Chap­ter 3 unfolds with Frank wak­ing up to the sound of qui­et chat­ter and move­ment in the liv­ing room, where his daugh­ter Abi­gail is being fit­ted for her flower girl dress. Tam­my and Mag­gie adjust the fab­ric, mak­ing sure the hem is even, while Abi­gail beams with excite­ment, her small hands smooth­ing out the lace details. The crown of daisies in her hair enhances her inno­cence, a stark con­trast to the weight Frank car­ries in his chest. As he watch­es the scene unfold, he feels a fleet­ing sense of nor­mal­cy, but it is quick­ly over­shad­owed by the press­ing con­cerns that have plagued him since the night before. Mag­gie, sens­ing his unease, diverts her atten­tion from Abi­gail and turns to her father, ask­ing how he is hold­ing up. Though Frank wants to reas­sure her, the truth lingers on the tip of his tongue—he is drown­ing in uncer­tain­ty, and the grow­ing ten­sion between them threat­ens to pull him under.

Real­iz­ing that their con­ver­sa­tion needs pri­va­cy, Mag­gie leads Frank out­side, away from Abi­gail and Tammy’s watch­ful eyes. The crisp morn­ing air car­ries a sense of urgency, as if nature itself is aware of the dif­fi­cult dis­cus­sion ahead. Mag­gie assures Frank that she is ready to be hon­est with him, but in return, she needs him to lis­ten with an open mind. Her words do lit­tle to ease the appre­hen­sion set­tling deep in his bones. He nods in agree­ment, brac­ing him­self for what is to come. What he does not expect is the con­fes­sion that follows—Maggie reveals her roman­tic involve­ment with Errol Gard­ner, a man near­ly twice her age and very much mar­ried. The rev­e­la­tion leaves Frank momen­tar­i­ly speech­less, his mind rac­ing to con­nect the dots. Mag­gie insists that their rela­tion­ship, which began as a pro­fes­sion­al men­tor­ship, grad­u­al­ly evolved into some­thing more, some­thing she will­ing­ly pur­sued.

Frank strug­gles to process this infor­ma­tion, his ini­tial shock giv­ing way to a wave of con­cern and anger. He press­es Mag­gie for answers, ques­tion­ing why she would entan­gle her­self in such a pre­car­i­ous sit­u­a­tion. Mag­gie, unwa­ver­ing in her stance, explains that Errol made her feel seen, val­ued in ways she had nev­er expe­ri­enced before. How­ev­er, Frank sees through her ratio­nal­iza­tions, rec­og­niz­ing the imbal­ance of pow­er and the inevitable con­se­quences of such an affair. Before he can for­mu­late a response, Mag­gie con­tin­ues, reveal­ing an even dark­er truth—during a week­end trip to Osprey Cove, she and Errol stum­bled upon a dead woman at the lodge. The weight of her words hangs between them, heav­ier than the morn­ing air. Frank is hor­ri­fied as Mag­gie describes how they con­cealed the inci­dent, con­struct­ing a care­ful­ly curat­ed lie to pro­tect Errol’s wife, Cather­ine, and her son, Aidan.

The shock of Maggie’s con­fes­sion is almost too much for Frank to bear. He demands to know why she would will­ing­ly involve her­self in such a dan­ger­ous cov­er-up, why she did not come to him for help. Mag­gie, defen­sive now, insists that she had no choice, that the sit­u­a­tion spi­raled beyond her con­trol. Frank sees the cracks in her com­po­sure, the sub­tle tremor in her voice, and he real­izes she is scared—whether she admits it or not. His dis­ap­proval of her impend­ing mar­riage to Aidan grows ten­fold, but Mag­gie refus­es to back down. She argues that her deci­sions are her own, that she is not a child who needs sav­ing. She believes that her mar­riage to Aidan will pro­vide her with finan­cial inde­pen­dence, a safe­ty net that Frank can­not com­pre­hend.

Frus­tra­tion mounts as Frank pleads with Mag­gie to recon­sid­er, to walk away before it is too late. He warns her of the poten­tial con­se­quences, of the fall­out that will sure­ly come if the truth is ever exposed. But Mag­gie remains firm, her resolve unshak­en. She insists that Frank sup­port her, that he stand beside her on her wed­ding day as her father, regard­less of his feel­ings. Frank, torn between his love for his daugh­ter and the deep sense of dread fill­ing his heart, real­izes that his hands are tied. He can­not force Mag­gie to make the right choice, nor can he shield her from the path she has cho­sen. As he watch­es her walk away, he is left grap­pling with a painful reality—the daugh­ter he raised, the one he tried so hard to pro­tect, is slip­ping fur­ther away, and there is noth­ing he can do to stop it. The chap­ter clos­es with a lin­ger­ing sense of unease, fore­shad­ow­ing the inevitable reck­on­ing that awaits them both.