Although my fantasy of her with other men was growing in intensity by the day, I was terrified that she would think I was weird so I did all I could t... keep it to myself and managed to do just that for about eighteen months until, that is, we went to Venice for a long weekend.On the second evening, we were there was her birthday and I had booked us a table at a famous restaurant to celebrate. Natasha looked fantastic dressed in her purple satin blouse and a black satin pencil skirt. Her blouse. In themeantime, peace talks with Claire continued, though they were touch-and-go. Grace had gently offered to help mediate and Marcia gratefullyaccepted her offer. Grace was making progress, working her indeliblemagic, but it was magic in slow motion. In Claire, she'd met her match, awoman as resistant to miracles as they come.Marcia's ex was angry and would likely remain so, on some level, forever.There were signs, though, of the immovable object, if not actuallymoving, then budging. There was. I called to her, but no answer. I grabbed my robe from the back of her vanity’s chair and slipped out of the room and into the hall. I looked over the bannister and down the staircase. There was a light on in the kitchen; I could see its glow quite clearly, and I heard mumbling. She was in the kitchen. Someone was with her. I headed downstairs barefoot and still stiff from sleep.Nearing the kitchen I was able to hear them more clearly; she had a visitor all right—at fucking 3:00 A.M! This. He’d not written me in ten years, or sent as much as a card?I hotly argued with him that I was a medical doctor now, quite a different person from the girl he’d whipped and tortured. How could he, a sanitation worker, who’d failed out of the third grade at age eleven, look down on me?And then astonishingly, staggeringly, Pa grabbed me by the arm, and ripped up my Louis Vuitton suit dress, and dragged down my pantyhose and under drawers, throwing me across his dining room table. Off came his.