“Enough, Helen! Enough!” shouted Peter at his wife. “You’ve been slinging mud at my parents, my brothers, my sister! How much longer is this going to go on?!”

“How much longer?!” Helen replied, her voice slightly toned down. “And it’s okay for them to constantly meddle in our family, is it? You don’t say anything to them, do you?”

“I only say something when I’ve had enough! And my parents certainly don’t do anything like that!”

“Nothing like that?! They’ve been trying for almost a year to either crash at our flat or squeeze money out of us, or…”

“They don’t do anything of the sort! And the fact that Ivan and Luke came to visit us, well, they had business in town! Should they have rented a flat?”

“Believe it or not, normal people do that! They rent a flat, a hotel room, or something, rather than barging into a cramped flat belonging to someone else! We don’t live in a mansion with spare guest rooms! We have a one-bedroom!”

“Oh, what a big deal! Though, yes, for you, everything is a problem, I’ve got that figured out! You don’t have any brothers or sisters—you were brought up as the only selfish child in your family! While we were taught from childhood that if someone in the family needs help, others are obliged to help, regardless…”

“Regardless of what?!” Elena cut in. “Regardless of the size of the flat? Regardless of my opinion as your wife? Regardless of the fact that I didn’t sign up to wash and feed three men? What?!”

“You’re bringing this up again…”

“Want to talk about something else? Sure! ” she sneered sarcastically. “When we were gathering money for the mortgage, your dear sister suddenly needed cash for a dentist because she can’t keep her mouth shut and ended up losing four teeth… What did you do? Right! You gave her our savings! And then…”

“I didn’t give everything away! Why are you screaming about that again?”

“If you had given everything away, you’d be needing the same services! Believe me!”

Peter burst out laughing at this, even though moments ago, he had been as mad as a hornet.

“And how would you have done that?” Peter chuckled as he asked Helen through his laughter. “Would you have asked your daddy? I’d give him a piece of my mind too…”

“Why would I need to ask anyone when I have this?” she grabbed a frying pan from the stove and gave him a threatening glance. “I would manage myself!”

“I’d love to see that! You’d be the first to get a taste of your own medicine and then you’d run off complaining anyway! If you could even manage to run far…,” he added quietly.

“Oh really? ‘If you could run far’?” Helen asked, a bit calmer but hurt.

“Well, you’re the one who started complaining and threatening me! So don’t play the victim now!” he countered. “You don’t like that I have relatives I help! You constantly shout at me that I’m taking time away from my family! They are my family too! It’s not my fault you can’t grasp that!”

“And who am I to you? Just… the maid? A housekeeper with benefits? Who?”

“What do you mean, ‘who?’ You are my wife! And I’m your husband! So let’s drop it, or our marriage might not last much longer!” He pointed at the frying pan she was still holding, trying to hit him, and lowered it forcefully.

“I just don’t feel like your wife anymore, Pete! It feels like you married me to avoid getting a mortgage alone and to have a full-service household for you and your endless relatives!”

“Don’t make up nonsense, please! I love you, even if it seems like you’ve lost your marbles, but still…”

“So, who’s to blame for my recent meltdowns? Who brought me here?”

“You’re saying it was me?” he exclaimed, surprised and slightly offended.

“You and your relatives that you always put above me! I just want no one meddling in our life, to have a normal family! So we can finally have kids! And you…”

“And you think I don’t want that too?!”

“Apparently not!”

“Stop making up this nonsense, Helen! You’re filling your head with this, and then everyone around you is to blame – me and my relatives! You do it to yourself!”

“Of course… I’m the one at fault for you not realising that YOUR family is more important than anything else! The rest of the relatives… yes, they remain close people, but they are no longer your family!”

“Right, sure! Don’t feed me that nonsense, alright?! They have always been my family, and they always will be! If you don’t like it, Helen, maybe…”

“Maybe what?”

“Nothing!!!” Peter shouted at her again. “Just leave me alone! I’m done with this!”

In frustration, he stormed out of the kitchen, leaving his wife behind.

Helen initially thought about following him, but decided against it. She realised that their argument was unlikely to end well, and it could even lead to divorce. Though she had pondered that idea before. She was just exhausted from fighting for her family’s independence, pushing back against Peter’s clingy relatives. And he only got angrier at her for it, as it seemed perfectly normal for him to be dragged to the countryside every weekend to help his parents, while constantly supporting his younger brothers and even occasionally funding his sister. After all, Peter was the only one in the family who moved to the city; the rest stayed in the village. And like vultures, his family kept circling around him and his household, trying to take as much as they could, and Peter never refused them, giving everything he could. Sometimes, Helen felt that if one of his brothers asked for her for their use, he wouldn’t say no. They were FAMILY, after all!

Almost a month after that row, Peter planned once more to visit his parents bright and early while Helen was still asleep. But before he could leave, she woke up and asked,

“And where do you think you’re going at this hour?”

“Oh… Did I wake you? Sorry… I’ll be back soon!”

“But you didn’t answer my question!” she insisted.

“I… Mum called me! I need to go urgently! I’ll be back home by lunchtime tomorrow!” Peter began to stumble over his words a little, but then spoke with more confidence, not wanting his wife to think he was wavering and could be dissuaded from this trip.

“What do you mean?!” she asked, irritated. “What lunchtime? We were supposed to go to that concert today! We bought tickets a month ago! You’re completely out of it…”

“Go with someone else! Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill!”

“With who?!”

“Whoever! I couldn’t care less! Take a friend or two! Have some fun! I, however, have important business at home that I can’t miss!”

“What kind of business?”

“It doesn’t matter!”

“What kind of bloody business, Peter?!” his wife fumed increasingly.

“Julie’s back in town! She used to be like family to us until she moved to London! And now she’s here, and we’re having a family get-together! Mum called me around midnight when you were asleep!”

“This isn’t that friend you all chased around like a pack of dogs, is it?”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“I mean the one who you dated for almost three years and who dumped you in the end! Is that her?!”

Peter realised his wife had figured it out and that it would be pointless to keep it a secret any longer.

“Yes! Yes, it’s her!” he confessed with a deep sigh.

“So you’re just leaving me here, at home, to go see her?” Helen asked gently.

“I told you, Mum called! We’ve got a family gathering! Dinner and all that! It just turned out this way, Helen! I can’t refuse Mum! Besides, it’s such a big thing at home…”

“Well, run back to your mummy, she’ll sort you out with a new wife who will cater to your whole family! Oh wait, she’s already done that!”

“What are you getting all worked up about? No one’s looking for anyone for me, Helen! You’ll never understand what a real family is and how its members should support each other!”

“Really? I just haven’t noticed anyone supporting you or us! They just want to squeeze every last bit out of us! And now they’re going to slot your old flame into your life too!”

“Nothing like that will happen! Stop imagining things!” Peter defended himself. “I don’t see anything wrong with meeting an old acquaintance who…”

“Old acquaintance?!” Helen was indignant at his description. “That’s your ex, who was pining for you even after we got together! ‘Old acquaintance’! Right! What am I then? Just someone passing by?”

“Well, since I’m your husband, why am I not invited to this ‘family dinner’ and your ex will be there?”

“Because everyone loves her, and you annoy everyone, just like you annoy me right now!!!” shouted Peter back, fed up with Helen’s questions and suspicions.

“Oh really?” she asked quietly. “Well… Fine… Go…”

“What? Just like that? And why were you giving me such a hard time just now?” he didn’t understand her sudden softness.

“Because now everything makes sense, Pete!” Helen replied. “Go to your real family, to your beloved girl, who’s obviously more important to you than I am! Go! I won’t hold you back anymore, I won’t make a scene or throw a tantrum! I’m done with that!”

“I don’t get it! What are you getting at?”

“I’m saying that I’m fed up with the humiliation!”

“You’re the only one humiliating yourself when you throw a tantrum, Helen! You’re responsible for that! No one forced you to act like this! If you were more normal, like Julie’s friend, you’d also be accepted into our family! If you were more willing to help and always went with me, you’d never have to worry about this! But you’re just what I called you, the classic example of the only child in a family! You’ll never understand!”

“Oh, no, Peter! I completely understand now! I thought I’d become someone important to you, but now it’s clear that you already have your hearts—your mother, your sister, and…” she nearly added his sister’s friend, but changed her mind. “And your little pepper too! And I’m just going to file for divorce to be rid of this crazy family! I’ve had enough! Enough!”

“What do you mean?” Peter asked, panicked.

“I mean it! Get your things together and don’t dawdle, you ought to be on your best behavior in front of your newly found London darling! Or else she might just take one look at you and leave! What will your relatives do then? Who will they visit?”

“Just try to file for divorce!” Peter snapped immediately. “I’ll…”

“And what will you do? Plan some revenge? Be my guest! Your family will hate me? That’s already the case!”

“I’ll wipe the floor with you, Helen! So…”

“Go ahead and wipe the floor with whoever you plan to see now! You have nothing to do with me anymore! It’s over!”

And just as she finished that sentence, Peter grabbed her by the throat and pushed her onto the bed. Helen couldn’t scream or say anything at all, she couldn’t breathe.

“I said: just try to file for divorce! I’m not splitting this flat and taking on any more mortgages! So either you shut up and go to your concert this evening, or I’ll strangle you right now, and when I come back, I’ll call the police and say I wasn’t even home, and that when I got back, I found your rotten body! Got it?”

But Helen managed to stifle a response, no matter how hard she tried. At that moment, Peter’s phone rang. He released her to answer it, and Helen swiftly grabbed a vase from the bedside table and smashed it against his head.

The hit knocked Peter out cold, and Helen immediately called the police, explaining that her husband had suffocated her and that she’d struck him. To her surprise, they arrived quickly, as they thought a murder had taken place. But it turned out she just “turned him off.”

When the doorbell rang, Peter awoke, unaware it was the police, and lunged at his wife, who was just opening the door. At that point, he was caught. He didn’t manage to inflict any more harm on Helen, but he put on quite a show, struggling against the officers and even attempting to lunge at them, assuring he wouldn’t be making it to any family dinner.

Helen, taking advantage of Peter being taken to the station for a while, spent her day getting treatment for her neck scratches, wrote out the statement against him, and filed for divorce with property division.

She also gathered all her belongings and arranged to stay with a friend for a while. As her friend and family were going on holiday for the week, she wouldn’t be a burden and would even keep an eye on the flat. She still needed to look after the cat and dog, so this arrangement made things easier.

By the time her friend arrived, Helen was already divorced. The property hadn’t been fully divided yet, but she had found a new flat and moved her things. Meanwhile, Peter was beside himself with rage, as his wife had done everything he feared most, and he even missed his chance to see the love of his life, not even getting a glimpse of her.

After they finally divided the property, Peter headed to London to stay with his sister’s friend, only to find out that he was utterly unwanted there, as the young woman was in a serious relationship and planning to get married. In the end, he was turned away and couldn’t even find somewhere to sleep, as the girl’s boyfriend clearly stated, “NO!”

And there Peter was, alone in a huge city he didn’t know, with no money for the way back, as he’d squandered his half of the property sale on gifts for the love of his life, leaving him with nothing. His family wasn’t willing to help either, as they, too, had no funds to send him even for a train ticket back…