On one of the afternoons when the women are alone at the house, Shug reveals that Albert may have been intercepting and hiding letters from Nettie. She is aghast and falls out of love with Albert. Celie, on the other hand, is so furious with Albert that it is all she can do not hurt or kill him. Shug steals a key to a chest of Albert’s, and the two women discover correspondence from Nettie that goes back all the way to when she first left town. They remove the letters from their envelopes and place the envelopes back in the chest to avoid detection.

The letters from Celie to Nettie tell the story of what happened in the immediate aftermath of Nettie’s departure from Albert and Celie’s house. Albert follows Nettie and attempts to assault her. When she fights back, he swears Nettie and Celie will never hear from or see each other again. Nettie goes to the house of the minister and his wife, who turn out to be named Samuel and Corrine, respectively. When she arrives, she discovers that Adam and Olivia, Celie’s children, have been adopted by the couple (she does not share that her sister Celie is the child’s birth mother.