Misty’s cancer worsens with shocking speed. In the summer of 1993, Patch moves Misty’s bed to the bay window at Parade Hill so she can watch the seasons change, and he spends most of his time in the house as a quiet, constant presence. Charlotte stays close to Misty, sometimes reading from her schoolbooks and sometimes listening as Misty tells stories about Patch’s younger days. During one attack of fever, Patch is briefly transfixed by television coverage of a deadly train derailment until Charlotte snaps him back and tells him to fetch her grandmother.

As the months move toward Christmas, Misty’s pain becomes severe enough that nurses begin coming in the evenings. Patch can do little against Charlotte’s growing dread, but he tries to give her structure and comfort by taking her to the gallery and teaching her to paint. He even opens a locker and takes out brushes he has not used in nearly twenty years, turning art into a way for father and daughter to be together while Misty fades.

Sammy becomes part of that routine, using his crude jokes to cut through the heaviness and nearly draw a smile from Charlotte. His vulgar commentary after a woman leaves the gallery briefly breaks the tension in a house dominated by illness and waiting. At the turn of the new year, Patch, Misty, and Charlotte sit on Misty’s bed and watch fireworks over Monta Clare, a rare moment of shared warmth before Patch leaves mother and daughter asleep after midnight.

Outside on the terrace, Mrs. Meyer tells Patch that he has been good with Misty and Charlotte, but she presses him on the real question: whether he will stay after Misty dies, or whether only the part of him that belonged to Misty has returned. She reflects on her unhappy marriage to Franklin and the Meyer habit of using money to bury problems, while Patch argues that life should be lived instead of saved for some unreal future moment. Mrs. Meyer ends by making clear that Charlotte is now everything, forcing Patch to confront what kind of father and permanent presence he can truly be.