Complicated dinners (4)

"There's not a chance you have anything better to do when you come over almost every other day just to criticize my husband. You poke and poke trying to get a reaction out of him and when you don't, you dig deeper. I cannot allow you to come under our roof and disrespect him. Have you not stopped and thought about how your words hurt me?"

"What have I said about you, Jane? I've said nothing other than wish you to be with a better husband and I can't change how I feel. This whole thing seems a little dramatic for you to be banning me from your home. Tell me one bad thing I said to hurt your feelings?" Alice folded her arms, annoyed with the turn this night took. If her words hurt Derek, it only proved he wasn't that much of a man. The women in her circle were more vicious than this. And when had she intentionally hurt her daughter?