Everyone in the estate knew Gerald’s marriage was a disaster.
He was a narcissist who truly believed he was the greatest thing to walk the earth. He and his entire family treated his wife and daughters like maids, people meant to serve, not be seen. Patricia Allen saw that ugliness and mistook it for opportunity.
She wanted to be his mistress.
Shamelessly, she flattered him. She hovered around him, laughed too loudly at his jokes, fed his ego with everything she had. She even gave him what little food and money her family had, things that should have gone to her children.
To be accepted, she tried to please Sarah too. She acted like a loyal little minion, desperate to be chosen, desperate to be preferred over Gerald’s wife.
What Patricia never understood was that they were laughing at
