Elizabeth lowered her head, avoiding his gaze.
William’s frustration spilled out. “What? Are you really planning to go back to him?”
His tone carried thinly veiled disappointment, leaving Elizabeth flustered. After a long pause, she muttered, “Scarlett will eventually marry. I can’t go with her to her in-laws’ house. I can’t stay here forever either… Where would I go then?”
She didn’t want to burden Scarlett or cause tension with her brother and sister-in-law by staying too long. Nor did she want to give the villagers something to gossip about. Elizabeth felt lost and unsure about her future.
“Mom, do you miss Dad? Is that why you want to go back to the Whitaker family?”
Scarlett’s voice startled Elizabeth. She turned to find her daughter standing behind her, watching her intently.
Elizabeth shook her head but said nothing. It wasn’t about missing Chris—she had simply grown accustomed to enduring hardship. She believed it was her duty to sacrifice for her daughter’s happiness. If Scarlett could live a good life, Elizabeth was willing to grovel in the Whitaker household just for a bite to eat.
Scarlett, however, could guess her mother’s thoughts.
Thanks to her past life experience, Scarlett wasn’t truly an 18-year-old. She had seen enough of the world to understand Elizabeth’s worries.
Marrying? Of course, Scarlett planned to marry. Having never experienced a happy marriage in her previous life, she intended to cherish one in this one. But if marrying meant abandoning her mother? If a man saw Elizabeth as a burden, why would Scarlett marry him at all? Her standards were far higher than that.
“Mom, I made over $20 today. You can’t imagine how good business is in Harborfield right now. Once I save enough money, I’ll buy an apartment there, and we’ll move in together. As for your future son-in-law, he’ll have to be lucky enough to live with us if I let him!”
Buying a home in Harborfield was Scarlett’s long-term goal.
She knew it was only 1983, and true commercial apartments hadn’t appeared yet, but it wouldn’t be long. Scarlett recalled a client in Harborfield once mentioning how they’d bought their first property in the late 1980s for just $200 per square meter. Back then, homes were built for workers, and not everyone had the privilege to buy them. But with enough money and the right connections, it was possible to obtain a purchase quota.
At $200 per square meter, buying a 100-square-meter apartment would only cost a little over $20,000. Scarlett didn’t have that kind of money now, but was there any doubt she could earn it?
For the first time, Scarlett revealed her plan to settle in the city to her family.
Elizabeth was stunned. “But we’re rural residents… how could we live in the city?”
The divide between rural and urban residents was immense.
Urban households had access to factory jobs and government positions, while rural households were tied to farming. The only ways to leave rural life were marriage or education. Even marriage wasn’t guaranteed to change one’s status, as most urban families couldn’t secure a “rural-to-urban” transfer. Only by excelling in education, like Rosalie, could someone permanently escape the countryside and become a city dweller.
The thought of becoming city people seemed like an impossible dream to Elizabeth, even though she trusted Scarlett’s abilities.
William, on the other hand, found the idea intriguing. “Moving to the city could work. It doesn’t have to be Harborfield. We could buy a small house in Greenfield County—it wouldn’t cost much.”
Living in Harborfield would mean starting fresh, where no one knew Scarlett’s past. Even if rumors followed her, they wouldn’t affect her chances of finding a good match.
Hearing William’s approval, Elizabeth hesitated. “Do you really think it’s possible?”
Scarlett nodded firmly. “I promised I’d give you a good life, right? It’ll happen!”
Buying a house in Harborfield? That was just the start. Scarlett dreamed of amassing enough money to invest in real estate before prices skyrocketed. If she played her cards right, she could buy entire buildings in the capital or coastal cities, reaping returns far greater than any traditional business venture.
