Lila finishes three candid, painful chapters about Dan’s affair and her fallout, disguising the children but naming Dan, then sends them to Anoushka with trembling hope. Her texts with Gabriel Mallory have been warm; after a humiliating school pickup where Dan appears with pregnant Marja, Gabriel quietly comforts Lila.

Bill proposes moving his old Steinway into the hallway, signaling permanence; Lila agrees despite inner misgivings about the house filling up. The next days erupt in noise: the piano arrives, Jensen hits concrete and starts jackhammering, Celie sulks upstairs, and Gene and Violet blast Star Squadron Zero in the front room.

In the din, Anoushka calls to say the publisher loves the chapters but wants a ‘sexytimes’ sample to balance the gloom. Lila, overwhelmed, promises it by next week without knowing how she’ll write it.

As the house becomes a cacophony of TV, piano, drill, and music, Lila flees to the garden and impulsively texts Gabriel asking him for a drink. No reply comes, and dread sets in. Jensen joins her on the bench, asks if she’s okay, and shares that he had a breakdown five years earlier, citing “No feeling is final” as a lifeline. They talk about coping, drinking, and his ring; Lila learns he’s single.

Jensen reassures Lila that the garden will turn out nice, offering a small shard of optimism. Inside, Lila vents to Eleanor by text about Gabriel’s silence and the requested ‘sexytimes’ chapter; Eleanor urges her to have fun and gather material.

Anoushka forwards the publisher’s note: they want a wild, uplifting opener—a sexy phoenix after betrayal. Watching the minutes since her unanswered text mount, Lila panics that she can’t deliver. After a moment of resolve, she decides there is another way to create the required chapter.