Three weeks before the pandemic, Clark receives a call from Elizabeth Colton, furious about an upcoming book titled Dear V. that supposedly contains Arthur Leander’s private letters and portrays his marriages and friendships “unsparingly.” Elizabeth considers litigation but isn’t sure whom to sue, and Clark, alarmed to hear that both he and Elizabeth appear in the letters, promises to call Arthur and agrees to meet Elizabeth when she comes to New York.

Shaken, Clark leaves his office consumed by thoughts of the book and what it might reveal about him. He heads to Grand Central for a scheduled 360-degree assessment interview at a water-systems consulting firm, mentally replaying Elizabeth’s comments and feeling a sudden, physical agitation that contrasts with his usual controlled professional demeanor.

At the Graybar Building, Clark interviews Dahlia, an employee speaking about her boss, Dan, who is the “target” of Clark’s coaching project. Dahlia challenges the premise of self-improvement, pressing Clark on whether people truly change or merely adjust behaviors, then bluntly characterizes Dan as a successful but unhappy man whose work habits and personal life suggest disappointment and entrapment.

Dahlia expands her critique into a broader observation that “adulthood’s full of ghosts”: people living the lives they fell into rather than the lives they wanted, settling for small workplace distractions as a substitute for real happiness. Her description of “high-functioning sleepwalkers” unsettles Clark, who recognizes the pattern as both common in his work and disturbingly familiar.

After the interview, Clark walks alone through the cold city, linking Dahlia’s idea of sleepwalking to his fear of Dear V. He realizes he has been moving half-asleep through his own life for years and wonders if Arthur saw it and wrote about it. Overcome with regret and empathy, Clark wants to apologize to the strangers he judged on the sidewalk and even to the executives he has evaluated, newly seeing how painful it is to become “the target” in someone else’s report.