Nat suddenly reappears at eighteen and returns to the grandfather who loved her. Her mother publicly abandons her, snarling "I'm no longer your mother!" Humiliated and homeless, Nat is steadied by her grandfather's counsel—"never bend your knees"—and by someone who offers to take her in. Learning the Shaws framed and killed Grandpa, Nat vows to find the real culprit and rewrite his ending. She asks Grandpa to believe her, even if her plan seems wild, and takes the first determined step toward exposing the Shaws' crime.