“You were pregnant with your daughter?” Paul didn’t know about the miscarriage.

“No. Our son. Our first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage at twelve weeks, but the feelings started before I lost the baby. Tina confessed.

“So you were feeling disconnected. You voiced your concerns to Bette. What did she say to that?”

”She didn’t say anything which made me even more scared.”

”Did you try to get her to talk?”

”Yes … in a way.”

”What did you do?”

“I made her go with me to a therapy group for expectant parents.”

“You made the decision on your own thinking that if she couldn’t talk to you in private that she’d open up in group therapy?” Paul asked the question matter of factly without judgement.

“Yes.” Tina admitted.

”How did she react to that?”

”She hated it. She didn’t agree with therapy and she didn’t like Dan Foxworthy.”

“Who is Dan Foxworthy?”

“He was the therapist I selected.”

“Did you think that maybe she would have been more open to it if you’d found someone she could relate to better?”

“She was so resistant that I don’t think it would have made a difference. We were doing this incredibly major thing by starting our family and he had a good reputation. She eventually went along with it for the baby.”

Bette: “I don’t think I want to do this.”

Tina: “Try. If you hate it we can stand up and say ‘we’re sorry we think we’re better than you and we’re out of here’ or else we could pass judgment on them without ever meeting them.”

Bette paused and then bent down to Tina’s pregnant belly and spoke directly to her son.

Bette: “I just want you to know I’m only doing this for you.”

She kissed Tina’s barely protruding tummy stood straight up and they entered the room together. Several others were already seated in a circle.

“So you sort of manipulated Bette into doing what you wanted her to do; maybe a bit of emotional blackmail knowing her vulnerabilities. It sounded like you thought her reason for not wanting to do the therapy was because it was below her standards. So is it fair for me to say that in your opinion Bette has high expectations?”