Serena's not ready. It feels like the moment she gets into this car and finds her way to her new home, all of this will be real. No North Carolina. No timber camp. No Pemberton.

And for a few more days, no son.

But she nods, as stoic as she is stubborn. "I am, thank you," she says, then thinks to extend her hand to shake the other woman's. "I'm Serena Pemberton, by the way."