After another week in Verity’s office, Lowen grows bored and unsettled by the manuscript’s repetitive sexual detail and lack of attention to Verity’s children. She finishes an outline for the first book and sends it to Corey, then decides not to begin the next one until Pantem responds. Because her advance has not yet arrived, Lowen stays in the house a little longer, but she feels burned out and restless.

On the night before her birthday, Lowen goes to the living room for the first time in days and watches television. Jeremy joins her, and their conversation quickly turns personal. When Lowen mentions she may leave in a couple of days, Jeremy says it has not been long enough, revealing that he does not want her gone. After he learns her birthday is at midnight, he goes to the kitchen and bakes her a cake.

While the cake bakes, Lowen and Jeremy talk easily about ordinary things rather than Verity, grief, or work, and Lowen sees a more relaxed side of him. At midnight, Jeremy brings her a slice with a candle, sings softly so he will not wake Crew, and flirts with her while feeding her cake. The intimacy builds until Jeremy wipes icing from Lowen’s lip, then kisses her.

The kiss quickly becomes intense, and Jeremy and Lowen lose themselves in the moment on the couch. As Jeremy begins undressing Lowen and kissing her body, Lowen looks up and sees Verity standing at the top of the stairs, fists clenched, watching them. Verity then rushes away. Lowen panics and tries to make Jeremy understand what she saw, but he initially thinks Lowen is reacting to guilt over kissing a married man.

When Lowen insists, Jeremy runs upstairs to Verity’s room. By the time Lowen follows, Verity is back in bed under the covers, apparently asleep. Shaken and unable to explain what happened, Lowen breaks down while Jeremy, confused and apologetic, blames exhaustion, stress, and paranoia. He brings her to bed, promises not to leave her alone for a while, and stays with her until she calms.

As they lie together, Lowen asks whether Verity could be faking her injuries. Jeremy rejects the idea, insisting he saw the medical scans and that Verity would never fake something so extreme. Lowen is not reassured, because the manuscript has shown her a side of Verity that Jeremy does not know, leaving Lowen more convinced than ever that Verity may be conscious, mobile, and watching them.