Chapters 16-18 Summary

Kay drives to 2265 Micheltoreno, the location of her completed dream house, planning to visit with the new buyer and orient her to the home's design. She is horrified to see demolition equipment pulling down the house and carrying away the remains. Her attorney meets her there and explains that the buyer was in fact a straw-buyer, a hired actress. The real purchaser was Eric Meyersen, her old vindictive partner. Meyersen taunts her, telling her he doesn't want her to establish a portfolio. He plans to re-build essentially the same house on the same lot—but of course it will be 'his' design and not hers, at that point. Kay is devastated and immediately decides she will in fact leave town—the state, the country—with Carriscant on his bizarre quest to find the woman in the photograph. In...