Chap­ter 23 marks a dra­mat­ic shift in the atmos­phere at the Corn­wall Hotel, fol­low­ing the can­cel­la­tion of the much-antic­i­pat­ed wed­ding. The absence of both the bride and groom casts a shad­ow over the event, leav­ing guests feel­ing uneasy as they attempt to enjoy the hotel’s spa ameni­ties. The once vibrant set­ting is now qui­et and sub­dued, with the lin­ger­ing ten­sion among the guests pal­pa­ble. Pauline, who had once been full of ener­gy, now moves through her duties with a heavy heart. She man­ages refund requests and address­es con­cerns about aller­gies, her tone reflect­ing her own sad­ness over the abrupt turn of events. Mean­while, Phoebe stands in line with Nat and Suz, over­hear­ing their hushed con­ver­sa­tion about the wedding’s sud­den end. They spec­u­late on Lila’s true feel­ings toward her fiancé, offer­ing hints that their sus­pi­cions about the couple’s rela­tion­ship had been present all along.

As Phoebe lis­tens, she learns that Nat and Suz are set to leave that evening. Although she wish­es to extend her stay at the hotel, she is told that there are no rooms avail­able due to anoth­er wed­ding tak­ing place. Pauline deliv­ers the news with a firm final­i­ty, leav­ing Phoebe both frus­trat­ed and odd­ly proud of her deci­sive­ness. Though ini­tial­ly tak­en aback, Phoebe ulti­mate­ly accepts the sit­u­a­tion, decid­ing to spend one last night at the hotel before check­ing out at eleven the fol­low­ing morn­ing. The real­iza­tion that the wed­ding had been replaced by anoth­er cel­e­bra­tion leaves Phoebe reflect­ing on how quick­ly life can change. Despite the dis­ap­point­ment of the can­celed wed­ding, Phoebe’s thoughts remain fixed on her lin­ger­ing attach­ment to the hotel, the sense of tran­quil­i­ty it pro­vides, and her desire to remain in this world for just a lit­tle longer.

On the hotel’s bal­cony, Phoebe finds her­self think­ing about Gary, won­der­ing where he might have gone after the can­cel­la­tion. She imag­ines he might seek soli­tude after every­thing that’s tran­spired, con­trast­ing his like­ly pref­er­ence for qui­et reflec­tion with her own need to escape into the com­fort of her bed. As she watch­es hotel staff dis­man­tling the rem­nants of the wed­ding cel­e­bra­tions, Phoebe envi­sions a white rib­bon spi­ral­ing down into the dark­ness, sym­bol­ic of the fad­ing dreams asso­ci­at­ed with the event. With a desire to check in on Gary, Phoebe knocks on his door but receives no response. Short­ly after, Mar­la appears, unaware of Gary’s where­abouts, and spec­u­lates that he may have left the hotel entire­ly. The uncer­tain­ty about Gary’s where­abouts adds to the melan­choly of the sit­u­a­tion, fur­ther empha­siz­ing the emo­tion­al toll the wedding’s col­lapse has tak­en on every­one involved.

Lat­er, in her own room, Phoebe reflects on the lux­u­ry of her sur­round­ings, feel­ing a deep sense of nos­tal­gia for the hotel that has become a tem­po­rary home. She wish­es she could car­ry the essence of this space with her, cap­tur­ing the com­fort and calm it pro­vides. With her depar­ture loom­ing, Phoebe con­tem­plates how to mark this tran­si­tion. She revis­its her wed­ding speech, blend­ing lit­er­ary analy­sis with per­son­al reflec­tions on the nature of Vic­to­ri­an mar­riages. In the midst of this emo­tion­al con­tem­pla­tion, an email from Geof­frey offers Phoebe an excit­ing opportunity—a poten­tial job that evokes the thrill of her child­hood dreams. The offer presents a choice between con­tin­u­ing her con­nec­tion with Gary or div­ing deep­er into her pas­sion for writ­ing. Torn between the two paths, Phoebe ulti­mate­ly decides to focus on her writ­ing, choos­ing to explore Jane Eyre and ana­lyze the piv­otal moments lead­ing to Jane’s failed wed­ding. Ener­gized by this deci­sion, she writes through the night, find­ing solace in the cre­ative process as she con­tem­plates the impact of her nar­ra­tive choic­es.

Phoebe’s night of writ­ing becomes a moment of per­son­al lib­er­a­tion, where the weight of the world is momen­tar­i­ly lift­ed by the act of cre­ation. She rev­els in the free­dom of express­ing her­self on the page, feel­ing a sense of ful­fill­ment that had elud­ed her in the past. This renewed sense of pur­pose offers Phoebe the clar­i­ty she needs to nav­i­gate the uncer­tain­ties ahead, allow­ing her to forge her own path for­ward. As she con­tin­ues to immerse her­self in the analy­sis of Jane Eyre, Phoebe feels a deep­er con­nec­tion to the themes of love, loss, and self-dis­cov­ery that res­onate with­in the nov­el. This moment of reflec­tion, set against the back­drop of her cur­rent sit­u­a­tion, marks a turn­ing point in her journey—one that inter­twines her per­son­al growth with her intel­lec­tu­al pur­suits, ulti­mate­ly lead­ing her toward a future shaped by her own choic­es.