I Let You Go / Nine Days in October

How often what we sincerely believe turns out to be a mistake, and what we fear to lose becomes an illusion.

For Nika, the heroine of the story “I’m Letting You Go,” it was enough to have only a few days to realize: the life she had built over the long eight years was something she invented for herself. She imposed rules on herself for how to live, and Ilya—without whom, it seemed, she couldn’t live even a minute—was actually far from ideal. She sacrificed everything for him, and he has no desire to give up even a fraction of his comfort and peace for her—and at the same time he makes unhappy not only her, but also his own wife, who can’t possibly not suspect his long-term affair.

And it turned out that saying the words “I’m letting you go” was much easier than she had imagined. And you shouldn’t regret destroyed castles if those castles were made of sand.