Chase by Chance, the chap­ter unfolds in the ear­ly hours of an August morn­ing in 1969, where Kya sets out once again to Cypress Cove, drawn by the mem­o­ry of dis­cov­er­ing rare toad­stools in the area in the past. Although it was unusu­al­ly late in the sea­son for mush­room for­ag­ing, the cov­e’s cool and moist con­di­tions offered a glim­mer of hope that she might once again find these elu­sive fun­gi. For more than a month since Tate had left her a compass—a thought­ful gift that Kya had nei­ther acknowl­edged nor used—she had pur­pose­ly avoid­ed him, even though she fre­quent­ly saw him from afar while nav­i­gat­ing the marsh. Their unspo­ken con­nec­tion, how­ev­er, remained unre­solved, and the ten­sion between them grew, ampli­fied by her own inter­nal con­flict over what their bond meant and the space she felt was nec­es­sary for heal­ing.

As Kya care­ful­ly steered her boat through the wind­ing paths of the cove, the land­scape unfold­ed in front of her like a well-known map—moss-draped trees form­ing an arch­way over the water, guid­ing her to the spot where she hoped to find the mush­rooms. The vibrant orange fun­gi, hid­den in the under­growth, caught her atten­tion, spark­ing excite­ment in her as she beached her boat and began to sketch them with metic­u­lous detail. The qui­et of the moment, the seren­i­ty of being alone with nature, was abrupt­ly shat­tered by the sound of foot­steps approach­ing. As Kya turned, she was met with the unex­pect­ed intru­sion of Chase, unin­vit­ed and unwel­come, his taunt­ing voice cut­ting through the calm: “Well, look who’s here. My Marsh Girl.” Kya was caught off guard, the sud­den reap­pear­ance of the man who once claimed so much of her heart leav­ing her rat­tled and con­fused. His intru­sion into her pri­vate space—the place where she sought peace and solitude—threw her into a storm of emo­tions, and she react­ed quick­ly, demand­ing that he leave.

Despite her protests, Chase, clear­ly intox­i­cat­ed with the scent of bour­bon on his breath, attempt­ed to jus­ti­fy his pres­ence and his actions. He claimed that he still cared for her, try­ing to soft­en the blow of his betray­al by say­ing that, despite the pub­lic announce­ment of his engage­ment to anoth­er woman, he was still emo­tion­al­ly attached to Kya. His words only deep­ened Kya’s anger, remind­ing her of the deceit he had once woven between them. The cru­el­ty of his engage­ment announce­ment, made with­out warn­ing and with­out her knowl­edge, had dev­as­tat­ed her in ways that words could nev­er ful­ly cap­ture. With steady resolve, Kya con­front­ed him about the lies he had told regard­ing their future togeth­er, chal­leng­ing him to face the truth of his actions. His attempts to make amends seemed hol­low and manip­u­la­tive, meant only to ease his own guilt rather than tru­ly make things right with her.

Kya’s strength and resilience emerged in full force as she reject­ed Chase’s advances, refus­ing to allow him to rewrite the his­to­ry they shared in a way that suit­ed him. She had suf­fered enough under the weight of his promis­es and betray­als, and now, stand­ing tall before him, she was deter­mined to reclaim her sense of auton­o­my. Her refusal to accept his ver­sion of their rela­tion­ship was not just an act of defi­ance but a pow­er­ful affir­ma­tion of her own inde­pen­dence. Kya’s heart had been wound­ed by his actions, but it had not bro­ken beyond repair. In break­ing free from his grasp, she not only phys­i­cal­ly removed her­self from his influ­ence but also emo­tion­al­ly sev­ered the ties that had once bound them togeth­er. The emo­tion­al scars would take time to heal, but Kya’s abil­i­ty to assert her­self in this moment high­light­ed her growth and inner strength. Despite the pain of her past, she had learned to pro­tect her heart, refus­ing to accept any more of Chase’s manip­u­la­tion. This scene is a tes­ta­ment to her unwa­ver­ing resilience, show­ing that even in the face of betray­al, Kya could stand strong, reject the tox­i­c­i­ty of the past, and con­tin­ue her jour­ney toward heal­ing and self-reliance.

Through Kya’s rejec­tion of Chase, the chap­ter encap­su­lates the com­plex­i­ty of her emo­tion­al world. While she still har­bors feel­ings for him, they are over­shad­owed by the betray­al and lies that have col­ored their rela­tion­ship. The moment marks a turn­ing point for Kya, where her abil­i­ty to con­front her past and move beyond the emo­tion­al pain is put to the test. It is a pow­er­ful reminder of the impor­tance of reclaim­ing one’s sense of self, even when the per­son who hurt you attempts to weave their nar­ra­tive back into your life. Kya’s jour­ney is one of resilience, strength, and self-dis­cov­ery, and in this chap­ter, she takes anoth­er step toward own­ing her pow­er and mov­ing for­ward, free from the shad­ow of Chase’s manip­u­la­tions.