On Saturday morning, Alice meets Margaret in her living room with windows open to the marsh air. They share mint tea and light teasing before Alice admits she is surprised Margaret agreed to the project. Margaret asks Alice to recall her last voicemail; Alice cannot, so Margaret reminds her that Alice said she cried when she learned Cosmo Sinclair had died.

Embarrassed but honest, Alice explains she learned of Cosmo’s death around her seventh birthday and had loved his album Hearts on Fire, especially the song “Peggy All the Time.” She says she felt sorrow for “Peggy,” intuiting a great love behind the music and the loss it implied. Margaret’s composure wavers, but she encourages Alice to continue.

Alice shares that her journalist parents mostly read serious nonfiction, but her father owned an unauthorized biography, The Fall of the House of Ives. Alice loved the photos as a child but later came to hate the book for its conjecture and recycled tabloid narratives. She cites a cruel line from the courthouse wedding chapter; Margaret finishes it from memory, noting the media blamed her both for marrying Cosmo and for his fate, referencing the family’s “curse.”

Alice counters that the wedding photo looked to her like Cosmo was trying to shield Margaret from those around her, though realizing he could not. The exchange leaves both women quiet and emotional. Margaret reasserts that she has the right to know Alice and Hayden if she is to reveal “buried bodies,” joking about both literal and metaphorical secrets and theatrically “winking” for the record.

They discuss internet conspiracies about Margaret and Cosmo, including cryonics rumors. Margaret says she avoids reading such material and observes that her family learned early that headlines, not nuance, sell—simple and salacious stories dominate memory. She remarks that even those who build the monster of media spectacle cannot control it; it will devour its makers too.

Alice reflects on harsh coverage of Margaret’s sister, Laura, and notes how Margaret herself went from media darling to vilified figure. When Alice asks about growing up with attention, Margaret says one’s life only seems normal or strange in contrast and assures Alice she is “hard to shake.”

Seeking a safe, unforced interview space, Alice lets Margaret set the pace. Margaret places the tabloid book on the table, meets Alice’s eyes, and agrees to start “at the beginning,” formally initiating the telling of her life story.