In this audiobook, Oksana Shalygina, a former civil wife of the artist Pyotr Pavlenko, tells the story of her relationship with him. A story about abuse and violence, about love and hatred, about dependence and indifference. A piercing, candid, shocking account of how easily infatuation and admiration can lead to a trap—and what bloody price, in such a case, you will have to pay to regain freedom.
We stand by the doorway, and I decisively say that I will be doing what interests me. Suddenly—an удар… I go cold, my body goes numb; I stare at him stupidly, unable to believe what just happened. It’s as if I’m waiting for him to laugh or say it was a joke. But he is deathly pale, tense, like an arrow, ready for another blow. I fall into the abyss. The blood left my body; it went numb from shock, from resentment, from the instant betrayal.