Chap­ter 13 presents a poignant explo­ration of Phoebe’s inter­nal strug­gles as she dri­ves Juice, her husband’s child from his affair, through the qui­et streets. Her thoughts are con­sumed with her feel­ings of inad­e­qua­cy as a moth­er, par­tic­u­lar­ly when com­pared to oth­ers. Phoebe rec­og­nizes that her emo­tion­al dis­tance and less tra­di­tion­al approach to moth­er­hood are often high­light­ed by peo­ple around her, which caus­es her to reflect on her own upbring­ing. Grow­ing up with a father who wasn’t par­tic­u­lar­ly affec­tion­ate, Phoebe became accus­tomed to with­hold­ing her emo­tions. This shaped her resis­tance to the emo­tion­al expres­sions that are expect­ed from moth­ers in con­ven­tion­al soci­ety. Despite her detach­ment, Phoebe feels a gen­uine love for chil­dren, but her affec­tion comes with­out the overt dis­plays many oth­er moth­ers exhib­it. This con­trast between her inner emo­tions and out­ward expec­ta­tions becomes a source of inter­nal con­flict, leav­ing Phoebe to ques­tion how she fits into the role of a moth­er.

The chap­ter shifts to a Thanks­giv­ing gath­er­ing, where Phoebe’s feel­ings of alien­ation are made clear. Sur­round­ed by her hus­band and Mia, Juice’s moth­er, who bond over sto­ries of par­ent­ing, Phoebe feels like a stranger in her own fam­i­ly. Their easy cama­raderie high­lights the dis­tance between Phoebe and her hus­band, who seems more engaged with Mia than with her. This dis­con­nect prompts a painful real­iza­tion: Phoebe fears the grow­ing rift between her and her hus­band, a rift that began with his affair and now seems to widen with every pass­ing moment. She feels increas­ing­ly iso­lat­ed, as the inti­ma­cy between her hus­band and Mia under­scores her own feel­ings of aban­don­ment. The emo­tion­al weight of this fear—of los­ing her hus­band both emo­tion­al­ly and physically—settles heav­i­ly on Phoebe, mark­ing the begin­ning of a pro­found shift in her per­spec­tive on love, loy­al­ty, and con­nec­tion.

Phoebe’s day con­tin­ues with a shop­ping trip along­side Juice, dur­ing which they share a warm and humor­ous exchange. As they talk, Juice reveals his strong dis­ap­proval of Lila, his father’s new part­ner, and Phoebe sees this as an oppor­tu­ni­ty to encour­age his sense of self-worth and inde­pen­dence. Their con­ver­sa­tion about style, self-image, and soci­etal expec­ta­tions takes on a deep­er mean­ing, shed­ding light on the gen­er­a­tional dif­fer­ences that sep­a­rate them. Phoebe rec­og­nizes that while Juice is form­ing his own under­stand­ing of iden­ti­ty, she, too, is nav­i­gat­ing her own jour­ney of self-dis­cov­ery. They dis­cuss how soci­etal pres­sures shape their per­cep­tions of them­selves and oth­ers, but it becomes clear that Phoebe is com­mit­ted to teach­ing Juice the impor­tance of stay­ing true to who he is, regard­less of out­side opin­ions. In this moment, Phoebe also learns from Juice, who shows her the sim­plic­i­ty of being true to one­self and how his open­ness to change con­trasts with her own strug­gles.

Through­out their shop­ping expe­ri­ence, Phoebe begins to feel a sense of empow­er­ment. As she picks out clothes and acces­sories that rep­re­sent who she wants to be, she feels lib­er­at­ed from the con­straints of mater­nal expec­ta­tions that have been placed upon her. The act of choos­ing items that express her indi­vid­u­al­i­ty brings a much-need­ed sense of con­trol back into Phoebe’s life, even as the shad­ow of her rela­tion­ship trou­bles looms large. Despite the emo­tion­al con­fu­sion she’s fac­ing with her hus­band and her feel­ings of dis­place­ment, Phoebe embraces this small vic­to­ry over the expec­ta­tions sur­round­ing her. It is through these sim­ple, yet sig­nif­i­cant, moments that she begins to carve out space for her­self. The sense of own­er­ship over her choic­es becomes a sym­bol of her inde­pen­dence, offer­ing her a fleet­ing but pow­er­ful respite from the chaos and uncer­tain­ty of her per­son­al life.

As the day pro­gress­es, Phoebe and Juice share more mean­ing­ful moments, dis­cussing themes of love, loss, and iden­ti­ty. This con­ver­sa­tion with Juice deep­ens their bond, bring­ing them clos­er togeth­er as they nav­i­gate their indi­vid­ual jour­neys through life. Phoebe finds com­fort in the con­nec­tion they share, as it becomes clear that despite the tur­moil in her mar­riage and the weight of her respon­si­bil­i­ties, she can still find moments of clar­i­ty and hope. By the end of the chap­ter, Phoebe’s reflec­tions have shift­ed. She now approach­es her role as a moth­er and wife with a renewed sense of pur­pose, hav­ing embraced her indi­vid­u­al­i­ty and under­stood the impor­tance of con­nect­ing with her­self, her daugh­ter, and oth­ers in her life. The chap­ter con­cludes on a hope­ful note, with Phoebe feel­ing empow­ered and ready to take on what­ev­er chal­lenges lie ahead.