During this time, his relationship with his mother would begin to deteriorate. He loved her, but was bothered by her complacency and apathy towards the kind of sacrifices that came with their lifestyle. She would express disappointment in his inability to catch on, berating him for his attitude and failure to socialize and play well with others. This would lead him to spend less time with her and he would even begin to avoid her in hopes of circumventing these kinds of conversations. His father would become more and more strict and short-tempered with Lawrence as he reached his late teens. Fearing the potential of becoming the black sheep, Lawrence would adapt and learn to be just as cut-throat as the rest of the men in his family. It enabled him to network in his family's spaces better, his brothers would lay off of him, and he’d seem to have earned the respect of his parents. He quickly internalized that his new haughty and arrogant personality worked to his benefit, even if he was deeply unhappy. He barely remembers his 20's, retained almost no interest in any previous passions he once had, and was constantly stressed from work. His parents were proud of him, however, so he pressed on.

As time passed and it became less important to impress people, Lawrence would find it harder to mask his depression. His aptitude for his work would start to deteriorate. He knew how to be mean, but no longer had the energy to command attention. He was now, simply, an asshole. In 1895, his mother would start to attribute his obvious dissatisfaction to being unwed, and would express this concern to her husband, who promptly noticed a business opportunity.

In the Scarlett Meadows of Lemoyne, a large-scale and quickly growing family-owned pharmaceutical company is based. Said family, the Heathcotes, was a large family with many children and, to Lawrence's father, had a selection of available debutantes for Lawrence to court (and amass wealth) with. It also helped that his father was a long time friend of the family, and owned land with infrastructure in the area. William and Dulcie would also agree that getting away from the chaos of the city would be good to palliate their younger sons' temperaments.

William would send his wife and children down south, both parents would make it very obvious to Lawrence what their expectations were. Here, the family would try to ingratiate themselves into the community; the brothers would establish themselves in local towns and make trouble for everyone involved. Lawrence would make quick work of the debutante balls, parties and dinners that were lined up for him.

His brothers would poison some of the daughters against him, but Lawrence, being depressed and resigned to his life, took it as a blessing. It made it much easier for him to decide who to spend time with. He did not mesh well with most of the family, which singled out a Carietta Heathcote, who for some reason, tolerated his morose personality. She would genuinely fall for him, while he would get more burnt out as time went on, faking his involvement in their relationship.

In 1897, the Heathcotes would make donations to multiple state hospitals and asylums in the area, prompting the Stuyvesants to do the same; their first big and showy display of wealth in the state of Lemoyne. It would draw some undue and dangerous attention to the family, and for a severely depressed, bitter, and anhedonic Lawrence, the excitement and colorful characters it would bring would be exactly what he needed.