In West Mills

Knot sends a letter to her family, saying that she is back in West Mills and will visit soon. She considers moving home permanently but decides against it; her family, including her once-alcoholic father, would not support her lifestyle. 15 days later, Knot receives a letter from her mother, Dinah Bright Centre, stating that Knot’s father is seriously ill. The next morning, Knot catches a bus towards Ahoskie and reads Charles Dickens's Bleak House, a gift from Valley, on the way.

Knot arrives at her parents’ home. Instead of greeting Knot, Dinah squeezes Knot’s breast to find out whether she is producing milk; in pain, Knot calls out, “Bitch!” (69). Discovering the truth, Dinah refuses to let Knot—whom she refers to as “Azalea”—into the house and confronts her for returning without her child and a husband. Learning that her father’s supposed illness was just a ruse, Knot asks Dinah how she found out about the baby, and Dinah says she received a note from a stranger. Crying, Knot tells Dinah that she forgives her and leaves to find her father, George Washington Centre.

On the way, she remembers learning as a child that her parents’ marriage was arranged by her paternal grandfather, a landowner, and her maternal grandfather, a sharecropper.