Chap­ter XV opens with Addie LaRue expe­ri­enc­ing a sharp con­trast to the bustling, ener­getic atmos­phere she has become accus­tomed to. Alone in her spa­cious New York City apart­ment, she feels the weight of James’s absence—a pres­ence that had unknow­ing­ly filled every cor­ner of the space. The mem­o­ry of a sim­ple, inti­mate evening spent with him, where they made grilled cheese and shared unspo­ken com­fort, now feels dis­tant and unreach­able. The stark silence of the apart­ment, accom­pa­nied by the view of a mut­ed Man­hat­tan, deep­ens her sense of lone­li­ness, ampli­fy­ing the absence that only she can feel. In an attempt to fill the empti­ness, Addie plays music, but even her favorite records fail to res­onate as they once did. The sound seems hol­low, and the once-wel­com­ing space now feels enor­mous and uninvit­ing, fur­ther empha­siz­ing the soli­tude she now faces.

Unable to find solace in the media that once con­nect­ed her to the out­side world, Addie is con­front­ed with the cold, gloomy weath­er of the day. The apartment’s lux­u­ri­ous but imper­son­al set­up only adds to her dis­con­tent, lack­ing the warmth and famil­iar­i­ty she once enjoyed. There’s no favorite tea to brew, no well-worn fic­tion books to read, and no cozy fire to sit by. This absence of com­fort push­es Addie to aban­don her attempts at cre­at­ing a sense of peace with­in the walls of her apart­ment. Wrap­ping her­self in a soft plaid cash­mere scarf, she steps out into the city, walk­ing aim­less­ly in search of some­thing to quell the qui­et tur­moil inside her. Her des­ti­na­tion is unclear, but the walk becomes a way to escape the over­whelm­ing empti­ness she feels inside James’s home, a place that was once a refuge but is now a reminder of her iso­la­tion.

As she walks through the streets of New York, Addie is haunt­ed by the fear of for­get­ting her­self, a dread that has fol­lowed her for three hun­dred years. She reflects on the nature of mem­o­ry and the feel­ing of being for­got­ten, liken­ing it to a pas­sage from J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, where Peter for­gets Wendy Dar­ling. In this moment of intro­spec­tion, Addie feels the sharp sting of her curse, a con­di­tion that keeps her from form­ing last­ing bonds and being remem­bered. Her thoughts take her to the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Muse­um of Art, a place where she feels a con­nec­tion to some­thing greater than her­self. The muse­um, with its time­less dis­plays of his­to­ry and art, offers Addie a sem­blance of com­pan­ion­ship, even as she feels like a soli­tary exhib­it her­self. Inside the muse­um, she nav­i­gates the famil­iar halls, find­ing solace in the still­ness and beau­ty that sur­rounds her.

As she wan­ders through the gal­leries, she comes across a sculp­ture called Revenir, fea­tur­ing five birds in mid-flight, poised as though ready to take off into the sky. The intri­cate crafts­man­ship of the sculp­ture cap­tures her atten­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly the fifth bird, which seems to sym­bol­ize the theme of return. This moment of con­nec­tion is pow­er­ful for Addie, as it mir­rors her own deep long­ing to return to a time when she felt seen and under­stood, par­tic­u­lar­ly in her moments with James. The sculp­ture, in its del­i­cate detail, sym­bol­izes her yearn­ing for con­nec­tion and a return to a sense of belong­ing that she can nev­er quite grasp. As she stands in front of it, Addie is forced to con­front the lone­li­ness that defines her exis­tence, a theme that runs through every aspect of her life, from the cold apart­ment to the emp­ty streets of the city. Through this jour­ney, Addie’s day becomes a med­i­ta­tion on the tran­sient nature of rela­tion­ships and the inabil­i­ty to hold onto the things that once brought her joy, a stark con­trast to the vibran­cy of New York City that con­tin­ues around her, seem­ing­ly indif­fer­ent to her per­son­al strug­gle.