In the chap­ter titled “Miles,” we wit­ness a dra­mat­ic and emo­tion­al encounter that cen­ters around Miles com­ing to terms with his frac­tured fam­i­ly sit­u­a­tion upon meet­ing his father. The chap­ter opens with Miles strug­gling to com­pose him­self after a tumul­tuous meet­ing with his father, feel­ing over­whelmed as he returns to the truck where his younger sis­ter, Dizzy, is dev­as­tat­ed. Despite his attempts to offer reas­sur­ance, the weight of their father’s absence looms large, espe­cial­ly for Dizzy, whose hope­ful spir­it seems crushed.

As he walks away, Miles wres­tles with a grow­ing ten­sion; he reflects on the betray­al of their father, feel­ing a mix of anger and sorrow—that this man could aban­don his chil­dren while embrac­ing anoth­er, Cas­sidy, with whom he shares a bond. The jux­ta­po­si­tion of Dizzy’s grief and Miles’s ris­ing rage offers a poignant explo­ration of famil­ial ties twist­ed by rejec­tion.

While search­ing for their dog, San­dro, Miles reflects on the shared expe­ri­ences and sto­ries of their fam­i­ly. Enter­ing his father’s lav­ish home, he becomes acute­ly aware of the divide between him and the life his father has built with Cas­sidy. The room, filled with books and music, feels like a home he was nev­er wel­comed into, ampli­fy­ing his sense of alien­ation. The pho­tographs elic­it pain; they reveal the warmth and affec­tion that his father has shared with anoth­er child, height­en­ing Miles’s feel­ings of inad­e­qua­cy and invisibility—a stark con­trast to his own expe­ri­ence grow­ing up.

The chap­ter reach­es an emo­tion­al cli­max when San­dro, a sym­bol of loy­al­ty for Miles, appears to choose their father over him, inten­si­fy­ing Miles’s anguish and feel­ings of betray­al. Faced with the mir­ror image of him­self in his father, Miles’s inter­nal con­flict erupts into an all-con­sum­ing rage. He con­fronts the real­i­ty of his pain, fueled by the desire to reclaim what was tak­en from him, ulti­mate­ly mak­ing the deci­sive choice to sev­er ties with this part of his life. In a fit of fury, he express­es his dis­dain, leav­ing behind the two fig­ures who rep­re­sent both his pater­nal loss and his deep-seat­ed sor­row over famil­ial love unrec­i­p­ro­cat­ed.

This chap­ter flu­id­ly cap­tures the com­plex­i­ties of emo­tion­al tur­moil, illus­trat­ing Miles’s jour­ney through heart­break, famil­ial dis­il­lu­sion­ment, and self-dis­cov­ery.