Chap­ter 9 begins with the charis­mat­ic and phys­i­cal­ly impres­sive Errol Gard­ner mak­ing his entrance. With his tall, mus­cu­lar frame and sig­na­ture pol­ished style, Errol exudes an air of con­fi­dence that is imme­di­ate­ly felt by those around him. When he meets Frank Sza­tows­ki, he joy­ous­ly pro­nounces Frank’s last name in a the­atri­cal man­ner, adding an extra touch of flair to their intro­duc­tion. Errol then eager­ly inquires about Frank’s dri­ve to Osprey Lodge, demon­strat­ing gen­uine inter­est in his guest’s jour­ney. Frank, tak­en aback by the grandeur of the lodge, is soon hur­ried upstairs by Aidan, Errol’s son. The office where Frank is led is a strik­ing tes­ta­ment to Errol’s refined tastes, filled with exquis­ite wood­work that not only enhances the space but also gives a clear sense of Errol’s sophis­ti­cat­ed per­son­al­i­ty.

As the con­ver­sa­tion set­tles into a more con­ge­nial rhythm, Frank presents Errol with a bot­tle of bour­bon, ref­er­enc­ing Errol’s well-known fond­ness for the drink, which had pre­vi­ous­ly been fea­tured in New Eng­land Liv­ing. The two exchange sto­ries as they enjoy their drinks, with Errol being refresh­ing­ly hon­est about a pri­or inter­view he had been a part of, one he hadn’t par­tic­u­lar­ly enjoyed. Despite this, he admits he did appre­ci­ate the atten­tion the bour­bon received in the pub­li­ca­tion. The warm, wel­com­ing envi­ron­ment is fur­ther enhanced by the appear­ance of Ger­ry Levin­son, an old­er friend of Errol’s. As they pour their drinks, Errol rais­es a toast to the occa­sion of the wed­ding and takes a moment to praise Mag­gie, refer­ring to her as an intel­li­gent and rare tal­ent. This com­men­da­tion shows the admi­ra­tion Errol holds for Mag­gie, set­ting a pos­i­tive tone for the gath­er­ing.

In the midst of the jovial con­ver­sa­tion, Frank finds him­self reflect­ing on the fond mem­o­ries he shared with his late wife, Colleen. He speaks open­ly about their ear­ly years togeth­er while he was serv­ing in the army, allow­ing the bour­bon to ease his nerves and allow­ing him to delve into more per­son­al mat­ters. This leads to a heart­felt dis­cus­sion about Cather­ine, Errol’s wife, who has been suf­fer­ing from debil­i­tat­ing migraines for quite some time. Frank and Errol both acknowl­edge the pro­found impact her con­di­tion has had on their lives, with Catherine’s inabil­i­ty to attend the wed­ding being a poignant reminder of her ongo­ing strug­gle. Despite Errol’s hope for her recov­ery, it becomes clear that her par­tic­i­pa­tion in the event would remain out of reach for the time being.

The con­ver­sa­tion takes an unex­pect­ed turn when the name Dawn Tag­gart is men­tioned, caus­ing an imme­di­ate and notice­able shift in the atmos­phere. A tense silence falls over the room as Ger­ry, sens­ing the unease, inquires about a piece of mail Frank has received. Frank, who has been try­ing to make sense of every­thing, pulls out an enve­lope that sparks an intense dis­cus­sion. Inside, they find a pho­to that imme­di­ate­ly grabs the group’s atten­tion, trig­ger­ing a mix­ture of curios­i­ty and sus­pi­cion. Aidan’s reac­tion is swift and alarm­ing as he declares the pho­to to be a fake, adding a lay­er of urgency to the con­ver­sa­tion. As they begin to dis­cuss the impli­ca­tions of the pho­to, the group also reflects on Aidan’s past encoun­ters with Dawn, a brief and some­what awk­ward meet­ing that had been cloud­ed by unan­swered ques­tions and lin­ger­ing doubts.

Aidan begins to recount his meet­ing with Dawn, describ­ing it as a chance encounter after a flat tire left him strand­ed. Their brief inter­ac­tion, which con­sist­ed of vague and unmem­o­rable ref­er­ences to pop cul­ture, left both par­ties feel­ing dis­con­nect­ed. They shared one din­ner date, but after that, Aidan and Dawn part­ed ways, nev­er to cross paths again. Now, as they exam­ine the pho­to and its poten­tial sig­nif­i­cance, the group begins to dig deep­er into the motives of those involved. Ger­ry sug­gests that a finan­cial angle may be at play, draw­ing com­par­isons to the O. J. Simp­son case and hint­ing at the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a civ­il law­suit. The ten­sion in the room grows as Aidan, who is already under pres­sure, tries to clar­i­fy his posi­tion and defend his inno­cence. This com­plex sit­u­a­tion, involv­ing legal com­pli­ca­tions and fam­i­ly dynam­ics, leaves the group on edge, par­tic­u­lar­ly as they try to piece togeth­er the con­nec­tion between Dawn’s dis­ap­pear­ance and Aidan’s involve­ment.

As the chap­ter unfolds, the nar­ra­tive con­tin­ues to inter­twine per­son­al strug­gles with legal uncer­tain­ty. The char­ac­ters’ lives are increas­ing­ly dom­i­nat­ed by these com­plex, unre­solved issues, and the pro­tag­o­nist is left to nav­i­gate the murky waters of famil­ial expec­ta­tions, per­son­al account­abil­i­ty, and the tri­als of love. What ini­tial­ly seemed like a sim­ple gath­er­ing at the wed­ding soon evolves into a web of intrigue, with each indi­vid­ual har­bor­ing secrets that, once revealed, could shake the foun­da­tions of their rela­tion­ships. The mix­ture of fam­i­ly loy­al­ty, legal threats, and emo­tion­al tur­moil leaves every­one ques­tion­ing their place in the fam­i­ly and their con­nec­tion to the events unfold­ing. This chap­ter marks a piv­otal moment in the sto­ry, as the pro­tag­o­nist begins to real­ize that the stakes are much high­er than they ini­tial­ly believed.