After reading Verity's confession that she deliberately drowned Harper, Lowen becomes physically sick and shaken. She compares her own childhood trauma to what Verity did and sees this not as neglect but as murder. Lowen considers telling Jeremy or the police, but she doubts what can be done immediately, so she takes Xanax with whiskey, locks herself in her room, and falls asleep overwhelmed.

Later, Lowen wakes when Jeremy sneaks into her room through the window while April has taken Verity to the doctor and Crew is still at school. His presence calms her because Verity is temporarily out of the house. As they talk and touch, Jeremy admits he is falling for Lowen and feels guilty, but not guilty enough to stop their relationship.

Jeremy then tells Lowen he has arranged for Verity to enter a nursing facility during the week starting Monday, with Verity returning home three weekends a month. Hearing that, Lowen decides not to reveal the manuscript. She reasons that exposing Verity's confession would only deepen Jeremy's pain, while increased supervision and time in the facility may protect Crew and eventually expose Verity if she is faking her condition.

When Jeremy asks Lowen to stay another week, Lowen agrees even though she had planned to leave. They have sex, and afterward Lowen reflects that she is falling in love with Jeremy, not only because of who he is with her but also because Verity's writing has shown her how much he has suffered. Lowen ends the chapter wanting to give Jeremy the devotion and care she believes Verity denied him and his children, even positioning herself to keep his semen inside her.