November 9

Content Warning: Part 6 contains mentions of suicide.

Fallon decides to spend this November 9th sulking alone in her apartment, despite Amber offering to be with her and Fallon’s mother insisting on bringing her breakfast. She is about to go to bed when someone knocks on the door. No one is at the door, but there is a package on her doorstep. Fallon reads an accompanying note from Ben, asking her once again to read his manuscript. She brings the book inside but doesn’t read it; she goes to bed. When Fallon wakes the next morning, she finds her crying mother reading the manuscript. She tells Fallon that she needs to read it, because the latter is not “the only one who was scarred in that fire” (246).

Fallon reluctantly reads the manuscript. In the first chapter, Ben describes finding his mother after she died by suicide. There was a suicide note, but the police took it before Ben could read it. Convinced there had to be a reason for her suicide, Ben went through his mother’s phone and found texts from Fallon’s father, Donovan O’Neil, which suggested a love affair gone wrong.