Chap­ter 180 begins with Saint’s curios­i­ty lead­ing her to a church in a small, qui­et town, a place filled with a sense of mys­tery that draws her in. Her mind drifts to the pos­si­bil­i­ty that anoth­er girl may rest here, buried in the grounds of the church, though she had spent weeks going through archives, search­ing in vain for any record from over forty years ago. Despite the silence of the church and its sur­round­ing grounds, there’s an unde­ni­able feel­ing that some­thing remains hid­den in its his­to­ry, wait­ing to be uncov­ered, and it’s this feel­ing that keeps her mov­ing for­ward in her search.

Saint con­tin­ues her explo­ration, walk­ing through the nar­row hall­ways of the church and enter­ing a small­er build­ing that seems almost untouched by time. Inside, rows of black-stained wood­en book­shelves line the walls, and the faint smell of old paper fills the air. It is here that she encoun­ters Sis­ter Isabelle, who is qui­et­ly man­ning an old cash reg­is­ter, one that seems almost redun­dant giv­en the lack of activ­i­ty in the area. Their brief con­ver­sa­tion is polite, but Saint feels that there’s more to be under­stood here. After leav­ing Sis­ter Isabelle, she steps out­side and cir­cles the build­ing, find­ing her­self drawn to the children’s home next door. The stark con­crete sur­round­ings are bright­ened only by the col­or­ful chalk draw­ings of num­bers and shapes that chil­dren have left on the pave­ment. It is a sym­bol of life and inno­cence amidst the oth­er­wise somber atmos­phere. As she walks through this space, she finds a per­fect gray feath­er, which reminds her of her grand­moth­er’s teach­ings about guardian angels and pro­tec­tion. She care­ful­ly tucks the feath­er into her pock­et, a small yet mean­ing­ful keep­sake that feels sym­bol­ic of her cur­rent search for answers and the love that guides her.

For hours, Saint immers­es her­self fur­ther into the church’s his­to­ry, engag­ing with locals and vis­it­ing the grave­yard where many of the town’s res­i­dents have been laid to rest. She exam­ines the old grave­stones, tak­ing in the engrav­ings and inscrip­tions that seem to hold long-for­got­ten sto­ries. As she con­tin­ues her explo­ration, she shows the pho­tographs of Eli Aaron to a group of elder­ly men and to Sis­ter Isabelle, seek­ing any recog­ni­tion or clues that may point her toward an answer. When she reach­es the church’s pul­pit, she touch­es the carved Latin inscrip­tions on the bench­es, con­tem­plat­ing their mean­ing as she runs her fin­gers across the intri­cate wood­work. In a qui­et moment, she whis­pers, “What are you try­ing to tell me, Grace?” Seek­ing guid­ance, she steps aside for the nuns pass­ing by and observes their calm and rev­er­ent demeanor. Their sim­ple attire—sandals, veils, tunics, and coifs—reflects their devo­tion, and the rosary beads they wear serve as a tan­gi­ble sym­bol of their faith. Saint’s own sense of devo­tion to the task at hand deep­ens, and she feels a pro­found con­nec­tion to the sacred atmos­phere of the church.

Through­out the chap­ter, Sain­t’s search through the church is much more than just an intel­lec­tu­al pur­suit; it becomes a jour­ney of the spir­it. The deep­er she delves into the past, the more she feels her­self con­nect­ed to her grandmother’s wis­dom and the beliefs that have been passed down through gen­er­a­tions. Each step she takes with­in the church’s walls and every con­ver­sa­tion she has with the locals deep­ens her belief that the answers she seeks lie some­where with­in this sacred space. The weight of her search is not only about uncov­er­ing the truth of the past but also about under­stand­ing the endur­ing influ­ence of faith, fam­i­ly, and mem­o­ry. As Saint con­tin­ues to walk the fine line between per­son­al dis­cov­ery and her relent­less search for truth, she real­izes that the space around her—filled with reli­gious sym­bols and old-world history—may offer her the answers she’s been seek­ing all along. With each pass­ing moment, she grows clos­er to piec­ing togeth­er the puz­zle of her past and the secrets the church holds.