Chap­ter 2 begins with Teal feel­ing the crush­ing weight of her respon­si­bil­i­ties as she pre­pares din­ner for her father and broth­ers. Despite the phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al exhaus­tion from a day filled with house­hold chores and the added stress of a recent plumb­ing dis­as­ter, she qui­et­ly sets about mak­ing the chick­en stew they’ve asked for. The task, though mun­dane, serves as a small escape, allow­ing her mind to wan­der back to the painful mem­o­ry of her mother’s death. Her moth­er had passed just a week before Teal’s eigh­teenth birth­day, a loss that marked a sig­nif­i­cant turn­ing point in her life. Dur­ing her final days, her moth­er had whis­pered words that Teal would nev­er for­get: a plea to send her blood to the Mar­riage Tem­ple. These words lin­gered in Teal’s mind, urg­ing her to take action toward escap­ing her oppres­sive home life, which had grown unbear­able after her mother’s death. Teal had fol­lowed through on this promise, secret­ly sub­mit­ting her blood to the Tem­ple in the hopes of secur­ing a match, all in the hope of find­ing a bet­ter life away from the cru­el­ty she had been endur­ing.

Teal’s life has been shaped by the con­stant con­trol her broth­ers have exert­ed over her. Since their mother’s death, she has been left to man­age the house­hold, tak­ing on the role of care­tak­er for her father and broth­ers. This respon­si­bil­i­ty has robbed her of her youth and free­dom, mak­ing her feel more like a ser­vant than a daugh­ter. The oppres­sive demands of her broth­ers have iso­lat­ed her from the out­side world, and they con­tin­u­ous­ly rein­force the idea that she is to serve them with­out ques­tion. Any attempts she made to run away from the harsh grip of her fam­i­ly were thwart­ed. Her father and broth­ers main­tained an iron grip on her, ensur­ing she would nev­er escape the suf­fo­cat­ing life they had forced upon her. Fear and vio­lence have become the norms in her home, and Teal has been con­di­tioned to believe that escape is a dis­tant, if not impos­si­ble, dream.

As she care­ful­ly pre­pares the meal, Teal is gripped by a deep sense of anx­i­ety. She knows her efforts will nev­er be enough to meet the high expec­ta­tions her father and broth­ers have for her. Their con­stant crit­i­cism and demands have worn her down, leav­ing her with a con­stant sense of inad­e­qua­cy. When they arrive home ear­li­er than usu­al, Teal can sense the ten­sion in the air before they even speak. She attempts to appease them with her cook­ing, but her father’s sus­pi­cious demeanor sig­nals that her efforts are futile. The sit­u­a­tion grows even more charged when her father presents a let­ter from the Mar­riage Temple—a let­ter that could rep­re­sent the future Teal had secret­ly hoped for. This let­ter, how­ev­er, is some­thing her fam­i­ly fierce­ly oppos­es, as it threat­ens to shat­ter the con­trol they have over her. In a vio­lent out­burst, her father accus­es her of betray­ing the fam­i­ly and phys­i­cal­ly assaults her, as rage and dis­be­lief con­sume him. Teal, bat­tered and bruised, feels a strange sense of lib­er­a­tion as she con­tem­plates the pos­si­bil­i­ty of mar­ry­ing some­one far removed from the tox­ic envi­ron­ment of her fam­i­ly.

After endur­ing the attack from her father and broth­ers, Teal retreats to the sanc­tu­ary of her room, need­ing time to process the chaot­ic emo­tions swirling inside her. It is here that she reopens the let­ter from the Mar­riage Tem­ple, read­ing its con­tents over and over, try­ing to draw com­fort from the prospect of a future where she can escape. The thought of leav­ing behind the vio­lence and fear of her fam­i­ly fills her with a mix­ture of dread and excite­ment. She begins to imag­ine what life could be like away from her father’s oppres­sion, pos­si­bly mar­ry­ing a man who would treat her with the respect and care she has nev­er known. The let­ter rep­re­sents more than just a contract—it sym­bol­izes a chance at free­dom, a chance to build a new life out­side the shad­ow of her trou­bled past. In the qui­et of her room, Teal allows her­self to dream of a life where she is cher­ished, free from the suf­fo­cat­ing con­trol of her fam­i­ly. Despite the over­whelm­ing uncer­tain­ty and the fear of what lies ahead, Teal clings to this hope with all her might, refus­ing to believe that her life is des­tined to be noth­ing more than a series of painful sac­ri­fices. For the first time in a long while, she dares to imag­ine a dif­fer­ent future, one where she is not trapped, but free.