If you have any exprerience of narcissistic abuse you will know that it is not just as easy as that. I know. It is likened to suffering PTSD. I am not a wimp or had mental health issues before my misfortune to encounter Mr Narc but it certainly left me with them.
I am tiring of blaming the victim & not the perpetrator. Fanny took her in under her wing, little girly chats getting all the gen on Marie's past. Not just befriended her but made her the BFF. For someone with low self esteem this is heady stuff. For a person to do that to someone when they have confided their past is nothing short of disgusting. Fanny tired of her, dropped her, made her feel in the way - that she needed her florist studio blah blah. We can see that Marie is a nitwit for falling for the flattery - but Fanny was her saviour, her heroine. That her cooking was great. That she looked so pretty. All BS.
The realisation of what has been done takes time. The deliberate change of plans coming back from Italy to avoid her possibly visiting the chateau. The calls not returned, promises made & broken, Natti raised up to BFF, Pavlina given her studio..slowly slowly the pennies dropping that she has been dropped from a great height. No floral business, no tagging onto La Lande's coat tails - few years older, still no love of her life, broke & abandoned. It's sad IMO.