Lauren followed Junior into the street and watched him speed off on a motorcycle she recognized from her neighborhood, realizing he might live nearby or have been watching her. With Ryan and Taylor, Lauren produced a mysterious coin-like device she had found; Ryan identified the writing "SecPro" and, after a quick search, concluded it was a tracker not typically available to the public. This made Lauren suspect Junior had planted it, connecting the claim that he had been protecting her for years to possible behind-the-scenes interventions.

As Velvet staff escorted the injured, drunken aggressor out, Lauren returned inside, grabbed a bottle at the bar, and discovered Junior had left his phone on their table while he had mistakenly taken hers. Using Ryan's phone, Lauren called Junior. Over the sound of his idling bike, Junior acknowledged the swap, refused to return her phone that night, said he would bring it to church the next day, and told her not to answer his if anyone called before hanging up.

Shaken and angry, Lauren drank with Ryan and Taylor, reflecting on how Junior’s boundary violations and violence contrasted with moments of openness and remorse. She feared patterns of control reminiscent of her parents: her mobster father coercing her mother out of work and into dependency. Finding the tracker intensified her concern that Junior wanted constant access and control, even as she was also aroused by his readiness to defend her and attracted to his sexual openness and self-awareness.

The next morning, still conflicted and hungover, Lauren decided she needed her phone back and arranged to attend Mass with her grandmother. Over coffee before church, Nonna bluntly told Lauren that Tommy, Lauren’s father, was truly missing. Nonna explained that Tommy’s girlfriend had reported he had not been home in weeks, Kristen filed a missing person report, and police found no activity on Tommy’s phone or credit cards since he disappeared.

Lauren felt hurt that Kristen had not told her and noted Kristen’s habit of hoarding information. When Lauren asked about recent tire slashings at church, Nonna said the surveillance camera wire had been cut and that Maria, Angelina, and Nina were targeted—the same women sitting behind them gossiping—supporting Lauren’s suspicion that Junior had retaliated against people who disparaged her.

Nonna shifted back to Lauren’s personal life, urging her to enjoy sex and "sow her oats," joking that she regretted having been with only one partner. Lauren deflected details about her sex life, but the conversation underscored the chapter’s themes of control, autonomy, protection, and the blurred line between care and coercion.