Chap­ter 170 opens with Patch sort­ing through a stack of mail, his thoughts inter­rupt­ed by his daugh­ter Char­lot­te’s dis­com­fort with her sneak­ers. He notices an enve­lope that stands out from the rest, catch­ing his atten­tion, but before he can delve into its con­tents, the day takes on a new course. By mid­day, Patch has made the deci­sion to take Char­lotte out of school, their des­ti­na­tion unknown, as they begin their jour­ney along Route 63. The office staff, wit­ness­ing their depar­ture, watch­es with con­cern, unsure of the rea­sons behind this abrupt deci­sion. As Char­lotte gazes out of the car win­dow, the land­scape grad­u­al­ly shifts from the urban sprawl to the peace­ful calm of the coun­try­side, cross­ing over the Mis­souri Riv­er and pass­ing through Jef­fer­son City, sym­bol­ic of their emo­tion­al tran­si­tion, leav­ing the chaos of the dai­ly rou­tine behind.

Their jour­ney con­tin­ues with a stop in Colum­bia for lunch, where Char­lotte opens up about her dreams and ambi­tions. She tells Patch of her desire to be a writer and attend Har­vard, aspi­ra­tions that seem deeply root­ed in her con­nec­tion to her late moth­er. Their con­ver­sa­tion reveals the com­plex­i­ty of Char­lot­te’s emo­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly her thoughts on her unplanned exis­tence. While Char­lotte embraces these ambi­tious goals, there’s an under­ly­ing cur­rent of uncer­tain­ty, as she admits her life feels like it’s been lived out of some­one else’s design. As the con­ver­sa­tion unfolds, they both reflect on what could have been, but also on the beau­ty of pur­su­ing dreams, how­ev­er uncer­tain. As their jour­ney pro­gress­es, Char­lotte expe­ri­ences a wave of nau­sea, which offers a brief, humor­ous moment to break the ten­sion, but also illus­trates the phys­i­cal toll that the trip is tak­ing on her. By the time they reach Min­neapo­lis, they find them­selves search­ing for a house that appears aban­doned, adding to the sense of unease and the strange ener­gy of the whole jour­ney.

Lat­er that evening, in the qui­et of their room, Patch takes a moment to call Saint, seek­ing reas­sur­ance about their emo­tion­al jour­ney. From the bath­room, he shares his grow­ing doubts about the mis­sion and the emo­tion­al weight it car­ries, par­tic­u­lar­ly the strain it is plac­ing on Char­lotte. He tells Saint about a let­ter he found that men­tions anoth­er miss­ing girl, Rosie, but the con­ver­sa­tion soon turns seri­ous, as Saint express­es her con­cern over Charlotte’s absence from school and the toll it could take on her. Their exchange delves deep­er, with Patch admit­ting his feel­ings of guilt and the impact of those feel­ings on his choic­es. Saint, while sup­port­ive, chal­lenges Patch’s moti­va­tions, ques­tion­ing whether his relent­less search for miss­ing girls and redemp­tion is the right path, espe­cial­ly at the expense of Charlotte’s emo­tion­al well-being. The com­plex­i­ty of Patch’s emo­tions comes to the fore­front, high­light­ing his strug­gle with survivor’s guilt and the haunt­ing need for answers. The under­ly­ing ten­sion builds as Saint press­es Patch on his choic­es, mak­ing him reflect on his actions in a way that he had not yet done before.

As the chap­ter con­cludes, Patch sits in reflec­tive silence, con­tem­plat­ing the dis­tance between him­self and Saint, both phys­i­cal­ly and emo­tion­al­ly. His mind drifts to the ques­tion of why Saint nev­er paint­ed him, a ques­tion that haunts him and lingers in the air, unre­solved. In the still­ness of the moment, Patch feels the weight of their shared his­to­ry and the unspo­ken emo­tions that have yet to be addressed. The chap­ter clos­es on this unre­solved note, as Patch con­tem­plates his place in Charlotte’s life and the com­plex, often painful, rela­tion­ships that have shaped his jour­ney. As he gazes at his daugh­ter under the moon­light, the sense of iso­la­tion he feels from the peo­ple around him is pal­pa­ble, yet so too is the qui­et hope that lingers, despite the tur­bu­lent past.