In Chap­ter 198 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” Saint is vis­i­bly dis­tressed dur­ing din­ner, par­tic­u­lar­ly after receiv­ing a call from Mrs. Mey­er, who expressed con­cern over the Leave­sham boy’s behav­ior. Spec­u­lat­ing that he may have bought some­thing inap­pro­pri­ate, pos­si­bly con­doms or seda­tives, adds to Sain­t’s anx­i­ety. As the evening pro­gress­es, Saint strug­gles with her feel­ings and finds her­self pac­ing and mak­ing calls until she final­ly dis­cov­ers the Leave­shams’ address.

At the Leave­shams’, she observes Char­lotte and Matt in a com­pro­mis­ing sit­u­a­tion, prompt­ing her to con­front them force­ful­ly. When she catch­es up with Char­lotte lat­er on Cot­ter­ham Avenue, ten­sions esca­late. Char­lotte, clear­ly angered, resists Sain­t’s attempts to inter­vene, assert­ing that Saint isn’t her moth­er. The con­ver­sa­tion takes a harsh turn when Saint, over­whelmed and inad­ver­tent­ly wound­ed, snaps that she’s grate­ful not to be Char­lot­te’s moth­er, a remark she imme­di­ate­ly regrets.

The dis­cus­sion spi­rals as Char­lotte accus­es Saint of lack­ing a life and com­pares her unfa­vor­able sit­u­a­tion to her own. The con­fronta­tion grows more intense as Char­lotte artic­u­lates her feel­ings of shame for being con­nect­ed to Saint. In response, Saint opens up about her trau­mat­ic past and the domes­tic abuse she endured from Jim­my, which result­ed in phys­i­cal injuries. This shock­ing rev­e­la­tion shakes Char­lotte, caus­ing her to reeval­u­ate her per­cep­tions.

Saint can­did­ly shares her fears that the vio­lence could resur­face, despite her role as a cop, cre­at­ing an intense moment of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty between them. The chap­ter cul­mi­nates in a pro­found silence, where the once vibrant sur­round­ings feel lost and haunt­ing. Ulti­mate­ly, as the weight of their exchange sinks in, Char­lotte runs away, leav­ing an aching gap filled with unre­solved ten­sion and fear.

This chap­ter delves into deep emo­tion­al con­flicts, high­light­ing themes of trau­ma, shame, and the com­plex­i­ties of famil­ial rela­tion­ships, all set against the back­drop of a small town where every­one knows each oth­er’s busi­ness.