Nine months after the party, Blair is up early, thinking about her unfaithful husband, Aiden. She imagines the explicit details of his sex with another woman while she stays home, “[s]taring at the shelf of stain removers” (13). She wonders if this is how every woman feels, but Blair reasons that it’s better to keep her misery secret. She blames Aiden for her unhappiness, especially now that she’s found a tiny piece of foil in his pocket which she is sure is part of a condom wrapper. This and her intuition confirm the affair she suspects.

Rebecca works on Xavier Loverly in the ER. The EMTs who brought him said that Whitney reported checking on Xavier before bed and found his room empty and his window open; Xavier was on the ground below. Rebecca used to be intimidated by Whitney, but this has lessened. Rebecca has often heard, from Whitney’s home, “the unmistakable pitch of a mother who has had enough” (19). She encourages Whitney to sit with Xavier, who is in a coma. Whitney asks Rebecca if this kind of experience is why Rebecca is childless, and Rebecca’s recalls her multiple miscarriages, though she doesn’t tell Whitney about them.