Olivia rush­es to the Adams police sta­tion after receiv­ing a pan­icked call from her son, Ash­er, who is being ques­tioned. The chap­ter opens with her fran­tic arrival, not­ing her lack of prepa­ra­tion in her haste. She explains her rela­tion­ship to Ash­er to the offi­cer at the front desk, empha­siz­ing her fear and con­fu­sion. The scene shifts as Lieu­tenant Mike New­comb, an old acquain­tance from Olivia’s past, inter­venes to guide her inside. The ten­sion builds as Olivia learns that Ash­er was found hold­ing Lily’s body, though Mike reas­sures her that the blood on Asher’s clothes isn’t his.

Inside the sta­tion, Olivia is reunit­ed with Ash­er, who is vis­i­bly dis­traught and cov­ered in blood. The emo­tion­al weight of the moment is pal­pa­ble as Olivia embraces him, try­ing to shield him from the unfold­ing tragedy. Mike’s warning—“It’s not his blood”—hints at the grav­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion. The chap­ter then tran­si­tions to Asher’s inter­ro­ga­tion, where he recounts dis­cov­er­ing Lily at the bot­tom of the stairs, unre­spon­sive and bleed­ing. His con­fu­sion and des­per­a­tion are evi­dent as he strug­gles to artic­u­late what hap­pened.

Ash­er explains that he went to Lily’s house after she failed to respond to his texts, find­ing the door open and Lily already injured. His account is frag­ment­ed, filled with uncer­tain­ty and shock. Mike press­es him for details, par­tic­u­lar­ly why he didn’t call 911 imme­di­ate­ly, which Ash­er seems unable to answer coher­ent­ly. Olivia inter­jects, defend­ing her son’s state of mind, but Mike insists on pro­ceed­ing with the ques­tion­ing. The chap­ter cap­tures Asher’s grow­ing dis­tress as he grap­ples with the real­i­ty of Lily’s con­di­tion.

The chap­ter clos­es with Asher’s unre­solved anguish and Olivia’s pro­tec­tive instincts clash­ing with the need for answers. The nar­ra­tive leaves lin­ger­ing ques­tions about Lily’s fate and Asher’s involve­ment, set­ting the stage for fur­ther inves­ti­ga­tion. The emo­tion­al inten­si­ty of the scene under­scores the fragili­ty of the char­ac­ters’ rela­tion­ships and the loom­ing uncer­tain­ty of what tru­ly hap­pened to Lily.