In this chap­ter titled “Cas­sidy,” we find Cas­sidy and her moth­er, Marigold, arriv­ing at the lav­ish home of Robert D. Caputo, hav­ing tracked down Dave, Marigold’s betrothed. The house is a stun­ning glass cas­tle, sur­round­ed by beau­ti­ful gar­dens that jux­ta­pose their grimy arrival. Over­whelmed by the opu­lence, Marigold express­es dis­be­lief that this is Dav­e’s home, wist­ful­ly wish­ing they could crash into the house. They charge toward the door with a mix of hope and deter­mi­na­tion, despite being unkempt and mal­nour­ished from their strug­gles.

Upon knock­ing, they are greet­ed by Dave, whose appear­ance has rad­i­cal­ly changed, show­cas­ing a wealth and clean­li­ness they have not known. Cas­sidy feels an over­whelm­ing sense of joy upon see­ing him—her “Papa Bear.” How­ev­er, that joy quick­ly turns to heart­break when a woman named Joanne appears along­side two chil­dren, reveal­ing that Dave has a new fam­i­ly. Joan­ne’s demeanor quick­ly shifts from shock to dis­dain, treat­ing Cas­sidy and her moth­er with con­tempt. This moment marks a painful awak­en­ing for Cas­sidy as she real­izes the stark dif­fer­ence between their lives and the pol­ished real­i­ty of Dav­e’s new fam­i­ly.

As the encounter unfolds, Marigold’s strength begins to sur­face, con­fronting Dave about his betray­al and the facade of his life. Despite his remorse, stat­ing that he felt trapped and lost in his con­ven­tion­al life, his words only deep­en the pain. Cas­sidy, feel­ing invis­i­ble and reject­ed, reacts with anger and sor­row, declar­ing her hatred for the make-believe world they find them­selves in. In a fit of despair, she runs from the house, trig­gered by the harsh real­i­ty of her situation—feeling like a “dirty smelly girl” belong­ing to a “dirty smelly moth­er.”

This chap­ter beau­ti­ful­ly illus­trates themes of dis­il­lu­sion­ment, the clash of socio-eco­nom­ic back­grounds, and the pro­found impact of betray­al on famil­ial bonds. The envi­ron­ment sur­round­ing them par­al­lels their inter­nal chaos, mark­ing their jour­ney from inno­cence to a painful real­i­ty. Cassidy’s emo­tion­al tur­moil pow­er­ful­ly encap­su­lates the feel­ing of being unwant­ed and unwor­thy in a world that stark­ly con­trasts their lived expe­ri­ence.