- A letter from Nettie.
- Nettie writes that it has been a difficult year. Corrine is still sick.
- Nettie has to do all of her own work, all of Corrine’s work, and also take care of Corrine.
- One day, Corrine asks Nettie why Olivia and Adam look so much like her. She thinks the children are Nettie and Samuel's, that Samuel had an affair long before Nettie came to live with them.
- Corrine makes Nettie swear on the Bible that she hadn’t met Samuel before she came to live with the family. Corrine makes Samuel do the same.
- Corrine even goes so far as to examine Nettie, checking to see if there’s any evidence that Nettie gave birth to children.
- Corrine even starts treating the children badly. They don’t even know that they were adopted.