Felicity calls Lucy’s home line, and Tess picks up. She finds talking with Felicity to be very strange. They’re “chatting,” which seems absurd under the circumstances. Felicity tells Tess that nothing has happened because she and Will are both too sad and thinking about her. Tess tells Felicity that she’s not willing to let Liam grow up with divorced parents and that Felicity should “have your revolting little affair and then give my husband back” (153).

The novel briefly flashes back to October 7, 1977. Mary, then pregnant with Felicity, sees a news story about three teenagers killed by East German police. She calls Lucy, who is pregnant with Tess. The two commiserate about the violence in the news and then switch to talking about their babies. Mary predicts that they’ll both have boys who will be best friends. Lucy says it’s more likely they’ll want to kill each other. 

Rachel, home from the Tupperware party, takes a hot bubble bath. While she bathes, she thinks about Connor Whitby, who was been a suspect in Janie’s murder in 1984. Ed and Rachel had forbidden Janie from dating until after she’d graduated from high school.