Cutting Ties

When her husband Ethan asks for a divorce while she is five months pregnant, Sarah agrees calmly. In her previous life she refused, and it ended with her dead in a cowshed; this time she resolves to let go, abort the child and continue her studies. Ethan wants to marry his widowed stepsister Jessica and warns Sarah to keep the divorce secret, fearing her father, a military commander in Washington D.C.

Left to walk home through a blizzard, Sarah hears the same rumors that destroyed her before — that she forced Ethan to marry her out of gratitude and was promiscuous. She suspects Ethan spread them to shield Jessica from village gossip. When she confronts him, he admits he always meant to marry Jessica and blames Sarah for the past.

As he orders her to move out before Jessica and her son arrive, a pain seizes Sarah's abdomen. He dismisses her cries as a trick and leaves her. She collapses — then wakes to a boy aiming a water gun, demanding to know why she is sleeping in his house.