One year after Sue’s death, Percy, Sam, and Charlie gather on a Friday evening in July to spread Sue’s ashes on Kamaniskeg Lake. They choose the lake at sunset because Sue loved that brief “magic hour,” and Sam and Charlie insist on using their father’s old Banana Boat for the goodbye, even though they failed to repair it themselves and had to send it to the marina.

As Charlie drives the boat and Sam sits beside him, Percy reflects on how much has changed since she first fell in love with Sam there. Sam and Percy are now openly together, living in Toronto, while Charlie also lives nearby. Percy notes that rebuilding her relationship with Sam has taken work, trust, arguments, and persistence, but their friendship and deep understanding of each other have remained intact.

In the middle of the lake, Sam holds Sue’s urn while he and Charlie admit they are not ready to let her go, but agree that it is time. Charlie accelerates the boat, and Sam releases Sue’s ashes into the air behind them. The moment is brief and final, and the three return to shore in silence.

Back at the house, a large memorial party awaits, exactly the kind of gathering Sue would have wanted, full of music, food, and the people who loved her. Percy reveals that over the past year she also did one of the hardest things she owed from the past: she apologized to Delilah, who warmly embraced her instead of rejecting her.

The chapter ends with Percy looking ahead to the end of the night, when she and Sam will be alone in the basement. Percy plans to kneel and propose to Sam with a ring made from embroidery floss matching her old bracelet, asking him to be her family forever. The epilogue closes with grief transformed into commitment, repair, and a chosen future together.