Valery had just parked near the house and was on his way to the entrance when he suddenly heard the scream of his wife, Alyona. He was sure it was her screaming.
“What happened?” he thought anxiously and hurried to finish maneuvering.
The elevator, annoyingly, was not working. Apparently, someone was holding it up from above, and Valery ran up the stairs. Bursting into the apartment, he immediately heard the sounds of his wife’s sobs.
In the center of the living room lay a pile of bright silk fabric pieces, and next to it, sitting calmly on a chair, was his mother, Natalya Ivanovna, with large scissors in her hands. Alyona sat on the sofa, crying.
“What happened?” asked Valery.
Alyona nodded at the fabric.
“My new lingerie set,” she said through tears. “I bought it just yesterday. I wanted to surprise you today.”
“You lost sheep,” Natalya Ivanovna dryly said. “Where is your dignity? After all, you have a son growing up… What kind of example are you setting for him?”
“Leshka is at camp,” Valery firmly replied. “How did you get in here again, Mom? I took your keys!”
“You deny your own mother access to the house?” Natalya Ivanovna snapped back. “I come when I want, and I will continue to come. I will not tolerate immorality.”
“I can’t take this anymore!” Alyona abruptly stood up and went to the kitchen.
Natalya Ivanovna glared after her.
“When will you divorce this woman?” she sternly asked her son. “Aren’t you tired of being a laughing stock?”
“Mom, what’s with you?” Valery patiently asked. “What has she done to you? I live with her, and I am happy.”
“She’s a loose woman!” Natalya Ivanovna stubbornly repeated.
“On what basis?”
“I know, that’s why I say it. Would a decent woman buy such a thing?” She nodded at the torn lingerie. “Send her away and find a proper wife.”
“Calm down, don’t interfere in my life,” Valery said irritably. “Neither I nor Dimka have any peace. Don’t you have other concerns?”
“Don’t you tell me what to do!” Natalya Ivanovna barked. “The chicken does not teach the egg.”
She stood up and went to the exit. Valery followed her to make sure she didn’t do anything else.
After closing the door behind her, he returned to the kitchen, where he found Alyona crying. An open bottle of wine was on the table, and she was drinking from a glass.
“Valera, we need to do something,” she said, downing the rest of her glass and smirking bitterly. “Everything was planned—son on vacation, dinner… Thank God she didn’t come earlier. What if she had?”
“I’ll call a locksmith and change the locks,” Valery said, holding back his irritation.
“That won’t help!” Alyona loudly replied. “Don’t you understand? She’ll think of something!”
“And what do you suggest?”
Valery already guessed what the answer would be and feared it.
“Don’t you see that your mother has mental problems?” she asked. “She can be dangerous. Today she cut up my lingerie—what about tomorrow?”
“Don’t talk nonsense!” Valery understood that she was right, and that made him feel even more trapped.
“Valera, decide something!” She poured herself another splash of wine. “I can’t take this anymore!”
A knock at the door. Both flinched, thinking Natalya Ivanovna had returned.
“Not her,” Alyona whispered.
Nervously, she reached for a knife, but Valery managed to grab her hand.
“Have you lost your mind…”
But it wasn’t Natalya Ivanovna. From the living room came the voice of Marina, the wife of Valery’s younger brother, Dima.
“Valera, Alyona, are you home?” she called.
“We’re here, in the kitchen,” Alyona responded, and Marina entered.
“The front door was open,” she said.
Alyona looked at her husband disapprovingly.
“So, did our mother visit you too?” Alyona asked, gesturing towards the living room, where pieces of torn lingerie still lay.
“What did she do at your place?” Alyona inquired.
“My new stockings are ruined,” Marina replied. She didn’t look sad. On the contrary, her face expressed mischievous interest, like she was itching to share a discovery.
“I think I know why Natalya Ivanovna behaves this way,” Marina declared.
Marina looked at both of them with a triumphant smile.
“Well, tell us, don’t delay!” Alyona urged impatiently.
“Let’s wait for Dimka,” Marina suggested. “I swear, you won’t regret it. I’ve dug up something…”
Marina did not deceive. The information she shared shocked Natalya Ivanovna’s sons and put an end to her tyranny.
About an hour later, they had all gathered in the living room. Dima arrived right after his shift—he worked as an IT specialist at a nearby office. He was tired, wearing a wrinkled shirt, but his face instantly brightened when he saw the intensity of the situation. He almost tripped over the torn lingerie on the floor.
“What on earth happened here?” he asked, glancing from the remnants of silk to his sister-in-law’s teary eyes.
“We’ll explain later,” Valery said. “Marina wants to tell us something.”
Marina nodded and shot her husband a look that said, “I told you so.” She pulled out her phone and scrolled through a few saved images. Then she looked up at them seriously.
“For the past few days,” she began, “I’ve been puzzled by how Mom’s behavior has escalated. First, it was weird comments about ‘immorality.’ Then she started showing up unannounced and rummaging through my things, claiming she was ‘cleaning.’ Finally, she cut up the stockings I bought for Dima’s birthday dinner.” Marina paused. “I decided I’d dig into her past a bit.”
“Her past?” Valery echoed. “You mean you actually went behind her back looking for stories about her?”
“Well… kind of,” Marina admitted. “I started with old photo albums. Then I found this dusty box on a shelf at your parents’ old place, Valera—the place where your mother used to live before she sold it. It was labeled with your father’s name.”
Valery’s heart clenched. He adored his father, who had passed away five years earlier. “And what was in it?” he asked.
Marina took a breath. “Letters and diaries. Let’s just say… Mom wasn’t always so uptight. In fact, she used to be a dancer in a touring troupe. I found pictures of her in costumes that were more revealing than anything we own. She was stunning, actually. And from the diary entries, it appears there was some incident that made her give it all up suddenly.”
Valery stared in disbelief. “Wait, she never told us any of this. She always said she studied accounting and married Dad while working in an office.”
“That’s not the whole story,” Marina continued. “The diaries talk about a scandal—somebody in the troupe accused her of flirting with a manager who was already married. There were rumors, confrontations, and then everything collapsed. She left the troupe, and, from the way she wrote, she pretty much shut herself off from the world. She called it her ‘moment of shame’ and vowed never to ‘lose her dignity’ again. I think that’s where all of this controlling behavior is coming from.”
Alyona exchanged a meaningful look with Valery. Dima just shook his head slowly. “So… she had a past as a performer, got caught up in some rumor, and now she’s on a crusade against anything she deems immoral?” Dima said quietly. “That’s so twisted, but it does explain why she’s so paranoid.”
Marina nodded. “I’m guessing she never dealt with the trauma. She buried it. And now that we’re all adults and buying lingerie and stockings, she’s reliving her own turmoil. She thinks she’s ‘protecting’ us—or maybe protecting her own reputation—by lashing out.”
Valery’s shoulders sagged. For a moment, he felt sympathy for his mother. He’d always wondered where her fiery, judgmental streak came from, but he never imagined there was such an emotional story behind it.
“Still,” Alyona said, “that doesn’t justify her walking in here and ripping up my things. We need to figure out how to set some boundaries.”
Everyone agreed on that point. They couldn’t keep living under the weight of her surprise visits and outbursts. They decided to confront Natalya Ivanovna as a family.
It happened the next day. Dima called his mother and invited her over to his place for tea, telling her Valery and Alyona would also be there. She arrived with a stern expression, probably anticipating some kind of showdown. The moment she walked in, she saw the three of them, plus Marina, sitting in the living room. The tension was thick.
“Why have you gathered here like this?” she demanded, voice quivering. “Have you finally come to your senses, Valera, and decided to leave that woman?”
Alyona clenched her fists, but Valery gently placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her. He addressed his mother with as much composure as he could muster. “Mom, we need to talk,” he said. “We want to understand what’s going on with you. Why you feel this need to—”
“To protect my sons and their families from disgrace?” she cut him off. “If you listened to me, neither your wife nor that one—” she pointed at Marina “—would behave so brazenly.”
Marina took a deep breath. She reached for her phone, but Dima placed his hand over hers. Instead, he spoke up. “Mom, we know about your time in the dance troupe.”
Natalya Ivanovna paled. Her mouth opened, but no sound came out at first. Then, in a trembling voice, she asked, “Who told you that nonsense?”
“Does it matter?” Marina said softly, looking at her mother-in-law with a surprising gentleness. “You were a talented dancer. We saw pictures of you onstage. You looked radiant.”
Natalya’s face reddened, and tears welled up in her eyes. “That was a lifetime ago,” she whispered. “I was stupid… so foolish. I let everyone talk about me behind my back. They said I was a flirt. And then your father—” She gulped, trying to compose herself. “He supported me, but I felt so ashamed. I gave up dancing. I promised myself I would become a ‘decent, proper’ woman. And I never wanted my family to suffer any embarrassment like I did.”
Valery stood and gently approached his mother. “Mom, we’re not perfect. But you’re hurting us with your ‘protection.’ Ripping up lingerie, showing up uninvited, ruining personal belongings—that’s not caring. That’s controlling. Alyona and Marina don’t deserve that.”
Natalya Ivanovna broke into sobs. She sank into a chair, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I’m sorry,” she managed. “I was afraid. Afraid you’d repeat my mistakes. I thought… if I put a stop to it, everything would stay respectable. But I see now I was just projecting my own fear onto all of you.”
Alyona, still shaken by the destruction of her lingerie, forced herself to speak calmly. “We’re a family,” she said. “But there have to be boundaries. We love you, Mama Natalya, but you can’t keep walking into our homes and judging our choices.”
Marina chimed in gently, “We’ll respect your past, but you have to respect our present. We’re allowed to be ourselves. And you have to let us live without constant interference.”
Natalya sniffled, glancing at each of them. She nodded slowly. “I’ll… I’ll try,” she whispered. “I’ll return the keys. And I promise not to barge into your lives anymore. I just don’t want you to get hurt the way I was.”
Dima joined them, resting a hand on their mother’s shoulder. “We understand. But if you’re hurting us in the process, that’s not protection—that’s a different kind of pain. We can’t keep living like that.”
She clasped his hand in hers and squeezed it. “I’m sorry. I didn’t see how far I’d gone. Maybe I do need help—someone to talk to who isn’t family.” Her gaze was full of regret and an unexpected vulnerability. “Will you help me?”
Valery nodded. “Of course, Mom. If you need to see a therapist, we’ll support you. Whatever it takes to help you heal.”
Natalya Ivanovna looked around at her family. Though tears still glistened in her eyes, there was a softness in her expression that none of them had seen for a very long time.
In the days that followed, locks were changed, not just at Valery and Alyona’s place but also at Dima and Marina’s. Natalya Ivanovna, true to her word, handed over the old keys. She stayed away unless invited, and she began seeing a counselor who specialized in past traumas. Little by little, her hostility receded, replaced by a cautious willingness to reconnect with her family.
As for Alyona’s lingerie and Marina’s stockings—both sisters-in-law eventually replaced them. But the damage had done something unexpected: it opened a conversation they never thought they’d have. It forced the family to peel back the layers of old secrets and resentments, confronting them head-on instead of letting them fester.
When Leshka returned from camp, he noticed a shift at home. His parents were more relaxed, although every once in a while they exchanged glances that hinted at the strange episodes that took place while he was away. A few times, he caught his grandmother watching him with a quiet solemnity in her eyes, as if she were determined never again to let her own past fears overshadow her grandson’s future.
And so, the family found a fragile kind of peace. Natalya Ivanovna wasn’t perfect—she still frowned at Alyona’s more stylish outfits—but she would catch herself, and instead of criticizing, she’d sigh and say, “You look lovely, dear,” in a hesitant but earnest tone. Alyona learned to accept these moments as genuine attempts by her mother-in-law to move forward.
In life, we all carry wounds from our past—some bigger than others. Sometimes, our attempts to protect loved ones can hurt them even more if we let our fear rule us. The important thing is to face those fears with honesty and to respect the boundaries and choices of the people we care about. Natalya Ivanovna learned that lesson the hard way, but in doing so, she gained a second chance to be part of her children’s and grandchildren’s lives without pushing them away.
If you found this story meaningful, please share it with your friends and loved ones. You never know who might need a gentle reminder that understanding, open communication, and forgiveness can mend what was once broken. And if you enjoyed reading, don’t forget to like this post. After all, family is one of life’s greatest teachers, and sharing our stories is how we all grow together.
