And the story had never been true.

It had been, from the very first day, exactly backward.

I had not married up into their grandeur.

They had, without knowing it, married into mine, and lived for years on my money and my patience and my forbearance, and repaid it with contempt, right up until the night the truth walked in through the front gates in five good suits and rearranged the world into its correct shape.

Preston had wanted, that night, to teach me my place.