal. Zinaida Borisovna’s shouting drove Sveta to the breaking point. Grabbing the seemingly unmanageable bags, she threw them onto the staircase and followed by pushing her mother-in-law out.
Maxim didn’t intervene in the conflict:
“You were a bit rough with her,” Maxim reproached his wife as she closed the door behind the mother-in-law. “Maybe you could have been gentler?”
“Exactly a week from now, it will happen again,” Sveta sighed. “Unfortunately, Maxim, nothing will get through to your mother. Honestly, I’m tired of her! I’m afraid we might have to move soon!”
Zinaida Borisovna remained upset with her daughter-in-law, and she also didn’t speak to her son for quite a long time.
The first step toward reconciliation came from Maxim — he talked to his mother and asked her to stop interfering in his personal life.
Zinaida Borisovna now maintains a relationship only with her son; they call each other and Maxim visits her.
She tries to avoid crossing paths with her daughter-in-law, and Sveta is happy about that. Living without her mother-in-law’s constant interference has become much better.
