Chap­ter 37 begins with Patri­cia telling Carter that Korey is strug­gling with drug use. The news hits Carter hard, but he believes Patri­cia with­out hes­i­ta­tion, large­ly due to his own fears of such an issue. As they pack Korey’s belong­ings into an overnight bag, Patri­cia can’t help but feel a deep resent­ment, think­ing to her­self that her fam­i­ly’s trou­bles extend far beyond their cur­rent predica­ment. While Carter remarks that no one in his fam­i­ly has had such issues, Patri­cia is remind­ed of the dark­er secrets that her own fam­i­ly car­ries, includ­ing a man they mur­dered and buried in their back­yard. Her mind races as she prays for for­give­ness, know­ing the weight of the choic­es they’ve made.

The deci­sion is made to take Korey to South­ern Pines, a psy­chi­atric and sub­stance abuse treat­ment cen­ter. Patri­ci­a’s anx­i­ety is pal­pa­ble as she asks the intake admin­is­tra­tor about Korey’s care, des­per­ate­ly want­i­ng to ensure her daugh­ter is close­ly mon­i­tored. As the facil­i­ty is described as a place where some chil­dren react vio­lent­ly dur­ing intake, Patri­ci­a’s fear of los­ing her daugh­ter to the same fate as oth­er trou­bled youth inten­si­fies. At the same time, her thoughts turn to the hor­rif­ic mem­o­ries of oth­er chil­dren who were failed by the sys­tem, fuel­ing her need for a guar­an­teed out­come, not just the hope of improve­ment. She can­not shake the feel­ing that some­thing dark­er looms over Korey’s treat­ment, espe­cial­ly with the tor­ment she’s endured because of James Har­ris.

After drop­ping Korey off, the silence in the house becomes almost suf­fo­cat­ing, ampli­fy­ing Patri­ci­a’s guilt and sense of urgency. She feels as though time is run­ning out, and the frac­tures in her fam­i­ly are deep­en­ing faster than she can repair them. That evening, as Carter retreats into work to escape the emo­tion­al chaos, Patri­cia receives a call from James Har­ris, fur­ther com­pli­cat­ing the already frag­ile sit­u­a­tion. He demands answers about Korey, and though Patri­cia tries to buy time, Har­ris offers no mer­cy. His threats weigh heav­i­ly on her, adding anoth­er lay­er of stress to an already tumul­tuous day. Patri­ci­a’s life feels like it’s tee­ter­ing on the edge, unsure whether she can reclaim the pieces of her shat­tered fam­i­ly.

As the days pass, Patri­cia does her best to main­tain some sense of nor­mal­cy for her son Blue, who seems dis­tant and with­drawn. Despite her efforts to reas­sure him and tell him that none of this is his fault, Blue remains silent, lost in his own world. Patri­cia hopes that she can shield him from the hor­ror, even as she strug­gles with her own emo­tions and guilt. When Sat­ur­day arrives, Patri­cia is over­whelmed with fear and uncer­tain­ty. To cope, she begins clean­ing Korey’s room, try­ing to fill the silence with actions instead of thoughts. The task helps her feel some sem­blance of con­trol over her chaot­ic life, but her fear con­tin­ues to build as the time draws near­er for her con­fronta­tion with James Har­ris.

Patricia’s emo­tion­al state reach­es a break­ing point as she dress­es in her black vel­vet dress, prepar­ing for her meet­ing with Har­ris. The dress feels suf­fo­cat­ing, a reminder of her inter­nal con­flict and self-doubt. She real­izes how much she has lost and how far she’s fall­en from the woman she once was, but still, she steels her­self for the encounter. When she arrives at Harris’s house, the atmos­phere is eeri­ly qui­et, and Patri­cia is greet­ed by the cold, dim light of his liv­ing room. As they face each oth­er, Patricia’s inner tur­moil inten­si­fies, know­ing the dark­ness Har­ris rep­re­sents and the toll his pres­ence has tak­en on her and her fam­i­ly. She tells him of the pain he has caused, but it is clear that he sees her as noth­ing more than an object to be manip­u­lat­ed.

James Har­ris responds with laugh­ter, mock­ing Patricia’s plea and reject­ing her offers of sub­mis­sion. His cru­el­ty is evi­dent, and Patricia’s sense of humil­i­a­tion grows as she tries to bar­gain with him, hop­ing to save her chil­dren by giv­ing up what­ev­er she has left. Har­ris’s rejec­tion of her is a blow, but she doesn’t back down. She agrees to his terms, offer­ing her­self to him in exchange for her daughter’s safe­ty, though she knows the price will be high. Harris’s cold response to her sac­ri­fice rein­forces the pow­er dynam­ics he has con­trolled for so long. Patricia’s real­iza­tion that she has been manip­u­lat­ed, but is still trapped in his web, haunts her as she con­tin­ues to nego­ti­ate with him.

As Har­ris demands her sub­mis­sion, Patri­cia is left with no choice but to fol­low his orders. She removes her dress, feel­ing both phys­i­cal­ly exposed and emo­tion­al­ly drained. In that moment, she con­fronts the deep­est parts of her shame and fear, real­iz­ing how much she has been bro­ken by her choic­es. The chap­ter ends with Patricia’s deep inter­nal con­flict as she pre­pares to meet Harris’s demands, her mind swirling with regret and despair over the life she has cre­at­ed for her­self and her fam­i­ly. This chap­ter high­lights the bru­tal con­se­quences of Patricia’s deci­sions and the irre­versible changes she faces, empha­siz­ing the psy­cho­log­i­cal and emo­tion­al toll of liv­ing under Harris’s con­trol.