Summary

Chapter 9 is written from Joe's third-person perspective. Joe goes with the social worker to Thomas’s grandparents' house. Joe is surprised that the grandparents do not seem to really know Thomas and that it is questionable as to whether he will do well with them because they had a complicated relationship with Lorna. Joe thinks that they should have been with her during her battle with anorexia, but the social worker says that sometimes it is the parents who are the problem. All of this makes him think that he should talk to his parents to confirm their willingness to take care his children if something happened to him or his wife.

Joe and the social worker see Robert when they arrive at the farm. He tells them that his wife is in the house leaves. They go to the house and talk...