Who holds the power? These works are an allegorical retelling of the story of the first Mrs Rochester, Antoinetta Mason. Caught in a violent clash of gender politics, power, race, class and belonging in Jean Rhys’ 1960s prequel novel Wide Sargasso Sea, she is a spectral force, demonised, othered and caricatured known simply as the mad first wife in the 19th century novel Jane Eyre. I continue the narrative where Jean Rhys ends. What if Mason survives, what next?