Andrey sat still, eyes on the floor, shoulders slumped under the weight of two women pulling him in opposite directions. The bathroom tiles were still warm from his shower, but the cold between him and Irina now filled the apartment like steam that wouldn’t clear.
“I told her not to come inside anymore,” he said quietly. “Just to wait if she wanted to see me. I thought she understood.”
Irina scoffed softly and leaned her forehead against the cold window glass. “She understands, Andrey. She just doesn’t care.”
The silence after her words throbbed with unspoken years. Of sacrifices, of grudges, of invisible lines crossed one too many times. Andrey ran a hand over his face, the stubble sharp under his fingertips.
“She raised me alone,” he muttered. “After my father died… she never knew how to let go.”
“And I’m not blaming her for that,” Irina said, turning around. “But she treats me like a babysitter who stole her child. I can’t live like this anymore. Waking up to her standing over our bed like some… haunting specter. I feel violated, Andrey.”
He looked at her then — really looked. The woman who ironed his shirts even when she was angry. Who waited up after every night shift, though she pretended not to. Whose eyebrows now twitched not just with frustration, but with hurt.
“I’ll change the locks,” he said at last.
Irina blinked. “That’s not enough. You have to tell her. Face to face. No softening it with ‘she means well’ or ‘it’s just her way.’ I need to feel safe in my own home, Andrey.”
He nodded slowly. Not because he agreed with all his heart, but because he knew it was time. Time to stop letting guilt parent his decisions. Time to carve boundaries between love and intrusion.
Just then, the doorbell rang.
They both froze.
Andrey didn’t have to check the peephole. He already knew.
Irina stepped back, hands shaking slightly but firm in her resolve.
He stood up and walked toward the door. Before opening it, he took a deep breath — not out of anger, not out of fear — but because this time, he wouldn’t whisper his request behind Irina’s back. He would speak clearly, for once.
Because sometimes, love needed walls as much as it needed bridges.