The diary

Tabitha rushed to her room because everything she heard the lady say was overwhelming. Her heart was about to explode, and she definitely didn't want to burst out in tears in front of the lady.

Tabitha didn't know much about her, so tearing up in front of the woman wasn't comfortable for her.

Tabitha intended to go to her room and read her mother's diary, but she changed her direction to Silas's room because she knew she'd feel even more comfortable there.

Upon entering, she sat on the floor, and the lingering smell of Silas in his room provided another kind of comfort.

Tabitha was scared to open her mother's diary, but she eventually did, and it began recounting the first time her father began to mistreat her mother.

“I never knew that the man I loved would turn out to be an abusive husband, and now, I'm terribly suffering from the consequences of my decision and action,” Tabitha read, coming to the realization that the lady was indeed right.