Frank, Tam­my, and Abi­gail left their mun­dane lives behind as they embarked on a jour­ney through dense woods towards Osprey Cove, osten­si­bly for Mar­garet’s wed­ding. As they maneu­vered a rough, name­less road, doubts emerged about their des­ti­na­tion, but Tam­my reas­sured Frank with her insight into the secre­tive nature of the wealthy. After numer­ous dis­heart­en­ing min­utes, they stum­bled upon a grav­el dri­ve­way marked only by a bou­quet of gold bal­loons, guid­ing them deep­er into the woods.

The prop­er­ty man­ag­er, Hugo, greet­ed them warm­ly at the admis­sion gate, rec­og­niz­ing Frank imme­di­ate­ly. His enthu­si­as­tic but quirky wel­com­ing includ­ed some pecu­liar instruc­tions about “Gard­ner Stan­dard Time,” which amus­ing­ly required them to set their watch­es for­ward by fif­teen min­utes. Frank remained skep­ti­cal but reluc­tant­ly com­plied as Abi­gail insist­ed she want­ed to fit in. The promise of a lav­ish week­end lay ahead, yet Frank’s dis­com­fort swelled as they were made to sign a dense pri­va­cy doc­u­ment, which includ­ed legal jar­gon that left him feel­ing uneasy.

Past the toll booth, a pic­turesque scene unfolded—Osprey Lodge, an archi­tec­tur­al mar­vel, await­ed them at the end of a dri­ve­way. Mag­gie, excit­ed to see her fam­i­ly, wel­comed them at the entrance, and with­in moments of reunion, Abi­gail was enlist­ed to replace a strep-throat strick­en flower girl, which delight­ed the lit­tle girl. Mean­while, the ten­sion sur­round­ing Frank regard­ing “not com­pro­mis­ing” sim­mered beneath the sur­face as Aidan nav­i­gat­ed the awk­ward­ness of blend­ed fam­i­ly dynam­ics.

As they set­tled into their lux­u­ri­ous accommodation—a lav­ish cot­tage named Blackbird—Aidan’s sud­den depar­ture to attend to a friend cast a shad­ow over the fam­i­ly time they had antic­i­pat­ed. Mag­gie’s wed­ding prepa­ra­tions kept her occu­pied, leav­ing Frank feel­ing like a vis­i­tor rather than a par­tic­i­pant in the fam­i­ly event. Despite the boun­ti­ful lunch laid before them, the under­ly­ing ten­sions about wed­ding arrange­ments and the pri­va­cy con­tract loomed large while Frank grap­pled with feel­ings of iso­la­tion and yearn­ing to par­tic­i­pate in his daugh­ter’s spe­cial week­end.

With the joy­ful chaos of wed­ding antic­i­pa­tion sur­round­ing them, the joy of the set­ting con­trast­ed sharply with the family’s wor­ries, real­i­ties, and the yearn­ing for deep­er con­nec­tions amidst the cel­e­bra­tion. The chap­ter closed with Frank full of hope and appre­hen­sion about the week­end ahead.