In this chap­ter, the wed­ding recep­tion unfolds on a live­ly lawn, packed with near­ly a hun­dred guests and a jazzy atmos­phere as a trio plays “It Had to Be You.” The scene is bustling with cater­ers quick­ly set­ting up addi­tion­al tables and a long buf­fet dis­play­ing a feast of prime rib, crab cakes, corn on the cob, sal­ads, and var­i­ous cock­tail sta­tions. Among the flur­ry, the pro­tag­o­nist, Frank Sza­tows­ki, spots a famil­iar bar­tender from a pre­vi­ous encounter.

As Frank nav­i­gates the crowd, he search­es for his daugh­ter, Mag­gie, feel­ing an urgency to dis­cuss Aidan’s past and the recent unset­tling con­ver­sa­tion he had about the miss­ing Dawn Tag­gart. After locat­ing Mag­gie, she appears cheer­ful, hav­ing just arranged trans­porta­tion for the event. How­ev­er, Frank insists on hav­ing a pri­vate con­ver­sa­tion first, lead­ing them to an ele­vat­ed table where they can talk away from pry­ing eyes.

The con­ver­sa­tion quick­ly esca­lates into a tense dis­cus­sion about Aidan and the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing Dawn Tag­gart’s dis­ap­pear­ance. Frank learns that Aidan claimed to be in Maggie’s apart­ment dur­ing the week­end of Dawn’s dis­ap­pear­ance, con­tra­dict­ing her pre­vi­ous state­ments that Aidan was far away. Rais­ing con­cerns about the valid­i­ty of Aidan’s ali­bi, Frank press­es Mag­gie for clar­i­ty but faces staunch defens­es from her, argu­ing that Aidan is inno­cent and that her rela­tion­ship with him is gen­uine.

As the dis­cus­sion con­tin­ues, ten­sions rise, espe­cial­ly when Frank reveals that he spoke to Dawn’s uncle, who sus­pects Aidan may have been involved. Mag­gie dis­miss­es her father’s wor­ries, insist­ing that a drunk­en con­ver­sa­tion should hold less weight than her con­vic­tion in Aidan’s char­ac­ter. Frus­trat­ed by Maggie’s stub­born­ness and dis­mis­sive nature, Frank push­es for answers, sus­pect­ing that Aidan is hid­ing some­thing sig­nif­i­cant, pos­si­bly con­nect­ed to the case of Dawn.

Just as mat­ters esca­late, the wed­ding host, Errol Gard­ner, inter­rupts with good inten­tions, offer­ing Mag­gie a glass of wine, prompt­ing a brief dis­trac­tion from the intense father-daugh­ter exchange. As the fes­tiv­i­ties con­tin­ue, Errol takes Mag­gie away for intro­duc­tions, leav­ing Frank to grap­ple with his con­cerns and the unre­solved mys­tery sur­round­ing Aidan and Dawn. The moment encap­su­lates the com­plex­i­ties of famil­ial rela­tion­ships amidst a back­drop of love, sus­pi­cion, and the loom­ing shad­ows of an unsolved mys­tery.