Svetlana hung up and blocked the number faster than she could blink. “Another one for the collection,” she thought with a bitter smirk. Half an hour later the phone came alive again.

A new number flashed on the screen—apparently her mother had decided to get creative. “Sweetheart,” her mother began in a syrupy voice, “we’re all very worried…”

“Oh, really?” Svetlana shot back. “Isn’t it a little late to start worrying?

Maybe you should’ve worried when your other darling daughter was fooling around with my husband?”

“Don’t you dare talk like that! She’s suffering more than anyone because of your selfishness!”

“Oh, she’s suffering?” Svetlana laughed. “Poor thing—must be in such agony in my former bed.

My heart just bleeds for her.”

Her mother hissed on the other end of the line:

“You’ve always been a spiteful snake! Marina at least knows how to value family!”

“Especially someone else’s,” Svetlana parried, and hit “end.”

She tossed the phone onto the couch as if it were contagious. At that moment her father walked in, loaded down with bags like a camel in the desert.

“Looks like that’s everything,” he muttered, surveying his purchases like a man who’d just defused a bomb. “I don’t really know much about this stuff, but the store said it was all essential.”

“Thank you, Dad,” Svetlana said warmly. “You’re doing more for me than anyone has in my whole life.”

Awkwardly, the man patted her head, as if he were afraid she might crumble at his touch.

“Oh, come on. I’m just trying to make up for lost time.”

“Dad, none of this is your fault. You were always there when you could be.”

The phone rang again.

Svetlana glanced at the screen and snorted. “Oh, now sis has decided to chime in.”

“Don’t answer,” her father advised. “No, I’m curious what the newly minted lady of my house has to say.”

She took the call and turned on speaker.

“Sveta, stop sulking already!” Marina’s petulant voice rang out. “We’re adults—we can discuss everything civilly.”

“Civilly?” Svetlana repeated. “Do you mean when a sister sleeps with her sister’s husband, or when people find out about it?”

“Don’t be so primitive!

Love is a lofty feeling—you don’t choose it!”

“Cheating, on the other hand, is exactly a choice, my dear. And a pretty disgusting one.”

“You’re just jealous!” Marina flared. “Jealous that Sergei chose me!”

“Jealous?” Svetlana laughed.

“Sweetheart, I’m grateful to you. You saved me the trouble of taking out the trash myself.”

Her father nodded approvingly, and Marina on the other end spluttered with indignation:

“How dare you! Sergei is a wonderful man!”

“Of course he is.

Especially in bed with his wife’s sister. A model of integrity.”

“You’ve always been vicious!” Marina screamed. “Always jealous of me!

Mom’s right—you’re rotten!”

“And you, darling, have always had a taste for what doesn’t belong to you,” Svetlana replied calmly. “Remember how you used to steal my toys? Then you grew up and moved on to husbands.