He quietly opened the gate and immediately noticed something strange: the light in the house was on only in the kitchen, and in the backyard someone was shuffling their feet. The sound was faint, as if made by someone very old or very sick.
He approached the shed and lifted the latch. The door wasn’t even locked — just held closed from the inside by an old bucket.
Inside, sitting on a pile of old blankets, was his mother. Bruises under her eyes, swollen fingers, a torn sweater. Next to her — a bowl with leftover porridge covered in mold. The smell of dampness and cold hit his nose.
When his mother saw him, she flinched.
— Son… you were… supposed to arrive in three days…
— Mom… why are you here? — his voice cracked.
She lowered her eyes and whispered:
— Because it’s better… for everyone…
But when she tried to stand up, he saw deep marks from ropes on her wrists.
And then the soldier understood: his mother wasn’t living in the shed. She was being put there.
He burst into the house. His wife froze, holding a phone in her hands.
— O-oh, you’re already home?.. — her voice trembled.
— Why is my mother in the shed? — every word cut through the air.
His wife stayed silent. She only turned pale, as if she had seen a ghost.
From her answer, the soldier was simply horrified 😨😱
At that moment the neighbor entered the house — the same one who often “kept an eye on the house.” Seeing the soldier, she tried to walk past him, but he blocked her way.
— What is going on here?
The neighbor exhaled:
— Your wife said that your mother has dementia… that she is dangerous… that she could cut everyone’s throats at night. She asked me to help… to keep an eye on her… to feed her…
The soldier felt the ground slipping from under his feet. But the most terrible thing was ahead.
He noticed a thick folder of documents on the table. He opened it — and saw notarized powers of attorney for his house, for his bank account. All signed by his mother… but the signature was crooked, trembling.
— She couldn’t have signed this, — he said in an icy voice.
And the wife finally spoke, breaking into a scream:
— Of course she couldn’t! But I needed to get the property while you’re on duty! You were going to send her to a nursing home anyway! I just sped up the process! I wasn’t going to kill her — I just needed her to sign everything over to me! And she DID!
She slammed her fist on the table.
— And when everything was arranged — she suddenly wasn’t needed anymore. That’s it!
The silence after these words was worse than a scream.
The wife wasn’t cruel. Not insane. Not jealous, not angry. She was greedy.
And for the sake of money she locked the old woman in the shed and waited for her to “break down on her own.”
But she miscalculated one thing — soldiers sometimes return earlier than expected.
