In this chap­ter, the pro­tag­o­nist reflects on the after­math of a trag­ic event that occurred dur­ing what was sup­posed to be a joy­ous wed­ding. He recounts how two police offi­cers took his state­ment, their dis­in­ter­est appar­ent as they rushed through the process and showed more inter­est in align­ing his account with oth­ers than in his feel­ings. Leav­ing the once-bustling scene of the recep­tion, he returns to an emp­ty cot­tage, a stark con­trast to the live­ly cel­e­bra­tions that had filled the area just hours before.

Upon chang­ing out of his tuxe­do and into more com­fort­able clothes for the long dri­ve ahead, he dis­cov­ers a mani­la enve­lope con­tain­ing ten one-hun­dred-dol­lar bills. This mys­te­ri­ous gift from Aidan sur­pris­es him; he doubts its effec­tive­ness as a form of pro­tec­tion, feel­ing angered and con­fused about its pur­pose, espe­cial­ly giv­en that all of the bills are old, hint­ing at a secre­tive ori­gin.

As he makes his way to Osprey Lodge, he encoun­ters police offi­cers tak­ing left­over food home, their embar­rass­ment evi­dent in their demeanor. In the liv­ing room, he finds Tam­my and Mag­gie, who abrupt­ly stop their con­ver­sa­tion upon his arrival. The once-promis­ing wed­ding is now over­shad­owed by death and loss; the pro­tag­o­nist tries to con­vince Mag­gie to leave, empha­siz­ing the stark real­i­ty that with­out the mar­riage, she has no claim to any­thing, not even the prenup. This truth seems hard for her to accept.

After an emo­tion­al­ly charged exchange, Mag­gie insists on stay­ing longer to dis­cuss mat­ters with Errol, prompt­ing con­cern in the pro­tag­o­nist that Maggie’s ties to the Gard­ner fam­i­ly might keep her trapped. Despite his emo­tion­al exhaus­tion, he must ensure the safe­ty of his daugh­ter, Abi­gail. He learns Abi­gail has gone miss­ing and search­es des­per­ate­ly for her.

Even­tu­al­ly, he finds her alone in the Globe, where the final rem­nants of the wed­ding linger. Abi­gail, adorned with a daisy crown, is deeply affect­ed by the events, embody­ing the grief of loss and dis­ap­point­ment in her child­like way. They sit togeth­er, shar­ing in their sad­ness, and despite his own strug­gles, he com­forts her, affirm­ing that leav­ing will help them heal.

As the sun sets, he encour­ages her to leave with him, promis­ing that each sub­se­quent day will feel a bit less painful. Abi­gail’s reluc­tance to leave is over­come as he car­ries her, fos­ter­ing a bond of reas­sur­ance while they walk back to camp, nav­i­gat­ing their shared loss amidst the fad­ing echoes of the wed­ding.