Back at Miz Lottie’s after the courthouse, Gloria breaks down under fresh guilt. She relives her mother’s illness, the lies she told about staying in school, and her fear that by pushing Robbie’s case she has stirred up white retaliation instead of helping him. Her grief sharpens into dread when neighbors rush into Miz Lottie’s house warning that a truck full of white men has come into Lower Spruce.

June immediately prepares for an attack. He darkens the house, takes up his shotgun, and gives Gloria orders: calm Miz Lottie, move her away from the front, watch for fires or gun flashes, and use Miz Lottie’s pistol only if death is certain. Gloria obeys, but the sounds outside grow worse as men circle the house, shout for Robert Stephens, and smash windows. In Miz Lottie’s bedroom, Gloria tries to protect the older woman while Miz Lottie slips between present fear and memories of earlier white terror, warning Gloria that mobs burn without mercy.

Gloria senses that a fire is coming, though not to Miz Lottie’s house. When a man suddenly rushes the bedroom window, Gloria nearly shoots, but it is Waymon returning. He scrambles inside smelling of smoke, takes the gun from her, and runs to help defend the house. The mob does not burn Miz Lottie’s home, but Gloria later learns why: during the night, Klansmen burned down Gloria’s cabin instead.

At daybreak, Lower Spruce stands armed and watchful in a tense standoff with the remaining white men at the end of the street. Waymon tells Gloria he rushed to her cabin after hearing the Klan was headed there, arrived too late to save the house, and managed to salvage only her parents’ wedding photo before the men stayed to watch the fire and bet on whether Gloria would run out burning. Red McCormack eventually stopped them only because the fire threatened his own land.

Sheriff Posey finally arrives, ignores the broken windows and terrorized neighborhood, and makes clear he is protecting white interests. He blames the unrest on Robert Stephens still being unfound, threatens the Black residents with vagrancy arrests, falsely suggests Gloria accidentally caused the fire, and implies Robbie will remain imprisoned until someone helps authorities find Robert. Posey’s lies and wink confirm for Gloria that Gracetown’s law will never save her brother.

After Posey leaves and the mob disperses, Gloria reaches a decisive conclusion. Knowing the courts are useless and having lost her home, she asks June about his old work at the Reformatory and whether an insider could help a boy escape. With Miz Lottie and Waymon backing her, Gloria declares that they will help Robbie run, turning her fear and loss into a new plan of action.