I Came Home Two Days Early and Found My Wife Sneaking Through the Servants’ Entrance—Then I Learned Who Had Taken Over Her House

She looked at me for several seconds.

Then nodded.

That answer seemed to matter more than any defense of my mother ever had.

PART 23 — THE SERVICE ROOM

The tiny room behind the pantry remained untouched for almost a year.

Mariana never slept there again.

But she did not immediately repurpose it.

One afternoon, she called me.

“I’m redesigning it.”

“What for?”