“How tired I am of listening to you,” Kira thought, standing in the living room and watching her flushed stepfather. His face always turned burgundy when he drank a little white.

Kira's stepfather, Arkady Semyonovich Bronsky, could not be called a drunken alcoholic. He rarely drank. But he belonged to the type of people who lose their human appearance, just sniffing alcohol. Not like Kira's father. He died nine years ago, but Kira forever kept in her heart the image of a beautiful, stately, and most importantly, kind parent.

Arkady has never been attractive. Medium height, with a heavy belly, frog-like thin lips and caustic close-set eyes. When Kira saw...