Chap­ter 34 begins with the arrival of Slick at the hos­pi­tal, where her con­di­tion is rapid­ly dete­ri­o­rat­ing. The doc­tors are per­plexed by her symp­toms, which are pro­gress­ing at an unusu­al rate. They’ve con­firmed that Slick suf­fers from an autoim­mune dis­ease, where her immune sys­tem is attack­ing her own cells, yet the cause of her ail­ment remains unclear. Despite the doc­tors’ efforts to man­age her oxy­gen lev­els and mon­i­tor her health, there is a per­va­sive sense of uncer­tain­ty. For Patri­cia, the con­fir­ma­tion of the diag­no­sis is both ter­ri­fy­ing and enlight­en­ing. It reveals the true nature of James Harris—he isn’t human, and his actions have direct­ly caused Slick’s suf­fer­ing. The real­iza­tion that he has infect­ed her with some­thing dead­ly adds weight to the fear Patri­cia is already feel­ing.

Leland, Slick’s part­ner, is a reg­u­lar vis­i­tor but is vis­i­bly uncom­fort­able each time. When Patri­cia tries to engage him in con­ver­sa­tion, Leland urges her to keep the diag­no­sis a secret. He fears that peo­ple might spec­u­late and link Slick­’s con­di­tion to some­thing like AIDS, which could cause unnec­es­sary rumors and dam­age. Despite Patricia’s unease, she agrees to keep qui­et. How­ev­er, this secre­cy breeds more ten­sion between her and Leland, espe­cial­ly as she feels the heavy weight of her own help­less­ness in the face of Slick’s con­di­tion.

By Fri­day, the hos­pi­tal enforces stricter pro­to­cols, with vis­i­tors required to wear gowns and masks. Slick, pale and frag­ile, is con­fined to her bed, sur­round­ed by IVs and med­ical tubes, her body strug­gling to fight off the dis­ease inside her. Patri­cia spends her nights by her side, read­ing aloud from books in a futile attempt to pro­vide com­fort. As Slick drifts in and out of con­scious­ness, her words become faint, but they bring a smile to her face when she rec­og­nizes the famil­iar words from the book. Maryellen arrives lat­er that day and express­es frus­tra­tion about the cur­rent book club’s choice, sug­gest­ing the books no longer pro­vide the thrills they used to.

The atmos­phere in Slick’s room grows more somber as Patri­cia, Maryellen, and Slick share a moment of qui­et cama­raderie despite the grav­i­ty of their sit­u­a­tion. Slick’s con­di­tion wors­ens, yet the con­nec­tion between the three of them remains a con­stant. As they attempt to nav­i­gate the heavy silence, Patri­cia finds her­self reflect­ing on their shared his­to­ry and the absence of their oth­er friends. Maryellen, con­cerned for Kit­ty, shares unset­tling news about her—Kitty has been drink­ing heav­i­ly, haunt­ed by per­sis­tent night­mares, and is increas­ing­ly para­noid about the safe­ty of her chil­dren. Patri­cia makes a men­tal note to check in on Kit­ty soon but decides to focus on Slick for now.

The chap­ter takes a dark turn when James Har­ris unex­pect­ed­ly appears at the hos­pi­tal, dis­guised behind a mask. He approach­es Slick’s bed, pre­tend­ing to offer sym­pa­thy, but his pres­ence is any­thing but com­fort­ing. Patri­cia instinc­tive­ly steps between him and Slick, deter­mined to shield her friend from the man who has caused so much harm. His words, though laced with false con­cern, only serve to ampli­fy the ten­sion. He express­es his “care” for the fam­i­ly, but Patri­cia can sense his manip­u­la­tion beneath his façade. He makes a sub­tle, but sig­nif­i­cant, move by sug­gest­ing he could help her if she only allowed him to, fur­ther cement­ing the idea that he wants more from her than just friend­ship.

In a moment of clar­i­ty, Patri­cia real­izes that James Har­ris has insin­u­at­ed him­self so deeply into her life that he now holds sway over her every move. He has twist­ed the truth and played on her fears to cre­ate a bond of depen­dence. As he leaves, Patri­cia feels the weight of her deci­sion to trust him in the past. She silent­ly vows to pro­tect her chil­dren from him, even if it means sac­ri­fic­ing her own safe­ty. Before part­ing ways with James, she clev­er­ly man­ages to turn the sit­u­a­tion in her favor, ensur­ing that his manip­u­la­tion of her doesn’t go unno­ticed.

As the chap­ter con­cludes, Patricia’s inter­nal bat­tle inten­si­fies. The emo­tion­al tur­moil, cou­pled with the loom­ing dan­ger of James Har­ris, forces her to con­front the real­i­ty of her choic­es. She real­izes she must act quick­ly to save her fam­i­ly, but the ques­tion remains: Can she pro­tect them from a man who has proven him­self to be a preda­tor hid­ing in plain sight?