“Could you help your sister out? She’s having a tough time since the divorce,” their mother admonished.
The two sisters sat at their mother’s round kitchen table, quietly enduring her dissatisfaction.
“Your James is such a spoiled brat!” declared Margaret quite boldly. “He’s working away on site, yet he brings home peanuts!”
“Mum, isn’t sixty thousand a decent amount for you?” asked the younger daughter, Emily, irritated.
“I don’t care about the amount. What matters is whether he can support you,” their mother huffed, her lips pursed tightly.
“He does support me,” Emily replied, frowning.
“I don’t see it! Just yesterday, you borrowed five thousand from me,” Margaret reminded Emily. “If he can’t even provide for you, you should consider separating! Find someone who can! Besides, you only need to look at him to see that he’s a nutter.”
“Mum, that’s a bit much,” Sarah, who had been silent until now, decided to stand up for her sister.
“Am I not speaking the truth? He’s awkward, ginger, and even has a bit of a lisp,” Margaret scoffed, rolling her eyes. “You deserve better, Emily. You should leave him before it’s too late.”
“Mum, James is great with his hands. Plus, looks aren’t everything,” Sarah pointed out, seeing how their mother was pressuring Emily. “If you measure everything by money, you should know he has a flat, a car, and he’s obviously fond of Emily.”
Margaret looked at Sarah with disdain, annoyed at her elder daughter’s meddling.
“You’re living alone, and you’re already thirty, so don’t go around giving advice,” waved Margaret dismissively at Sarah. “By the time you’re forty, you’ll be grabbing at anyone…”
Emily listened quietly to her mother and sister, her expression indifferent as she glanced between the two.
“You praise him so, yet his flat is a cramped one-bedroom, in a dodgy area, the car is domestic, and there’s nothing worth boasting about,” Margaret pronounced condescendingly.
“Emily, what do you think?” Sarah turned to her silent sister. “Do you have an opinion?”
“I don’t know, maybe Mum is right,” mumbled Emily, who had initially defended her husband but now seemed to yield to her mother’s opinion. “He recently mentioned that I should find a job…”
“You see!” Margaret folded her arms over her tummy. “It’s already come to that. I dread to think what happens next!”
“Why shouldn’t Emily work, and why stay home? Not many can afford such luxury. I’m surprised James hasn’t encouraged her to work sooner,” Sarah shared her thoughts.
“I can’t understand why you’re defending him so fiercely. Is it because you have your eye on him?” Margaret eyed Sarah sharply.
“I’m just worried that your pressure will ruin my sister’s life,” Sarah explained calmly.
“That’s none of your business,” snapped Margaret at Sarah. “Stop giving out your unsolicited advice. Emily deserves better. If he really loved her, he’d make sure she never knows a day of hardship. Even if James had some good looks, but he’s got nothing – not looks, nor money…”
Emily sat at the table, her mouth slightly open, absorbing every word her mother uttered.
Margaret’s lectures left their mark. Soon enough, Emily began to voice complaints to James.
“Do you think you’re earning enough?” she asked her husband.
“It’s alright. Why?”
“I don’t think so,” Emily shook her head. “I think you should look for another job.”
“Another job? I’m quite content where I am,” James replied casually, though slightly alert.
“Well, I’m not!” declared Emily, her tone firm. “The flat’s small, the car’s… well, not worth mentioning. There’s nothing to show off to the neighbours.”
“That’s odd, earlier you seemed content,” James reflected. “What’s changed?”
“Nothing changed, except I see things differently now. Before, emotions clouded my view, but now, I see things clearly,” Emily justified herself to her husband.
“Right then,” James replied with indifference, hoping this would be the end of it.
But Emily, encouraged by Margaret, kept on pushing at James.
“Listen, your dissatisfaction is wearing me thin,” James growled under his breath. “I’ve heard you, but there’s nothing I can do, even if I wanted.”
“I need a husband who’s willing to move forward, not stay stagnant,” Emily remarked darkly.
“Sorry I’m not that man!” James retorted coolly, and walking to the bedroom, he opened the wardrobe containing her clothes. “Pack your things.”
“Pack? Where am I supposed to go?” Emily raised her eyebrows in surprise.
“To a place with a new build flat and foreign car,” stated James dryly. “I’d never forgive myself if you wasted your life with a failure like me. I’m confident you’ll find someone who’ll shower you with wealth. Sadly, I can’t offer that.”
Margaret was the first to know that James had shown Emily to the door.
“That scoundrel! Who would have thought he’d do such a thing?! Should’ve never married him,” Margaret lamented, showering curses upon her son-in-law for the vile act.
“I only asked him to develop himself and earn a bit more,” Emily said through tears, wiping her cheeks.
“Nothing to say about him? A brute is a brute, anywhere you go. You’ll find someone better, and James will regret ever letting you go,” Margaret comforted her daughter.
Left without a flat or husband, Emily moved back into her childhood room at her mother’s house.
“What will you do now?” Sarah asked her sister, arriving as soon as their mother called.
“Nothing,” Emily replied indifferently, her focus on her phone.
“Have you thought about work?” Sarah directly suggested to her younger sister.
“Haven’t thought about it. What for? I’ll just find someone wealthier than James,” Emily replied matter-of-factly.
“Why are you pestering your sister? She’s been through such a stress, let her rest,” Margaret defended her younger daughter.
For nearly two months, Margaret supported her daughter, lounging on the couch.
However, she soon realized she couldn’t handle it alone and called Sarah, demanding she come.
Sarah visited her mother after work, thinking it was an urgent matter.
“Don’t you want to help your sister?” Margaret asked disapprovingly.
“How?”
“Not ‘how,’ but ‘with what,’” Margaret corrected. “Financially. It’s hard for the two of us.”
“Who pressured Emily about the divorce?” Sarah dropped the unexpected bombshell. “You should’ve stayed out of it, and things would have been fine.”
“How could you?!” Margaret clutched her heart. “How can you even say such a thing? Your James is a fool, a coward! Couldn’t handle someone like Emily, so he gave up. You know what? Get out! I don’t want to see you anymore. Instead of helping, you choose to judge us!”
Margaret’s shout echoed through the house as Emily sauntered over from her room. Sighting her sister, she stood with hands on hips.
“Are you defending the man who betrayed me and threw me out?”
“It’s your own fault! Stop listening to Mum so much…”
“Are you trying to lecture me? Think you’re so smart? Why are you single then?” Emily sneered.
Sarah shook her head, listening to her sister’s and mother’s tirades, and headed toward the door.
She felt no desire to engage with her family any longer. And neither did Emily and Margaret with her.
