The Heiress

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains references to physical abuse, domestic violence, psychological manipulation, death by suicide, alcohol use disorder, and substance misuse.

In The Heiress, Camden McTavish returns to a past that he purposely left behind. Cam was adopted by the extraordinarily wealthy Ruby, who made him her heir at the age of 16, but he “knew that that kind of wealth came with strings attached” (26). He remembers the pressures, fears, and bullying he faced at Ashby House, and resolves to live his life far from the entanglements of the McTavish family. However, when Cam returns to Ashby House over 10 years later, he is forced to reckon with the fact that his past is more complicated than he remembered. His shift in perspective is gradual, first rooted in memories of Ashby House and the neighboring town, Tavistock, and then of his relationship with Ruby herself.

Cam suspects that home is going to be different than he remembers before he even sees the house. Although he remembers the road and its difficulties accurately, Ashby House’s gate is different than he recalled:

In my mind, the gate loomed up to the sky, bars thick and black, locking McTavishes inside, locking anyone else out. But now I see that […] you could probably climb the gate with no problem. And the bars are thinner than I remembered, flecked with rust now, some of the filigree details almost eaten through with it (72).

Cam now sees that the gate, which he identified as both imprisonment and protection when he was young, is not much of an obstacle at all. This very visual shift in perspective is his first inkling that the McTavish family’s outsized influence on him may not be quite as potent now that he is an adult. His memories of nearby Tavistock are challenged as well; on his first trip into town, Cam notices that some businesses have closed, a clear sign of time passing, and he is surprised at how strongly he regrets their absences. He suddenly remembers the town as a positive aspect of his past he’d long forgotten: “[T]here had also been good. The meals at the Jay. The standing account at the local bookstore, how Ruby encouraged my love of reading and always let me buy any book I wanted” (125). Many of these positive memories of Tavistock are intertwined with his positive memories of Ruby, which also begin to reappear.

Beyond reevaluating his memories of Ashby House and Tavistock, Cam is also forced to reevaluate his relationship with Ruby. He realizes, “I’ve spent the past ten years trying not to think about Ruby, and when I have, I’ve remembered only the bad things” (126). Now he remembers her affection and “[t]he way she would ruffle [his] hair and say, You and me against the world, whenever Nelle or Howell or Ben was being a dick” (125). When Cam left North Carolina, it was because of Ruby’s controlling behavior, and his feelings of past suffocation color all his memories. His return challenges this perspective, and he is surprised by the more nuanced reality of what he left behind. He finds a photo of himself and Ruby and is surprised to find that “[he] look[s]…Happy. No tight smile, no faking it for the camera. It’s a real, goofy smile as [he] look[s] lovingly at Ruby” (162). Further, he realizes that his memory of even himself isn’t accurate; he says, “I don’t remember that picture. Don’t remember taking it—hell, I don’t even remember being that kid” (162). Although he may not remember it that way, the photo makes it clear to him that his childhood, and especially his relationship with Ruby, was more complicated than his memories indicated.