Florence takes drugs with her date and blacks out. When she wakes up at 8:30 the next morning, she can’t find Dylan in his room. She notices the turtle Greta is on its back, unmoving. She finds a letter shoved through the mail slot with an address in Cornwall and the note that reads: “If you call the cops, he dies!!!” (315).

Florence calls Jenny in a panic and tells her that Dylan is missing. When Florence shows her the letter, Jenny tells her that Adam’s family owns a small cottage in Cornwall. They agree that Adam likely kidnapped Dylan and sent the note. Jenny agrees to take Florence to the address in Cornwall. On the drive, Jenny tells Florence that while she does not approve of what she did to Mr. Sexton, she understands Florence did what she felt she had to do to protect her son. Jenny also confesses that she told Adam that Florence thought he was involved in Marta’s disappearance, and worries that the information led him to kidnap Dylan.

Florence and Jenny arrive in the small village of Porthcurno in Cornwall, where there is limited cell phone coverage. They make a plan—Jenny will wait in the car outside Adam’s cottage while Florence goes in to get Dylan. Jenny urges her to move quickly. They embrace.

Florence walks up to the front door of the cottage and knocks. While she waits for a response, she suddenly gets a flood of notifications on her cell phone. Dylan has been attempting to call and message her. She begins to call him back, but before he can pick up, the door of the cottage opens. Something hits Florence in the head, and she loses consciousness.

When Florence regains consciousness, her wrists have been tied with duct tape. Adam is sitting in front of her. Florence begins to call for Dylan. Adam tells her to listen to him. He explains that he learned Marta was cheating on him with Rollo on their anniversary. When he confronted her about it, they argued, and he pushed her. She hit her head and died. Adam insists it was an accident. He dissolved Marta’s body in the bathtub using hydrofluoric acid. However, it messed up the pipes badly, which caused the sludge to pour from Florence’s shower. Florence reassures him that she understands it was an accident and asks again where her son is. Adam cuts the duct tape off her wrists and tells her he does not know where Dylan is—the letter he left her was in reference to Alfie.

Adam explains to Florence that he kidnapped Alfie because “[Rollo] ruined my life” (335). He hoped to hold Alfie for ransom to get enough money to start over somewhere new. Adam says he does not know where Dylan is. He shows Florence footage from the doorbell camera showing Dylan leaving the house at 5:17 am and returning around 6:00 am before leaving for school at 7:45 am. Adam tells Florence to put on a mask and check on Alfie. She agrees to do so.

Adam lets Florence in to see Alfie. Alfie asks if she is there to rescue him, and she says she is not. He calls her a “slag.” When she knocks on the door to be let out of the room, Alfie says, helplessly, “Please […] I miss my mum” (338), and Florence feels bad for him.

Adam explains to Florence that he learned from Dylan about the class field trip to the Wetland Centre, where there is limited CCTV coverage. He put on a mask and kidnapped Alfie during the trip. When Dylan witnessed the kidnapping, Adam told Dylan that he would go to jail if he told anyone about what he saw. Florence is furious that Adam has traumatized her son.

Adam tells Florence he needs her to ask the Risbys for the ransom money—if she does, he will split the money with her. He threatens to blackmail Florence for framing Mr. Sexton. Feeling the need to stall for time, Florence asks if she can use the bathroom.

In the bathroom, Florence gets out the syringe of horse tranquilizer she and Jenny had picked up earlier from Allegra, a St. Angeles mom with a 200-acre horse farm. She hides it in her bra, resolving to do the right thing and save Alfie.

Florence goes into the kitchen and reassures Adam that she understands why he did what he did. She agrees to help him, and he embraces her. Florence says she needs the restroom again. She goes into Alfie’s room and tells him to put on his shoes. Adam overhears their conversation and comes into the room with a gun. Florence stabs Adam in the neck with the horse tranquilizer and tells Alfie to run. Alfie takes off. Adam drops the gun and beats Florence severely. While he is hitting her, Jenny sneaks into the room and grabs the gun. There is the sound of a gunshot. Florence loses consciousness.

A week later, Florence wakes up from a coma with Dylan by her side in the hotel bed. She is in a fancy private hotel for which the Risbys have paid. She cannot speak, and her arms are in casts. Dylan tells her Adam is dead and Alfie is fine. Dylan says the morning of the incident, he “just went for a walk” (354). Florence falls back asleep.

When she wakes up, Jenny is there. Jenny explains that the police believe Adam took his own life. She also does not know where Dylan went early that morning.

Gradually, Florence heals. Brooke and her husband, Julian, come to see her. Brooke apologizes for having Julian throw the cricket ball through the front door window to “frighten” Florence away from investigating Alfie’s disappearance. Brooke shows Florence newspaper headlines lauding her as a hero for saving Alfie. The Risbys come to see her. Rollo reassures her they will cover the “financial side of things” (362). Florence resolves to give the reward money to Mr. Sexton as an apology for framing him. Linh comes to do Florence’s nails in the hotel—she says she had closed the shop to interview for a job with Alexander Wang, the fashion house, and that she’s been following the story of a militant environmental collective that has been targeting “oil company executives, that kind of thing” (363).

Florence is discharged in time for Christmas. Dylan is thrilled with the large terrarium Florence purchased for Greta, the turtle, who was not dead but simply hibernating. Jenny and her twins come for Christmas dinner. Florence tells her she’s kept £1 million of the reward money to buy Adam’s half of the building. The other £4 million she has given to Mr. Sexton. Jenny says she was offered a job in Frankfurt, but she turned it down to stay in London.

That evening, after Dylan falls asleep, Florence watches the news. They show a picture of Mr. Foster and say he is wanted in connection with a nail bomb detonated at the Shell Oil headquarters by a “militant environmental collective” (368). Florence wonders if her son is involved in these actions. She resolves to do everything she can to keep him safe.