Lowen drives to Vermont and listens to an audiobook of one of Verity’s novels. She grows self-conscious and doubts her ability to complete the series. Lowen arrives at the Crawford home and is struck by an ominous feeling. She is greeted outside by Crew, Jeremy, and Verity’s five-year-old son. Jeremy meets Lowen at the front door and helps her settle in. She will be sleeping in the master bedroom he and Verity once shared. Lowen resists asking Jeremy for a lock on her bedroom door. She feels uncomfortable since she has not “slept in a bedroom without a lock since I was ten” (50). Lowen meets Verity who is immobile, nonreactive, and seems to be unaware of her surroundings.

Lowen begins working in Verity’s office. She will be writing the three remaining books in Verity’s series called The Noble Virtues. Each book within the series focuses on a different virtue. Lowen will be writing the books on the virtues of “Courage, Truth, and Honor” (56). She spends most of the day reading the second book in Verity’s series. She is struck by how Verity always writes “from the villain’s point of view” (58). Lowen looks through Verity’s office for her outlines and discovers a draft of Verity’s autobiography titled So Be It.