In Chap­ter 170 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” the nar­ra­tive unfolds as a new semes­ter begins, with Patch sort­ing through mail and reflect­ing on Charlotte’s dis­com­fort with her sneak­ers. He dis­cov­ers an enve­lope that catch­es his atten­tion. By mid­day, they are trav­el­ing along Route 63, hav­ing removed Char­lotte from school, while an office staff mem­ber watch­es them with a sense of con­cern. Char­lotte gazes out, tak­ing in the land­scape, espe­cial­ly as they cross Jef­fer­son City and the Mis­souri Riv­er.

Dur­ing a stop for lunch in Colum­bia, Char­lotte express­es her aspi­ra­tions of being a writer and attend­ing Har­vard, a nod to her mother’s past. Their con­ver­sa­tion turns some­what humor­ous yet poignant, reveal­ing feel­ings about Charlotte’s unplanned exis­tence. After some escapades, includ­ing a bout of nau­sea dur­ing their trav­els, they arrive in Min­neapo­lis and search for a house that seems aban­doned.

That night, Patch, seek­ing con­nec­tion, calls Saint in the bath­room, reveal­ing his uncer­tain­ty about their sit­u­a­tion and the girl they are search­ing for. He men­tions find­ing a let­ter that hints at anoth­er pos­si­ble lead, ref­er­enc­ing a miss­ing girl named Rosie. Saint express­es her dis­ap­proval of Char­lotte being out of school, and Patch takes a reflec­tive stance, con­tem­plat­ing the nature of his pur­suit for miss­ing indi­vid­u­als, liken­ing them to flick­er­ing lights that he strives to reach but often find extin­guished.

Their con­ver­sa­tion grows deep­er, touch­ing on the com­plex­i­ties and emo­tion­al bur­dens they car­ry from the past, includ­ing Patch’s feel­ings of guilt and the impact of his actions on Char­lotte. Saint chal­lenges Patch’s moti­va­tions and choic­es, point­ing out the pos­si­ble roots of his sur­vivor’s guilt as he pulls Char­lotte into his chaot­ic search for abso­lu­tion. As they exchange inti­mate thoughts, an under­ly­ing strain of regret and reflec­tion runs through their dis­course, res­onat­ing stark­ly as Patch per­ceives his daugh­ter under the moon­light, empha­siz­ing their com­pli­cat­ed rela­tion­ship and its inter­sec­tions with their pasts.

The chap­ter clos­es on a qui­et note, with Patch con­tem­plat­ing the emo­tion­al chasms between him­self and Saint, reflect­ing on why she nev­er paint­ed him, a ques­tion that lingers in the silence they share.