Alexei knew this conversation was inevitable. When he saw Igor’s number on the screen, his heart skipped—not from joy at hearing his younger brother. Igor’s voice trembled with agitation, his words spilling out like peas from a torn sack: an accident on the Garden Ring, the car smashed, but he was alive and that was the main thing, right, Lyosh?

“The important thing is you’re okay,” Alexei muttered, but his thoughts were already racing toward the explanation he’d have to give Olga. The blue sedan—their only car, which they’d spent two years paying off on credit—was now sitting in the impound lot with a crushed front and a dented hood.

Igor rattled on about the insurance company that would take a month to sort things out, about how he didn’t have a penny for repairs now because all his money had gone toward a trip to Turkey for him and Sveta. The flight was in a week, the hotel was paid; if he canceled now, they’d lose more than half.

“Lyosh, you understand… This is our first trip together, Sveta and me. I promised her…”

Alexei listened and felt a chill spread inside him. At home, Olga, eight-year-old Katya, and five-year-old Maksim were waiting for him. Tomorrow he had to take Katya to the dentist; the day after, his mother-in-law to the cardiologist. The fridge was running low, and the hypermarket was two kilometers from their area.

“Igor, what about us?” he asked quietly.

“Lyosh, you get it… If I cancel now, Sveta and I will lose about fifty thousand. And insurance will cover everything, just not right away…”

Alexei hung up and sat in the kitchen for a long time, staring out the window. Evening was falling outside; Olga was putting the kids to bed, and he heard her voice: “A story? Of course, sunshine.” His wife was a wonderful mother, but when it came to his brother, she turned into a fury. And he couldn’t blame her.

When Alexei finally decided to tell her, Olga was just pulling the children’s clothes from the washing machine. She froze, holding Maksim’s wet T-shirt.

“What do you mean, ‘crashed’?” she asked very quietly.

Alexei explained. Olga listened in silence, which was worse than any shouting. Then she carefully hung the T-shirt on the drying rack, smoothed the creases, and turned to her husband.

“Your brother isn’t going on vacation, I’m telling you that!” she burst out at last. “He crashed our car and plans to go relax?! Not happening!”

“Olga, understand, if he returns the trip now…”

“I don’t care about his trip!” For the first time in a long while Olga raised her voice so loudly that a worried “Mom?” came from the kids’ room. “Shh, babies, it’s okay,” she softened at once, but her tone toward her husband stayed hard. “Alexei, do you hear yourself? He crashed OUR car. Our only car. And we’re supposed to ‘understand’ that the poor thing will lose money?”

Alexei tried to explain about the insurance, but Olga cut him off:

“Insurance will come through in a month, at best. And tomorrow how am I taking Katya to the doctor? By bus? With her panic fear of the dentist? And your mother to the cardiologist? After a heart attack she can’t walk there!”

“Olga, what can we do now…”

“‘Do’?” Olga looked at her husband as if seeing him for the first time. “You can call your brother and say: return the tickets and deal with the repair. You can. But you don’t want to.”

“Olga, you know what Igor’s like. He…”

“I know Igor!” Olga’s voice shook with rage. “I’ve known him for ten years! Remember when he borrowed twenty thousand from us for something ‘very important and urgent’ and didn’t pay it back for a year and a half? Remember when he brought a drunk crowd to our home on New Year’s Eve when Katya was sick? Remember when he broke your favorite mug and said, ‘So what, it’s just a mug’?”

Alexei stayed silent. He remembered all of it, but Igor was his younger brother, and after their parents died he felt responsible for him.

“I was against giving him the car,” Olga went on, pacing the kitchen. “I told you: he’s irresponsible, careless, frivolous. And you said, ‘He’s my brother, Olga. Just for a day, he can’t manage without a car.’ One day! Clear now what that day cost?”

“What do you suggest?” Alexei asked wearily.

“I suggest you act like a man! Like the head of the family! Call your brother and say: cancel the vacation and take care of the car. We shouldn’t suffer because of your lack of backbone.”

“And if he refuses?”

Olga stopped and looked closely at her husband.

“Then I’ll understand that I’m married to a man who can’t defend his own interests. To a man for whom his brother’s whims are more important than his wife’s and children’s needs.”

There was no threat in her voice—just a statement of fact. Alexei knew Olga well enough to understand she didn’t throw words around.

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that if tomorrow the car isn’t in the shop and your brother is still planning a vacation, I’ll file for divorce.” Olga said it calmly, almost matter-of-factly. “I don’t need a spineless husband who can’t say ‘no’ to an egotistical brother.”

Alexei felt the ground drop out from under him. Olga wasn’t the type to threaten divorce at every quarrel. In ten years of marriage, she had never once said that word.

“Olga, you can’t…”

“I can.” She took her half-finished tea from the table and poured it into the sink. “I don’t want my children to see a father who can’t protect them. Who is ready to sacrifice his wife’s and children’s needs just so he won’t upset his brother.”

“That’s not true…”

“That’s exactly what it is, Alexei.” Olga turned to him, and he saw tears glinting in her eyes. “Do you know what I thought today, when I brought the kids back from Grandma’s by bus? I thought: at least it isn’t raining today. And tomorrow it will rain, and I’ll have to drag Katya across the city to the doctor. She’ll cry and beg to be carried, and I’ll have to haul her along because her teeth need to be treated.”

Her voice trembled:

“And your mother called. She asked if I could drive her to the doctor tomorrow. And what am I supposed to tell her? That your brother crashed our car and is off to Turkey?”

Alexei wanted to object, but realized there was nothing to object to. Olga was right. Right about everything.

“And do you know what angers me most?” his wife continued. “Not that we don’t have a car. Not that we don’t have money for repairs. It’s that you won’t even try to talk to him. Because you’re afraid of upsetting him.”

“I’m not afraid…”

“You are. You’re afraid he’ll get offended. That he’ll say you’re stingy, that family life has spoiled you. And you’re ready to sacrifice all of us to keep his good opinion of you.”

Alexei sat down and buried his head in his hands. It was quiet in the kids’ room—the children were asleep. Rain tapped against the window.

“What should I do?” he asked quietly.

“Call your brother. Tell him the truth. Tell him you have a family, obligations. That we need the car every day, not just for his trips to see his girlfriend.”

“And if he says I’ve changed? That I used to be different?”

“Tell him yes, you have changed. You grew up. You have a family, children, responsibilities.” Olga sat down across from him. “Alyosha, I’m not asking you to abandon your brother. I’m asking you not to abandon us.”

Alexei lifted his head and looked at his wife. He saw the weariness in her eyes, saw how hard this talk had been for her. Olga was never a scandal-monger; she didn’t like confrontations. But now she was fighting for their family.

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll talk to him.”

“When?”

“Now.”

Igor didn’t pick up right away—apparently he was out with Sveta. His voice was relaxed, pleased.

“Lyokh! How’s it going? Sveta and I are at a restaurant, celebrating our upcoming trip.”

“Igor, I need to talk to you seriously.”

“Seriously?” A note of caution crept into his voice. “Listen, if this is about the car, I already explained…”

“Exactly about the car. Igor, you need to cancel the trip and take care of the repairs.”

Silence. Then Igor laughed, but it was a nervous laugh:

“You’re joking?”

“I’m not. We don’t have another car. Tomorrow I have to take my daughter to the doctor, the day after—Mom to the cardiologist. Olga can’t get to work. The kids…”

“Lyosh, come on,” Igor interrupted. “I already explained about the insurance. It’ll cover everything.”

“In a month. What are we supposed to do for that month?”

“Well… take buses. Call taxis. Lyosh, you understand, I can’t cancel the trip. It’s our first vacation together!”

“And my family—who cares about them?”

“It’s not that I don’t care… But you’ll understand…”

“No, Igor, I won’t.” Alexei felt anger rising inside him. “You crashed my car. Mine! And now you’re telling me you have problems?”

“Lyokh, what’s with you? You used to be normal…”

“I didn’t have kids back then!” Alexei shouted, and Olga raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Back then I didn’t have to drive my daughter to school and pick her up every day! Back then my wife didn’t work on the other side of the city!”

“Lyosha…” Igor’s voice turned pleading. “Try to understand, if I return the trip…”

“Return it. Or I’ll file a police report to recover damages.”

Another pause. Then:

“You’re blackmailing me?”

“I’m protecting my family. What I should have done from the start.”

“Lyosha, what has Olga put into your head?”

“Olga hasn’t put anything into my head. Olga just wants to be able to take a sick child to the doctor by car, not drag her across the city on public transport.”

Igor was silent for a long time. Then he sighed:

“And what am I supposed to tell Sveta?”

“The truth. That you crashed your brother’s car and have to fix it.”

“She’ll dump me.”

“Then think about whether a girl like that is worth ruining your family relationships over.”

After Igor hung up, Alexei sat for a long time with the phone in his hand. Olga came over and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Well?”

“He said he’ll think about it till morning.”

“And if he refuses?”

“Then tomorrow I’ll file a police report.”

Olga leaned down and kissed the top of his head.

“You know, I thought you wouldn’t be able to.”

“To be honest, I thought so too.”

In the morning, Igor called early. His voice was tired, drained.

“Lyosh, I returned the tickets. Lost thirty thousand, but I returned them.”

“And Sveta?”

“Sveta…” Igor paused. “Sveta said she doesn’t want to date a man who can’t provide her a vacation.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. Maybe it’s for the best.” Igor tried to chuckle, but it came out joyless. “I’ll get the car out of the impound today and find a shop. I promise it’ll be like new in two weeks.”

“Igor…”

“What?”

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For doing the grown-up thing.”

After breakfast, Alexei took Katya to the dentist by taxi. The girl clung to her father the whole way and asked if it would hurt. Alexei explained that modern dentistry was almost painless, that the doctor was good, that everything would be fine.

On the way home, Katya suddenly asked:

“Dad, why was Mom shouting yesterday?”

“Mom wasn’t shouting, sunshine. We were just discussing a problem.”

“What problem?”

“A grown-up one. Grown-ups sometimes have problems they need to solve.”

“Did you solve it?”

“Yes, sweetie. We did.”

Katya nodded, satisfied, and began studying her new fillings in the window’s reflection.

In the evening, Alexei told Olga about his conversation with his brother. She listened silently, then said:

“I feel sorry for Igor. And for his girlfriend.”

“Sorry?”

“Yes. He ultimately made the right choice, and she didn’t appreciate it. That means she really wasn’t the right person.”

“You’re not angry at him?”

Olga thought it over.

“You know, I am. But less than yesterday. At least he listened to you and agreed to fix things. Yesterday it felt like he didn’t understand at all what he’d done.”

“He understands. He just didn’t want to admit it.”

“Like you.”

Alexei looked at his wife.

“Olga, would you really have filed for divorce?”

Olga was silent for a long time, then sighed:

“I don’t know. Probably not. But I was ready to do anything to make you understand: family isn’t a toy. It’s responsibility. And when you have to choose between family and everything else, the choice should be obvious.”

“I’m sorry I pushed you to the brink.”

“I’ll forgive you if you don’t make me do it again.”

Two weeks later, Igor brought back the repaired car. It really did look like new—he hadn’t skimped on the service. He was embarrassed, spoke uncertainly, kept apologizing to Olga.

“Igor,” Olga said as they drank tea in the kitchen, “I’m not angry with you. I was, but it’s passed.”

“Really?”

“Really. You did the right thing, even if not right away. And that counts for a lot.”

“And Sveta left anyway,” Igor said sadly.

“Then it wasn’t meant to be,” Alexei replied. “You’ll find someone else.”

“Yeah… Maybe I will.” Igor finished his tea and stood up. “I have to go. And… Lyosh?”

“Yes?”

“Next time, if anything happens, you can tell me straight. No need to push it to the brink.”

After Igor left, Alexei and Olga stayed in the kitchen. The sun was setting outside; the children’s voices drifted from their room.

“You know,” Olga said, “I think we all grew up because of this.”

“Even Igor?”

“Especially Igor. And you too.”

“And you?”

“I realized that sometimes you need to risk a conflict to save a family. Even if you don’t want to.”

Alexei took his wife’s hand.

“Thank you for not letting me give up.”

“Thank you for not making me go through with the divorce.”

They sat holding hands, listening to the children’s laughter through the wall. And in the courtyard stood their car—whole, repaired, ready the next morning to take Katya to school, Olga to work, and on the weekend the whole family to Grandma’s.

And that was what mattered most.