This was such a sad story to read. Seeing Scarlet and Billy suffer abuse as children essentially was terrible. It’s even more horrible to think about the fact that there are children out there in similar circumstances that still haven’t been able to leave such situations. The best part about this installment in the series is that it gave a lot more dimension to all of the characters. Cletus for example, has really come a long way from the hot head he was when he was a teenager. His platonic affection for Claire makes a lot more sense with this context now too. I loved the scene where she ended up kissing him to save him from embarrassment. Now that’s a true friend. Billy was also fleshed out to show what an outstanding person he is. He put his life on the line for Claire when he didn’t have to. I can understand how all the responsibilities he took on for his family and for her took a toll on him as a teenager, though. It explains why he’s such a serious person as an adult now. His rift with Jethro is also more understandable. Jethro’s approach to dealing with their abusive father was very different, but I can see why Jethro would have thought he was doing some good with his actions. Thankfully he’s on a much better and happier path with his life now. Hopefully his rift with Billy also gets fixed. Billy and Claire really need to sit down and actually talk about what happened in order to put this all behind them. They better get a nice ending, because despite being such a great backstory, this was depressing to read.