“Why won’t you help your sister? She’s having a hard time after the divorce,” their mother admonished.
The two sisters sat around the round table in their mother’s home, listening to her grievances.
“Your Tom is downright spoiled!” declared Margaret without hesitation. “He’s working on an oil rig, yet he brings home peanuts!”
“Mom, do you really think sixty thousand isn’t money?” the younger daughter, Lucy, asked angrily.
“It doesn’t concern me. The main thing is that he can provide for you,” their mother pursed her lips in frustration.
“He does provide,” Lucy frowned.
“I don’t see it! Just yesterday you borrowed five thousand from me,” Margaret reminded her. “If he can’t support you, get a divorce! Find someone who can! Besides, just looking at him, you can tell he’s not all there.”
“Mom, I think that’s going too far,” spoke up Alice, who had been silent until now, siding with her sister.
“Am I wrong? He’s scruffy, ginger-haired, and has a lisp,” her mother smirked, rolling her eyes. “Well, Lucy, you deserve better. While you still can, you should get divorced,” she added, looking at her younger daughter.
“Mom, Tom has hands of gold. Besides, looks aren’t everything,” Alice said, trying to defend her sister. “If you measure everything materially, he has a flat, a car, and it’s clear he loves Lucy.”
Margaret pursed her lips, glaring disdainfully at her older daughter, who in her view was overstepping.
“You’re living alone, despite being thirty already, so keep your advice to yourself,” she dismissed Alice. “By forty, you’ll be desperate.”
Lucy silently listened to her mother and sister, shifting her gaze between the two.
“You praise him too much… The flat is one-bedroom and old, the car’s domestic—nothing to brag about,” Margaret declared haughtily.
“Lucy, what do you think?” Alice asked her silent sister. “Do you have an opinion?”
“I don’t know, maybe mom is right,” Lucy mumbled, who initially defended her husband but now seemed to bow to her mother’s opinion. “He recently said I need to find a job…”
“You see!” Margaret folded her arms across her chest. “It’s come to this. Who knows what’s next?”
“And why shouldn’t Lucy work? Very few can afford not to. I’m surprised Tom didn’t suggest it earlier,” Alice opined.
“I can’t understand why you’re defending him so fiercely? Do you fancy him yourself?” The woman stared intently at her daughter.
“Because I’m scared your pressure will ruin my sister’s life,” Alice calmly explained.
“It’s none of your business,” Margaret growled at her daughter. “Lucy deserves more. If he loved her, he’d shield her from any hardship. The least he could do is stand out physically, but he’s as plain as his finances.”
Lucy sat at the table, mouth open, hanging onto her mother’s every word.
Margaret’s admonishments began to take root. Before long, Lucy started voicing her complaints to Tom.
“Do you think what you earn is decent?” she asked her husband.
“It’s fine, why?” he replied.
“I don’t think so,” Lucy shook her head. “You should look for a new job.”
“A new one? I’m fine with this one,” Tom said, a hint of tension creeping in.
“But I’m not! The flat’s too small, the car’s British… There’s nothing to boast about even to the neighbors,” Lucy insisted.
“Strange, you seemed fine with everything before,” Tom mused. “What changed?”
“Nothing changed, I just see you differently now. Emotions used to cloud my vision, now I see you clearly,” Lucy justified to her husband.
“Alright,” Tom said coolly, hoping she would drop the issue.
But, spurred on by Margaret, Lucy continued pestering Tom.
“Listen, your dissatisfaction is getting under my skin,” he said through gritted teeth. “I’ve heard you, but there’s no pleasing you.”
“I need someone who’ll grow, not stagnate,” Lucy declared.
“Sorry I’m not that person!” Tom retorted coldly and, entering the bedroom, opened the closet where Lucy’s things were. “Pack up!”
“Where am I supposed to go?” Lucy raised her eyebrows in shock.
“Somewhere with a new house and a foreign car,” Tom stated bluntly. “I’ll never forgive myself if you waste your life with a bum like me. I’m sure you’ll find someone who’ll shower you with gold and diamonds. Sadly, that’s not me…”
Margaret was the first to know Tom had kicked Lucy out.
“What a scoundrel! Who would’ve thought he’d do something like this? She shouldn’t have married him at all,” Margaret wailed, cursing her son-in-law.
“I just asked him to better himself and earn more,” Lucy whimpered, wiping her tears.
“He’s a brute through and through. You’ll find someone better, and Tom will regret this, crawling back to you on his knees,” Margaret comforted her daughter.
Left without a place or a husband, Lucy moved into her childhood room at her mother’s.
“What will you do now?” Alice asked upon arriving after her mother’s call.
“Nothing,” Lucy answered indifferently, engrossed in her phone.
“Have you thought about work?” Alice hinted.
“No. Why work? I’ll just find a man richer than Tom,” Lucy said confidently.
“Why are you bothering your sister? She’s been through a lot, let her rest,” Margaret stood by her younger daughter.
For two months, Margaret supported Lucy, who lounged on the sofa.
But soon Margaret realized she couldn’t manage alone, so she called Alice demanding help.
“Won’t you help your sister?” Margaret asked Alice reproachfully.
“Help how?”
“Financially. We’re struggling,” Margaret corrected.
“Who told Lucy to listen to you and get divorced?” Alice stunned her mother. “If you’d stayed out of it, everything would be fine.”
“How dare you!” Margaret clutched her chest. “How can you speak like that? Tom’s a fool, a scoundrel, and a coward! Couldn’t handle someone like Lucy, so he gave up. You know what? Get out! I can’t stand seeing you! Instead of helping, you judge us!”
Lucy entered the room as her mother ranted. Seeing Alice, Lucy was indignant.
“You defend the man who betrayed me and threw me out?!”
“You’re to blame! Stop listening to Mom…”
“Now you want to school me? You think you’re so smart? Why are you still single?” Lucy cried.
Alice shook her head at her sister and mother’s outbursts, heading for the door.
She had no desire to keep in touch with her relatives, and neither did Lucy nor Margaret.
