On the same day Cherry learned of her mother Mae's terminal diagnosis, David called from Perth, deeply shaken. Two people had fallen from the rooftop balcony at one of their regular Friday night parties and died—exactly as Cherry had apparently described in a drunken warning weeks earlier. David told Cherry that everyone at the party remembered her description, including the detail of a white T-shirt. He concluded she had inherited the "family gift," but Cherry insisted she had merely been warning people about the danger of sitting on a balcony edge while drunk, not predicting the future. She told David about her mother's diagnosis, but he was too rattled to fully absorb the news. When he asked when she was coming home, Cherry nearly replied that she was already home—in Tasmania with her mother.

Cherry reflects on the painful reality of loving someone who is dying: the world's indifference, the irrational rage, the dying person's continued vanity and ability to hurt feelings, and the infuriating knowledge that an earlier diagnosis could have saved them. Mae and Auntie Pat told Cherry to return to Perth, and she did. The rooftop parties had ended after the accident; the terrace was blocked off and the anesthetist whose friends died moved out. A young family with a baby moved into the apartment, changing the building's atmosphere. David adored the baby, and the couple applied to adopt a child from Korea.

Cherry and David entered a bittersweet period of waiting—for a baby and for Mae's death. Cherry and her mother had some of their most honest conversations during this time. Mae apologized for not seeing a doctor sooner and assured Cherry she would be a good mother. They received a photo of an eighteen-month-old girl named Bo-Mi, and Cherry felt an instant, powerful connection. She sent the photo to Mae, noting that Mae's old prediction about a girl arriving by plane with a name starting with "B" seemed to be coming true. Auntie Pat reported that Mae cried with happiness but also hinted her health was declining.

David and Cherry experienced a period of renewed tenderness, lying in bed studying Bo-Mi's photo, being kinder and more vulnerable with each other. Cherry wondered if they were bringing their marriage back from the brink, as her mother had once said was possible.

Then two devastating things happened. The adoption agency called to say there had been a mix-up—the photo of Bo-Mi belonged to a different couple named "Cheryl Smith," not "Cherry Smith." Their actual baby was a six-month-old boy whose photo was forthcoming. The next day, still raw from this loss, Cherry threw a spring roll at a colleague who called her "Cheryl" at a team lunch, and her boss sent her home early. Arriving home unexpectedly, Cherry found David and Stella sitting on the stairs outside their apartment, simply talking. Nothing overtly wrong was happening, but Cherry watched them and knew with certainty that David and Stella were having an affair.