When Mila gets home, she hears her mom talking on the phone, arguing with Mila’s father. Mila’s mom says that she is “tired of waiting” and is “sick of feeling helpless” (130). She reminds him that Hadley and Mila are his children too, and she threatens to get a lawyer before hanging up.

Mila finds her mother “look[ing] like a crumpled tissue” (132) in the living room, and she knows that she can’t tell her mother about what happened with the boys and Zara. She makes a cup of tea for her mom, who admits that she won’t be getting a raise after all. Mila asks if her mother was asking their dad for more money. Her mother doesn’t want to discuss it, but she asks Mila to let her worry about the money situation and not to mention it to Hadley. Mr. Fitzgibbons, their neighbor who walks Delilah once a week and won’t accept payment, stops by. When he leaves, Mila’s mom tells her to remember that there are “true gentlemen in the world” (135).