Fern wakes in the hospital bed to realize her baby is gone from her belly and panics until a nurse tells Fern the baby is alive in the nursery. Weak and in pain, Fern insists on seeing the baby, but the staff keeps deflecting her with bedpans, food, and orders to rest. Fern also notices the protective pouch is missing, increasing Fern’s fear and disorientation.

Diane arrives and makes it clear that an adoptive couple is already on the way, urging Fern not to see the baby because it will make “surrender” harder. Fern begs until Diane relents. After being cleaned and fed, Fern is brought the infant in a warming box; Fern learns the baby is a girl, not a boy, and holds her, overwhelmed by love and recognition. With the baby in Fern’s arms, Fern begins to question whether the adoption papers are permanent and whether Fern can change her mind.

Diane argues that keeping the baby would destroy Fern’s future and the baby’s prospects, framing it as a choice between “bad and worse.” When Fern asks for more time, Diane pivots to money, explaining that if Fern keeps the baby then Fern must pay hospital and Home fees—about two thousand dollars—because adoption would have covered them. Fern, terrified of ruining lives and unable to imagine affording the cost, keeps letting the nurses bring the baby back, studying her tiny details; when the baby cries, Fern cannot soothe her and feels unfit to be a mother.

After dinner, Miss Parcae appears in Fern’s room and presses Fern to choose: join Miss Parcae and keep the child as part of the line of Hecate, or face being taken by force. Miss Parcae reveals that Mags was used to preserve the “unbroken” sibyl line when Mags broke her vow, and claims the line must be preserved even against a child’s will. Coughing blood and visibly failing, Miss Parcae offers an alternative—taking Fern’s baby young enough to accept the line—prompting Fern to snap that Miss Parcae must stay away from her daughter; Miss Parcae warns that when they come, they will break Fern if they must, then vanishes as a nurse enters.

Fern finds the pouch under the bed and puts it back on, feeling a roaring in her ears go quiet as if a connection has been severed. By morning, Fern questions Diane about the adoptive parents, then shuts down emotionally and refuses one last chance to see the baby, deciding it is “best” not to. Dressing to go home, Fern signs the birth certificate not as “Jane Doe” but as “N. Craven,” ensuring her name remains on record despite Diane’s preference for anonymity. Diane escorts Fern out without seeing the adoptive couple, and Fern rides away in a taxi feeling she has chosen herself over her child and will punish herself for it forever.