Chap­ter 7: The silence of the cot­tage is abrupt­ly shat­tered by Abi­gail’s ter­ri­fied screams, rever­ber­at­ing through the house and unset­tling every­one inside. Frank and Tam­my rush to her room in a pan­ic, only to find the young girl cow­er­ing in fear, her wide eyes fixed on some­thing invis­i­ble in her sur­round­ings. Her hys­te­ria presents an imme­di­ate chal­lenge for Frank, who feels his con­cern grow­ing, espe­cial­ly giv­en the upcom­ing wed­ding and the emo­tion­al strain it could impose on Abi­gail. The sud­den out­burst cre­ates an air of unease, com­pelling Frank to ques­tion what lies beneath the sur­face of Abigail’s reac­tion and whether she’ll be able to han­dle the emo­tion­al com­plex­i­ties of the event ahead.

In an attempt to calm her, Tam­my speaks gen­tly to Abi­gail, try­ing to soothe her fears. Yet, despite her efforts, the child remains unre­spon­sive, her fear all-con­sum­ing. Frank, who has been observ­ing the sit­u­a­tion care­ful­ly, begins to exam­ine the room, search­ing for the source of Abigail’s pan­ic. His gaze falls on an unex­plored clos­et door. Hes­i­tant but deter­mined, Frank opens it and is imme­di­ate­ly met with an unset­tling sight: a large nest of dad­dy lon­glegs, the spi­ders scat­ter­ing across the dark­ened space. What ini­tial­ly seemed like an insignif­i­cant issue quick­ly trans­forms into a night­mare as Frank tries to com­pre­hend the mag­ni­tude of what he’s deal­ing with. The spi­ders begin to flee, over­whelm­ing him with their unex­pect­ed pres­ence, but Frank’s instincts kick in. He quick­ly slams the door shut, try­ing to keep the crea­tures con­tained while offer­ing reas­sur­ances to Abi­gail, even as she trem­bles with fear.

Despite his own revul­sion, Frank choos­es to address the sit­u­a­tion him­self rather than call for pro­fes­sion­al help. Armed with noth­ing but his shoe, he begins the task of erad­i­cat­ing the spi­ders, the grotesque sounds of squash­ing bod­ies fill­ing the air. His mind is filled with con­flict­ing emotions—disgust at the mess, con­cern for Abi­gail, and an under­ly­ing sense of respon­si­bil­i­ty to resolve the chaos. As he works to elim­i­nate the spi­ders, he can’t help but feel a grow­ing ten­sion with­in him­self. He works fever­ish­ly, all while know­ing that the deep­er issue isn’t just the spi­ders, but Abigail’s grow­ing fear and his own feel­ings of inad­e­qua­cy as a par­ent. Once the task is com­plet­ed, Frank tries to reas­sure Abi­gail, but her anx­i­ety refus­es to sub­side, and she con­tin­ues to resist return­ing to the room, her fears too strong to ignore.

Tam­my, wit­ness­ing the esca­lat­ing ten­sion between Frank and Abi­gail, sug­gests that they switch rooms to ease Abigail’s dis­tress. Frank, still caught up in his own con­cerns and frus­tra­tions, ini­tial­ly resists, feel­ing that he has earned the right to stay in the more com­fort­able room. His inter­nal bat­tle between his own desires and Abigail’s needs becomes appar­ent, espe­cial­ly as he recalls her trou­bled past of liv­ing in con­di­tions that lacked the sta­bil­i­ty and com­fort he now had. Despite his reluc­tance, Frank begins to real­ize that his attach­ment to the room pales in com­par­i­son to Abigail’s well-being. The trau­mat­ic expe­ri­ences Abi­gail has faced must be tak­en into account, and the room swap, although uncom­fort­able for Frank, would be a nec­es­sary sac­ri­fice to help her feel safe.

The chap­ter con­cludes with Frank com­ing to terms with the room swap, a deci­sion that high­lights his inter­nal con­flict and the grad­ual shift in his per­spec­tive. His moment of reluc­tant accep­tance is a turn­ing point, not only in his rela­tion­ship with Abi­gail but in his under­stand­ing of what it means to be a par­ent. The chap­ter offers a poignant explo­ration of per­son­al sac­ri­fice and the weight of respon­si­bil­i­ty that comes with car­ing for loved ones, espe­cial­ly in the face of deep-seat­ed fears and past trau­ma. As Frank reluc­tant­ly gives up his pre­ferred space for Abigail’s com­fort, it becomes clear that the chap­ter rep­re­sents more than just a change of rooms—it sig­ni­fies a shift in Frank’s emo­tion­al growth and his readi­ness to pri­or­i­tize his daughter’s needs above his own.