Summary

In chapter 17, Norah brings home the suitcases she received from Kitty's family. Norah describes the things she finds, such as notebooks that belonged to her mother as an adolescent, and a picture of Norah's great-grandfather. The next day, while going through a second case of her mother's belongings, Norah finds letters that her mother had written to a lover. Norah entertains the possibility that the person to whom the letter was written could have been her father.

Later Norah finds writings that her mother left that were written in her "psychotic handwriting" (229). The writings, although barely incoherent, describe a rape.

In chapter 18, Norah relates how she had almost married her boyfriend at the time, Mark, and nearly bought a house with him. Three months after Katherine had shot Boyd, Norah suffers peritonitis when an ulcer bursts. Norah is hospitalized, and she describes how...