Rosemary had once looked down upon her husband, deeming him too provincial, too uncultured to ever truly belong to her world. In pursuit of passion, she chose to follow her first love, believing in the promise of something greater—only to learn, too late, that she had been the one deceived. Abandoned and fevered, left to perish in a cold and desolate corner, she came to understand the cruel weight of her choices.   Yet she survived. And in doing so, she resolved never again to entrust her fate to another. She would stand on her own, carve out a life of her own making.   Strangely, it was Graham—the very man she had once scorned—who aided her in this mad endeavor. He did not confine her, did not seek to break her will. Instead, he offered her the means to build something for herself.   And so, in an era that demanded quiet submission, Rosemary did the unthinkable—she reclaimed her life.