Jacob tells Whitney that Xavier’s surgery is tomorrow, but she doesn’t want to think about it. Then she realizes the surgeon could slip, affecting Xavier’s memory, which would allow Whitney to “away with everything” (274). Whitney thinks of all Jacob doesn’t know. For her, sex with other men has confirmed that she isn’t like her mother, who chose powerlessness. Whitney believes she was a better mother after each sexual encounter because her own needs were met.

Mara recalls Jacob coming by earlier in the day to ask if she heard anything from the Loverlys’ house Wednesday night; she had said she and Albert were asleep. She thinks of what she told Rebecca and what she could reveal to Blair. Mara considers how she’s interfered in their lives and wonders if she should have let everything “implode” on its own.

Mara recalls Marcus’s death at 16. She had bought two tickets to Lisbon, but Albert warned her the trip was a bad idea. On the day of the flight, Marcus was anxious, and, for once, Mara struggled for patience. He dawdled, and when she dropped their papers, he only stared. She hissed at him to “act [his] age for once” (280).