Chap­ter 4 begins with the nar­ra­tor, Frank, reflect­ing on the pro­found loss of his wife, Colleen, who trag­i­cal­ly passed away from a brain aneurysm while work­ing at Michaels. Colleen’s sud­den death left their ten-year-old daugh­ter, Mag­gie, to grow up with­out the guid­ance and love of her moth­er. The emo­tion­al weight of this event was immense for Frank, who found him­self grap­pling with over­whelm­ing feel­ings of guilt, often wish­ing that he could have tak­en Colleen’s place. He believed that she would have been able to raise Mag­gie bet­ter, while he could have con­tin­ued sup­port­ing them through his Team­sters pen­sion, which was a sta­ble source of income. As Frank nav­i­gat­ed through the grief, he real­ized that his short­com­ings as a father became more appar­ent, par­tic­u­lar­ly due to the strained rela­tion­ship he had with Mag­gie. This rela­tion­ship, which had been marked by Mag­gie’s silence for three years, left Frank ques­tion­ing his abil­i­ty to con­nect with his daugh­ter and pro­vide the sup­port she need­ed after such a trag­ic loss.

Despite the sor­row and chal­lenges, a new chap­ter began when Mag­gie shared sur­pris­ing news with Frank—she was engaged to Aidan, a man she had met only six months ear­li­er. Frank’s ini­tial reac­tion to this news was one of hes­i­ta­tion, espe­cial­ly when he learned that Mag­gie and Aidan were already liv­ing togeth­er. Although Frank wasn’t com­plete­ly tak­en aback by their cohab­i­ta­tion, giv­en the expen­sive cost of liv­ing in Boston, he still felt uneasy about the deci­sion. Maggie’s pre­vi­ous apart­ment, which she had despised due to the pres­ence of sil­ver­fish, seemed like a place she could no longer tol­er­ate. Thus, her deci­sion to move in with Aidan pro­vid­ed her with relief, both from the pest-infest­ed apart­ment and from the pres­sures of liv­ing alone. Nev­er­the­less, Frank’s pro­tec­tive instincts caused him to wor­ry about the future of their liv­ing arrange­ment, par­tic­u­lar­ly because he wasn’t sure whether Mag­gie was mak­ing this deci­sion for the right rea­sons or if it was sim­ply a way to escape her old liv­ing sit­u­a­tion.

Even with his con­cerns lin­ger­ing, Frank want­ed to cel­e­brate Maggie’s engage­ment and offered to take her out for a spe­cial din­ner at a restau­rant. He believed that this would give them an oppor­tu­ni­ty to bond over her excit­ing news, away from the stress­es of every­day life. How­ev­er, Mag­gie deflect­ed his offer, sug­gest­ing instead that they hold the cel­e­bra­tion at her apart­ment. This change in plan raised fur­ther alarms for Frank, who had heard trou­bling reports about the safe­ty of the area where Mag­gie and Aidan lived. Frank couldn’t help but feel anx­ious about the poten­tial risks of liv­ing in a neigh­bor­hood that was report­ed­ly unsafe. His desire to pro­tect Mag­gie from harm weighed heav­i­ly on him, even though he tried not to let it show. Despite his con­cerns, Frank agreed to meet Mag­gie and Aidan at her apart­ment, real­iz­ing that he had lit­tle choice but to respect their wish­es. How­ev­er, the unease he felt about the safe­ty of their envi­ron­ment and the rapid pace of Maggie’s life changes remained in the back of his mind.

The chap­ter also high­lights the grow­ing ten­sion between Frank’s desire to be sup­port­ive of Maggie’s deci­sions and his wor­ries about her well-being. As the nar­ra­tor pre­pares to meet Mag­gie and Aidan, he grap­ples with his pro­tec­tive instincts and the real­i­ty that his daughter’s life has changed in ways that are beyond his con­trol. He wants to ensure that she is mak­ing deci­sions that will tru­ly ben­e­fit her in the long run, but he also rec­og­nizes that he can’t hold on to her for­ev­er. The chap­ter con­veys the com­plex­i­ty of a parent’s role in a child’s life, espe­cial­ly when the child becomes an adult and begins to make choic­es that might not always align with the parent’s own expec­ta­tions. Despite Frank’s con­cerns, he resolves to sup­port Mag­gie, under­stand­ing that his love for her must out­weigh his appre­hen­sions about her future. This chap­ter, filled with a mix­ture of wor­ry and hope, sets the stage for fur­ther emo­tion­al explo­ration as Frank con­tin­ues to nav­i­gate his rela­tion­ship with Mag­gie, her new fiancé, and the chang­ing dynam­ics of their fam­i­ly life.