A Widow's Poison, A Wife's Rebellion novel Chapter 631

Brinley Seabrook refused to accept this! The mere thought of how high and mighty she had once been, only to now be crushed completely beneath someone else's heel, drove her mad with rage.

From the outer room, Darleen's mocking voice drifted in. "Abandoned by your own mother. You must be a special kind of filthy!"

"Shut up! You think you're any better? Aren't you pinned under Starla's boot just the same, with no way out?" Brinley snapped, her fragile temper finally shattering.

Sure enough, the outer room fell dead silent.

Brinley's words had hit a raw nerve. Xenia cast a worried glance at Darleen, who angrily pulled the thin blanket over her head, clearly stinging from the truth.

Because Brinley wasn't wrong. Right now, every single one of them had been utterly destroyed by Starla Lansbury. No matter who they were, resistance was futile.

"Mom..." Xenia whispered anxiously.

Darleen let out a heavy sigh. "Just go to sleep. There's probably even more work waiting for us tomorrow."

Darleen had learned the hard way that a full day of manual labor required actual rest. She was only just realizing how ruthlessly demanding she had been to her own staff in the past. Whenever the Yelchin family hosted evening galas, she used to force the maids to be up by five-thirty the next morning just to prepare her breakfast. Now, after being relentlessly tormented by Starla, she was so physically drained that a poor night's sleep meant she wouldn't have the strength to stand the next day.

"Brinley is acting like a rabid dog," Xenia muttered.

"If we knew what he saw in her, we wouldn't be in this miserable position," Darleen said, her voice weak and defeated.

She was right. It was their sheer ignorance that had doomed them.

Fuming, Xenia rolled over to sleep. "Scoot closer," Darleen ordered. "It's freezing!"

Xenia immediately pressed her back against her mother's. If they hadn't been forced into this hellish existence by Starla, they never would have had to rely on shared body heat just to survive the night.

Brinley dragged herself out of the bathroom. Although she had changed into dry clothes, her hair was still dripping wet. She had towel-dried it as best she could, but under Starla's strict orders, luxuries like hair dryers were strictly forbidden. They had been reduced to an almost primitive state, entirely at the mercy of the elements.