Mrs. Deardorff sells Beth to the Wheatleys as a 13-year-old
The adoption interview: Deardorff shaves two years off Beth's age and pitches her as the model Methuen girl while the Wheatleys size her up.
Allston Wheatley
5 moments · 7 min
Allston comes home for one night
Allston blows in with news of a bigger territory and leaves Beth feeling unwanted; Alma insists adopting her was his idea.
Allston Wheatley washes his hands of Alma
Beth calls Denver with the news; Allston refuses to come, tells her to bury Alma in Kentucky and keep the house if she pays the mortgage.
Allston Wheatley: 'Not in my book' - Beth calls him pathetic
Wheatley denies ever promising Beth the house and disowns her as an orphan; Beth answers that Alma was stuck, not pathetic, and he is the pathetic one.
Beth buys the house out from under Wheatley
Told he is selling, Beth offers to buy the house on the spot, haggles him to seven thousand, and deducts what she paid to bury her mother.