In Chap­ter 190 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” Saint nav­i­gates the com­plex­i­ties of par­ent­ing her daugh­ter Char­lotte amidst var­i­ous chal­lenges. She recalls her efforts to man­age Char­lot­te’s issues, like seek­ing advice from Nor­ma about her eat­ing habits and con­sult­ing Dr. Cald­well regard­ing her lack of sleep. Their week­ly meet­ings with Mrs. Mey­er are also high­light­ed, where they share teas and anx­i­eties, gaz­ing at the rolling Mid­west clouds that mir­ror their wor­ries. Mean­while, Char­lotte iso­lates her­self, spend­ing hours locked away in her father’s stu­dio, blast­ing Nir­vana, lead­ing Sam­my, her com­pan­ion, to the sun­ny side­walk out­side, choos­ing to sit in the warmth rather than wit­ness­ing her lack of cre­ativ­i­ty.

Char­lot­te’s silence becomes a focal point, espe­cial­ly dur­ing her vis­its to Rita Kohl, M.D. Here, the pres­sures of her home life are com­pound­ed by her with­draw­al from com­mu­ni­ca­tion, prompt­ing Saint to attempt to con­nect with her through mean­ing­ful dis­cus­sions. Saint men­tions a recent arti­cle about Patch, which Char­lotte brusque­ly dis­miss­es as trash. This exchange rep­re­sents the grow­ing dis­tance between them and Charlotte’s atti­tude toward any inter­ven­tion in her life.

Amidst these famil­ial strug­gles, Saint express­es her frus­tra­tions as she con­tem­plates her efforts to seek changes in the sys­tem affect­ing Patch, demon­strat­ing a com­mit­ment to advo­cate for humane treat­ment in facil­i­ties that house indi­vid­u­als like him. She bal­ances this with her parental duties, describ­ing her attempts to con­nect with Char­lotte, who remains unmoved by the prospect of dis­cussing emo­tions or shar­ing her thoughts.

The chap­ter cul­mi­nates in a teen rebel­lion when Char­lotte express­es her desire to be alone and not to engage in con­ver­sa­tions that invite scruti­ny of her feel­ings. Saint attempts to inter­ject humor into their seri­ous dynam­ic by offer­ing a sur­pris­ing role in teach­ing Char­lotte about self-defense. The chap­ter ends on this note of dark com­e­dy, encap­su­lat­ing the ten­sion and dis­con­nect present in their rela­tion­ship while high­light­ing the broad­er themes of ado­les­cence and parental con­cern.