Chap­ter 10: In this chap­ter of The Last One at the Wed­ding, the atmos­phere at the recep­tion shifts from live­ly music to the qui­et under­tones of fam­i­ly inter­ac­tions and strained social dynam­ics. Frank, accom­pa­nied by his sis­ter Tam­my and her daugh­ter Abi­gail, finds him­self nav­i­gat­ing the par­ty with a sense of dis­com­fort. The evening begins with Abi­gail, full of bound­less ener­gy, proud­ly wear­ing a fur­ry blue body­suit to rep­re­sent ‘Stitch’ from Lilo and Stitch. Her cheer­ful, care­free atti­tude con­trasts sharply with Frank’s more reserved, method­i­cal approach, espe­cial­ly as he tries to main­tain order dur­ing the buf­fet din­ner. Frank, with his con­cern for his daughter’s man­ners, con­tin­u­ous­ly reminds Abi­gail to prac­tice mod­er­a­tion as she fills her plate with food, but her dis­in­ter­est in his instruc­tions becomes evi­dent. Amid the adult chat­ter, Abi­gail remains focused on her enjoy­ment, obliv­i­ous to the social norms Frank is attempt­ing to instill in her.

As the din­ner pro­gress­es, Tammy—relaxed with her piña colada—engages in con­ver­sa­tions with oth­er guests while Abi­gail con­tin­ues to pile food onto her plate. Frank, sens­ing the grow­ing ten­sion, becomes increas­ing­ly frus­trat­ed when Abigail’s clum­si­ness results in a mishap. A piece of chick­en pic­ca­ta falls to the ground, and despite Frank’s attempts to man­age the sit­u­a­tion, Abi­gail refus­es to pick it up. With no oth­er choice, Frank reluc­tant­ly bends down to pick up the food him­self, swal­low­ing his frus­tra­tion and doing his best to sal­vage the moment. He then moves dis­creet­ly to anoth­er table, hop­ing to avoid any fur­ther embar­rass­ment and give him­self a moment of peace in the bustling event.

The uncom­fort­able din­ner atmos­phere deep­ens as they join Ger­ry Levin­son and his wife Sier­ra at their table. Ger­ry, ever the bois­ter­ous fig­ure, brags about his young wife’s ris­ing suc­cess as a children’s book author. Frank, though, can’t help but notice the sig­nif­i­cant age dif­fer­ence between the cou­ple, a con­trast that leaves him feel­ing uneasy and out of place. As the evening con­tin­ues, Frank feels like an out­sider in the con­ver­sa­tion. He half-lis­tens to Gerry’s legal work sto­ries and Sierra’s aspi­ra­tions while try­ing to stay engaged. All the while, Frank is remind­ed of the widen­ing emo­tion­al dis­tance between him and his daugh­ter, a dis­tance that seems to grow as they both try to nav­i­gate their roles in each other’s lives.

While the jazz music con­tin­ues to set the back­ground mood, Frank’s mind remains pre­oc­cu­pied with the absence of Aidan and Gwen­dolyn from the event. His wor­ries about Aidan’s involve­ment in the unfold­ing events around Dawn Taggart’s dis­ap­pear­ance only inten­si­fy as he notices Mag­gie mov­ing through the crowd. Tam­my, who is delight­ed by Abigail’s unex­pect­ed triv­ia skills, chal­lenges her niece with a few ques­tions. To Frank’s sur­prise, Abi­gail answers them effort­less­ly, impres­sive­ly nam­ing the longest rivers in Europe and Asia with ease. This dis­play of intel­li­gence from Abi­gail catch­es everyone’s atten­tion, bring­ing a fleet­ing moment of pride to Frank as he watch­es his daugh­ter shine in an unex­pect­ed light.

How­ev­er, the pleas­ant diver­sion doesn’t last long, and Frank’s thoughts quick­ly return to the dis­qui­et he feels about Aidan and Gwendolyn’s absence. Mag­gie, sens­ing her father’s grow­ing ten­sion, brush­es off his con­cerns, empha­siz­ing the fun and excite­ment of the event. Her care­free atti­tude, while refresh­ing for some, only height­ens Frank’s anx­i­eties, espe­cial­ly as he recalls the unset­tling con­ver­sa­tion with Brody Tag­gart and the mys­te­ri­ous cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing Aidan’s ali­bi. Frank attempts to reas­sure him­self by focus­ing on a promise he made to Mag­gie about spend­ing time togeth­er, par­tic­u­lar­ly a planned canoe trip the next morn­ing. How­ev­er, the dark under­tones of the evening con­tin­ue to linger in his mind, and the ten­sion between his desire to pro­tect his daugh­ter and his grow­ing sus­pi­cions about those around her weighs heav­i­ly on him.

The chap­ter con­cludes with an unset­tling moment as Frank notices a fig­ure watch­ing him from the win­dow of the lodge. The brief exchange between Frank and this mys­te­ri­ous fig­ure, paired with his grow­ing con­cern over the peo­ple involved in Maggie’s life, leaves him feel­ing on edge. Despite the fes­tive nature of the gath­er­ing, Frank sens­es some­thing dark­er lurk­ing beneath the sur­face, an under­cur­rent that will undoubt­ed­ly com­pli­cate the fam­i­ly dynam­ics fur­ther. The ten­sion sur­round­ing Aidan’s absence, along with Frank’s unease about Maggie’s choic­es, sets the stage for deep­er rev­e­la­tions in the com­ing chap­ters, as the com­plex­i­ty of fam­i­ly rela­tion­ships and the loom­ing mys­ter­ies con­tin­ue to unfold.