Content Warning: This section of the guide describes and discusses the source text’s treatment of child abuse, child abduction, and child molestation. This section also references the source text’s stereotypical and potentially stigmatizing portrayal of neurodivergent people.

William Wooler walks Nora Blanchard out of the Breezes Motel. He feels shocked because Nora, with whom he has been having an affair, has ended their relationship unexpectedly. William gets into his car and drives home. He finds his nine-year-old daughter, Avery, in the kitchen. She tells him that she walked home alone since the choir director sent her home early for acting out. William is upset because she knows that she is supposed to wait for her older brother, Michael, to walk home with her. Avery tells her father that she used the key under the front mat to get inside. William thinks about how his father used to hit him when he was disrespectful, but he knows he is not supposed to hit Avery. When Avery refuses to talk to him, he hits her across the head, and she falls to the ground. William feels horrified by what he did and picks Avery up, apologizing to her.