That night, Lina and Howard head to the city. Amid the bustling streets lined with coffee shops and clothing stores, Lina notices the grand edifice of the Duomo, the city’s main cathedral. The two share a pizza in a restaurant with a pop culture theme. Howard shares memories of his childhood growing up in rural South Carolina and playing hockey. He mentions that he had given Hadley a ring, one that Lina now wears. Howard asks whether Lina might consider staying past summer and finishing her high school In Florence. Lina hesitates.

Lina is happily surprised by the pizza, observing, “This pizza belonged in a completely different universe from the stuff I was used to” (88). Howard tells Lina he never knew she even existed—Hadley had only contacted him when she found out about her cancer. Why did her mother keep her secret from him and him secret from her? Lina suddenly feels sick—she really does not have any idea who her mother was.

That night, Lina cannot sleep. She needs to know the circumstances of her birth. She opens her mother’s journal. Inside the front cover, her mother has written in thick black marker, “I made the wrong choice” (92).