Exodus

To prepare for finalizing her inheritance, Cecelia Horner checks into a hotel in Charlotte. While packing, she requests time off from her job at her father’s plant and grapples with her developing affections for Tobias King, telling herself that he wants her to be an “ally” in his revenge plot, but “[n]othing more.” She suspects that he is manipulating her into having fonder thoughts of him. As she drives, she has a flashback to a passionate night that they recently shared.

From her hotel, Cecelia calls her mother, who lives with a partner named Timothy. She reveals her plan to give her mother the inheritance money from her father, Roman Horner. Her mother, shocked to learn that Cecelia has been living alone in Triple Falls, and not with Roman, refuses the offer. As Cecelia beholds her father’s corporate skyscraper, she feels a sense of dread, and she stays awake all night, determined to go through with her plan to ensure her mother’s financial security.

The next morning, Cecelia meets her father in his corporate boardroom. She confronts Roman about his years of emotional neglect, but he offers only vague excuses. Furious at his lack of response, Cecelia signs the legal documents that enable her to become a multi-millionaire with a 30 percent stake in Roman’s company.