When she walked into a room, everyone stopped talking. In the halls, her colleagues looked down or away, anywhere but her eyes.After the other instructors left for the weekend, she sat in her empty offi alone with her thoughts.Margo was concerned about drawing Patsy any further into this mess and thought it would be best in the long run if she could say she had no ties to the famous author. Margo could only imagine the next set of headlines. She didn’t feel right, knowing she could expose Patsy— and her own family— to more bad press.She’d thought her friendship with Patsy would go on for years and years. But since the attack, she’d realized that Gene was going to try to use Patsy to damage her, that he was willing to do anything to make Margo look like a nut who was unfi to raise their children. Given Patsy’s international celebrity status, she thought it was dangerous and foolish to maintain their friendship.“This was Virginia,” she later said. “They would not have toler-ated a gay relationship like that, with a woman who had two small children.
