Some people think "once a cheat, always a cheat." I don't think that is true. Some people cheat because they are with the wrong person for them and very unhappy and it's their way out, perhaps not the most honorable way, but their way. Others were never meant to be monogamous by nature and need to realize that about themselves and proceed honestly with the people they meet.
However, in the story of Aldo Gucci's Mistress, Bruna Palombo, who'se a Classic Mistress Kept from early womanhood and all her life, and Aldo's one and only wife Olwen Gucci, there is yet another woman, another Mistress, who provides more competition for them both. In Patricia's memoir, her mother's discovery of this third woman in Aldo's life comes after she has met her much older half brothers. At that point Bruna and Olwen have separate lives with Aldo but he has done what he promised and united the children from his two families with the introduction. The third woman will challenge Bruna's long held assumption that she was "the one."
Patricia tells us that Olwen and Bruna both stopped trusting Aldo. (160) Patricia's father visited her and her mother less, a sign that there was trouble, and I imagine especially unnerving because she is so dependent upon him. Bruna knew he'd had "dalliances" in the past too and she'd overheard and seen suspicious things. Bruna was afraid to make an issue and Patricia's friends also seemed to have fathers who could not be monogamous. Were all men this way?
The man had nerve. After hearing that he had set this woman up in an apartment and bought her expensive things including works of art and jewelry, Bruna was shocked to find out that Aldo had taken her out to dinner and introduced her to the new woman without explaining who she was in his life. (161) She also found photos of the woman on a trip to Palm Beach and wasn't Palm Beach just supposed to be for Bruna and Aldo?
After all the seclusion, after all the privacy that Bruna had complied with and desired, this blonde was being seen all around openly with Aldo. She had her informants and her notes. The explosive showdown was now not between the classy Olwen and Bruna, but Bruna and Aldo. He refused to admit what he was up to until she had an "explosive" argument with him and presented to him the details of all she knew. Finally, confronted with dates, locations, everything, he admitted he had this other Mistress!
"We were completely on our own with no legal rights." (171)
During crisis Patricia was sent back to boarding school.
*** It's true that Mistresses do not have the legal rights of a wife. I think about why gay people have fought so hard for the right to be legally married. I think the only way for a Mistress to have legal rights is to become the wife or for us to allow legal marriage to more than one person at a time. I admit this is probably more complicated than the gay marriage issue. Missy
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