Chap­ter 5 begins with Tam­my urg­ing Frankie to dis­pose of a map that has been found in Abi­gail’s pos­ses­sion, insist­ing that it could pose a seri­ous risk to their safe­ty. As they sat togeth­er at the kitchen table, sip­ping cups of decaf cof­fee, they exam­ined the map’s intri­cate details, not­ing how its topo­graph­i­cal design seemed to shift sub­tly under their gaze. Tammy’s words were filled with urgency, press­ing Frankie to make a deci­sion: destroy the map to erase its con­nec­tion to the Gard­ners or hand it over to the FBI, a prospect that Frankie was adamant­ly against. The ten­sion was pal­pa­ble, height­ened by the unre­solved death of Aidan Tag­gart, which still weighed heav­i­ly on Frankie, espe­cial­ly in light of the ques­tions sur­round­ing his daugh­ter Maggie’s involve­ment and the poten­tial lever­age she held over the Gard­ners. The sit­u­a­tion had clear­ly grown more com­plex, and Frankie was left grap­pling with the impli­ca­tions of each deci­sion.

Deter­mined to rid him­self of the bur­den of the map, Frankie set out to burn it in a rit­u­al­is­tic man­ner, hop­ing that destroy­ing it would some­how bring clo­sure to the ongo­ing cri­sis. He pre­pared the hibachi grill in his back­yard, watch­ing as the coals glowed bright­ly, cast­ing a warm light into the night. As he hov­ered over the grill, he con­tem­plat­ed the sig­nif­i­cance of the deci­sion he was about to make. Should he destroy the last link to the Gard­ners, sev­er­ing any ties to the past, or should he keep the map as a safe­guard for Mag­gie, using it as a teach­ing tool to demon­strate trust and impart the lessons he had learned from his pre­vi­ous mis­takes? In a moment of inde­ci­sion, he chose to keep the map, sens­ing that its impor­tance might become evi­dent in the future. With the map safe­ly tucked back into his pock­et, he tried to call Mag­gie, reach­ing her at her apart­ment. He spoke care­ful­ly, fram­ing his words with secre­cy, know­ing the grav­i­ty of the sit­u­a­tion but not yet ready to ful­ly reveal the map’s sig­nif­i­cance.

The con­ver­sa­tion between Frankie and Mag­gie unearthed both parental con­cerns and a deep­er con­nec­tion between them. Mag­gie remained bliss­ful­ly unaware of the map’s true impli­ca­tions, respond­ing cheer­ful­ly as she lis­tened to Frankie’s cryp­tic words. How­ev­er, when the top­ic of Abi­gail was brought up, Frankie’s tone shift­ed, reveal­ing a hint of seri­ous­ness. He explained that Aidan had left Abi­gail a map that marked Lake Wyn­d­ham, sug­gest­ing that it held cru­cial infor­ma­tion for their safe­ty. Maggie’s curios­i­ty piqued as she began ask­ing more ques­tions about the map’s details, includ­ing its vis­i­bil­i­ty and the role of social work­ers in the sit­u­a­tion. Ten­sion esca­lat­ed as Frankie attempt­ed to clar­i­fy the sit­u­a­tion with­out ful­ly reveal­ing every­thing, hes­i­tat­ing before he final­ly sug­gest­ed the pos­si­bil­i­ty of giv­ing the map to Mag­gie when it became nec­es­sary for her safe­ty. The weight of the deci­sion pressed on Frankie, as he rec­og­nized that the map might hold the key to future events, but he was still reluc­tant to ful­ly involve Mag­gie in its mys­tery.

Things became even more com­pli­cat­ed when Mag­gie revealed her upcom­ing trip to Madrid, adding a lay­er of urgency to their already tense sit­u­a­tion. Frankie found him­self torn between the need to pro­tect the map’s secrets and the anx­i­ety of what might hap­pen if he wait­ed for Mag­gie to return before mak­ing a deci­sion. The thought of keep­ing the map until Maggie’s return cre­at­ed a sense of dread, as Frankie couldn’t shake the feel­ing that the map might be need­ed soon­er than expect­ed. He won­dered if he was mak­ing a mis­take by hold­ing onto it, but at the same time, the idea of burn­ing it felt like an act of finality—one that could bring clo­sure, but also poten­tial­ly erase some­thing cru­cial. With the uncer­tain­ty swirling around him, Frankie remained con­flict­ed, know­ing that the map’s fate was inter­twined with his and Maggie’s future. This chap­ter high­lights Frankie’s inter­nal strug­gle between the desire for clo­sure and the anx­i­ety that comes with keep­ing secrets, set­ting the stage for fur­ther com­pli­ca­tions and deci­sions in the sto­ry to come.