"Three thousand dollars, is it going to kill your family, or did you spend a fortune on it?"
"If you can't afford a wife, just say so. Why are you lecturing her as if my daughter stole your money?"
Ruth, this shrew, was eloquent to begin with, and now, having the moral high ground, her output was devastatingly effective:
"Mother-in-law, that's not how you should put it. What woman would sell her own jewelry unless she was truly desperate?"
"If Daniel were more capable, my daughter wouldn't have to do this."
The words were deeply offensive, yet they weren't baseless. Hela gritted her teeth and said, "Mother-in-law, I didn't mean it that way. You said yourself it was her nest egg. I just wanted to show I care about them."
Ruth wasn't having any of it, firing back immediately, "Mother-in-law, parents show they care by spending money and effort, not just with empty words. If you truly cared, you'd have known where Daniel spent that over a thousand dollars long ago."
