Elizabeth had resolved not to return to the Whitaker family, but coincidentally, the Whitakers were also discussing her and Scarlett.
The Whitaker household had over ten members, plenty of land, but very few laborers. After working day and night to finish repairing the riverbank, the three Whitaker brothers returned home only to be met with the grueling demands of the harvest, leaving no time for rest.
Even iron wills couldn’t withstand such relentless work. With Elizabeth—who did more work and ate less—now gone, even Maria, who hadn’t done much farm work in years, had to go into the fields. Veronica, the youngest sister-in-law, could no longer shirk her duties either. While the Whitaker matriarch and Helen stayed home cooking and watching the children, the rest of the family worked themselves to exhaustion, finally getting the rice grains into the granary.
Everyone agreed that this year’s harvest had been especially grueling.
Rosaline had taken the family’s savings to go to college, and the money the three Whitaker brothers had earned repairing the riverbank had been sent to her as well. The Whitaker family’s communal account was practically empty. This year’s harvest season had been particularly lean, with almost no meat in their meals. Without proper nutrition, everyone struggled to muster the energy for hard labor.
Finally, with the rice grains stored away, the Whitaker family gathered to hold a family meeting and discuss the situation with Scarlett and Elizabeth.
“Chris, what are your thoughts on this? Those two have been staying at William’s house for so long and didn’t even come back during the harvest. They clearly don’t see themselves as part of this family anymore. Can this kind of life continue?”
The matriarch, her face lined with worry, opened the discussion.
The Whitaker matriarch had her own brand of wisdom and knew how to present herself differently depending on her audience.
To her beloved granddaughter, Rosaline, she was the generous and kind grandmother. Admittedly, she hadn’t always favored Rosaline, as her rural mindset prioritized sons over daughters. But when Rosaline excelled in her studies after middle school and began saying and doing things that aligned perfectly with the matriarch’s values, her affections shifted. Over time, as Rosaline’s academic success and bright future became apparent, the matriarch began to favor her even over her grandsons.
To Elizabeth and Scarlett, however, the matriarch was a harsh and domineering tyrant.
Exploiting someone like Elizabeth—a “low-ranking” member of the family—was how the matriarch reinforced her authority.
To her sons, especially to the brawny but less sharp-witted Chris, the matriarch played the role of a caring mother. She wasn’t exactly a “saintly” figure, but she had a way of justifying her harsh decisions as being for Chris’s benefit or the greater good of the Whitaker family.
Her reasoning was simple: she worried that Chris, with no sons to carry on his name, would have no one to care for him in old age. She feared Scarlett’s proud and headstrong nature would ruin her chances of marriage. That’s why she demanded Chris work harder, support Rosaline’s promising future, and have Elizabeth take on more labor. Her “selfless” logic was that by contributing more, their nephews might one day repay them.
To Chris, she was exactly this kind of well-meaning mother.
Chris wasn’t blind to the mistreatment Elizabeth faced at home, but he had grown accustomed to it and figured she could endure a little longer.
He also felt a twinge of guilt about not taking Scarlett to the hospital when she was injured, but the family had truly been out of money at the time. Still, he thought Scarlett’s behavior was too extreme—she acted as though she deserved the best of everything, and when she didn’t get it, she threw tantrums and destroyed her own reputation. Surely the family had a right to say a few words of criticism?
Rosaline’s gracious and forgiving demeanor only made Chris feel that Scarlett owed her an apology.
These were the thoughts swirling in Chris’s mind. But the day Scarlett had held scissors to her throat, demanding to leave, and Elizabeth had fiercely shoved him aside for the first time, Chris couldn’t help but question himself: Had I been wrong all along?
Exhausted from the harvest, Chris found himself speechless during the family meeting. When the matriarch asked if the family could continue living like this, Chris felt as though his dignity was being trampled.
He couldn’t father a son and was ridiculed for being “childless” in their rural community.
But now, could he not even make decisions for his own wife and child within his family?
“I’ll have them come back to apologize to Mother,” Chris finally said.
The family fell silent.
It was clear that Chris wanted to continue his marriage with Elizabeth and wasn’t planning to take a new wife anytime soon. Veronica grew anxious. She didn’t mind Elizabeth returning, but Scarlett’s presence would surely tarnish her own daughter’s reputation.
Just as she was about to speak, her husband, Henry, shot her a warning glare, silencing her immediately.
