In a flashback, Chase recalls discovering a hidden coquina drain while kayaking near the Zuta Bank and Trust five years earlier. He crawled through the pipe and found that it led to a large cavern beneath the bank. From there, he found a spiral staircase leading to a wooden trapdoor that opened directly into the bank’s vault.

That night, Chase confronted Unc about the trapdoor. Unc admitted that he and Jack found the passage when they were children. He also confessed that he had always known Jack stole the bearer bonds that Unc was convicted of stealing. When Chase accused Jack of having something on Unc that had kept him silent, Unc didn’t answer the accusation, instead offering a cryptic quote about a missionary who “gave up what he couldn’t keep to gain what he couldn’t lose” (260). Chase reflects on his lifelong frustration with the mystery, certain of Unc’s innocence but unable to prove it.

The group arrives at Turner Field for the Braves game. Outside, Sketch tries to compel Chase to give money to a man begging outside the stadium by quoting scripture; when Chase refuses, Unc gives the man $5. During the game, Unc catches a foul ball just before it hits Sketch in the face. After the Braves win the game and the pennant with a walk-off home run, the group stops at The Varsity. There, Sketch spontaneously jumps from the car and begins jogging through the city, trying to match a remembered skyline—featuring a distinctive blue rotating-restaurant building—with what he sees. He leads them on a frantic search until he draws a picture of an elderly woman in a specific room overlooking the city.

They eventually identify the location as Cedar Lakes, an upscale retirement home. A security guard named Bert recognizes Sketch, confirming that he used to visit a resident named Mrs. Hampton. They find Mrs. Hampton, who is now non-verbal and living in the Alzheimer’s wing. Sketch sets up his chess set, and she begins to play with him. He then retrieves a diamond necklace from one of the set’s drawers and places it around her neck. Bert explains that the necklace was stolen years ago and that an orderly, Sonya Beckers, stopped coming to work around the time it disappeared.

The next day, Chase and Mandy meet with Cedar Hills CEO Chester Buckley, who identifies Sonya Beckers as the orderly who disappeared around the time of the theft. Mandy confirms that Sonya was the woman killed in the Impala. They then visit Starks Boys’ Home, where they speak with director Sherry Quitman. She reveals that Sketch’s real name is Stuart Smoak and that he was left with a crushed voice box after a foster parent tried to strangle him. Sherry explains that a few months after Stuart began visiting Cedar Lakes, a woman came forward to adopt him. Sherry also explains that Stuart may have been a foundling with no known biological parents, although his early records were destroyed and his origins can’t be confirmed. Hearing this, Mandy concludes that there are no parental rights to terminate. Sherry explains that the state will resume custody and that Stuart will likely remain a ward of the state until adulthood. Chase is distressed by the realization that no one is coming for the boy and reflects that Sketch is no longer simply the subject of his story.

In the middle of the night, Tommye wakes Chase and takes him to the Zuta Bank and Trust. She reveals that she’s a director and owns 49% of the bank, an asset transfer that Jack made years ago to protect himself. Using her knowledge of the security codes, she lets them inside. In Jack’s office, she shows Chase a hidden latch under the massive oak desk, which opens to a ventilation shaft. Chase climbs down and confirms that it connects to the Spanish-era basement, where he can see the trapdoor leading into the vault. Tommye explains that Unc asked her not to tell him about it.

As they leave, they encounter Jack arriving for work. Empowered by his new knowledge, Chase taunts his uncle, repeating Unc’s metaphor that the truth, like cream, will always rise to the top.

While at his office, Chase receives a series of taps over the phone from Sketch, signaling that something is wrong with Tommye. Chase rushes home, where he, Unc, and Lorna find Tommye gravely ill. She refuses medical help and makes three requests of Unc: first, that he baptize her; second, that he speak at her funeral; and third, that he “[t]ell him” something, although she doesn’t explain what she means. Unc baptizes her in a stream in the Zuta. Afterward, Tommye tells Chase, “Your book…it was already on his shelf” (293), before taking her last breath.

Two days later, Chase writes a raw obituary for Tommye, explicitly stating that she was sexually abused by her father. Red removes three sentences that could expose them to a lawsuit before the obituary is published.

On the morning of the funeral, a lawyer named Pockets tells Unc that they have lost the appeal and have 30 days. Unc realizes that they’re losing the Zuta and the Sanctuary. Soon after, a group of Tommye’s glamorous friends from California arrives in limousines to pay their respects. Unc delivers a eulogy in which he references Don Quixote, noting how Don Quixote sees Aldonza as Dulcinea despite how she sees herself. He unveils a tombstone he had made, engraved with the words “MY DULCINEA.”

As the gathering continues after the eulogy, one of Tommye’s friends gives Chase a folder filled with his newspaper articles, which Tommye had saved and annotated over the years. Later, Sketch approaches, polishes his queen chess piece, and gently places it on Tommye’s chest.

That evening, Unc and Chase bury Tommye in the family cemetery within the Sanctuary. Later that night, Lorna grows worried because Unc hasn’t returned and sends Chase to find him. Chase discovers Unc at the gravesite in the midst of a violent, primal catharsis, screaming at the sky in anguish over a lifetime of loss. As Unc collapses, Chase comforts him. Unc recounts a story from his youth when Jack deliberately swerved to hit an old dog with their father’s car and then shot it, smiling. 

The next morning, a resolved Unc takes Chase and Sketch to town as morning traffic fills the streets. He storms into the bank, walks up to Jack’s office, and brutally assaults him. As he beats his brother, Unc declares, “This ends today” (310). Police officers arrive and arrest both Unc and Chase.

In jail, Unc begins to tell Mandy that Jack had always been a gambler whose hobby became an addiction, noting that he knew Jack was gambling on the night of the storm, but he stops short of elaborating. After Lorna posts their bail, Unc leads the family to the cemetery in the Sanctuary. There, he instructs Chase to help him dig up the grave of his son, who supposedly died 30 years ago. They open the coffin to reveal that it’s empty except for a waterproof case containing a large notebook.

Unc explains that the child’s body he identified after the fire wasn’t his son’s; he knew because the boy’s earlobes were attached, while his son’s were not. He dumped the other body in the river. He remained silent because he believed that revealing what he knew could endanger his son, who might still be alive. He then pulls a birth certificate from the notebook and reveals the truth: Chase is his biological son, William “Liam” Walker McFarland Jr. The notebook also contains Ellsworth’s real will, which contradicts the will presented after Ellsworth’s death. He explains his belief that Jack was responsible for the murders and the theft of the bearer bonds.

Unc also reveals that Lorna secured his prison pardon by blackmailing the governor with evidence of an affair. He gives Chase Tommye’s will, in which she has left everything she owns to him and names him as William “Liam” Walker McFarland Jr. As they leave the Sanctuary, Sketch speaks for the first time, asking, “A-r-e w-e a f-a-m-i-l-y n-o-w?” (324).

Accompanied by Mandy and Sketch, Chase goes to the bank to access a safety-deposit box that Tommye directed him to. Inside, he finds a paper trail of substantial financial transactions involving a brokerage in New Orleans, Louisiana, and an offshore bank in the Bahamas. He also finds two photos: a high-school photograph of Tommye with him and Unc and a more recent one of a sick Tommye holding Sketch, wearing a T-shirt that reads, “AMERICAN PIE.” A note attached quotes a line from the Don McLean song.

The chapter ends with a newspaper article written by Chase. It announces that William and Lorna McFarland have officially adopted Stuart Smoak, who has requested that his new name be Tommye Chase (T.C.) McFarland. When asked by the reporter why he hadn’t adopted Chase years ago, Unc ends decades of speculation by publicly stating, “Why would I adopt my own son?” (329).

Chase reflects on his new family dynamic, now calling his former uncle “Dad” and his brother T.C. While sitting on the porch, Willee shows Chase a photograph from 1979. He explains that the cast he wore in the photo was a result of being struck by a train while saving Chase’s life as a child, an event that Chase doesn’t remember, and that the train depot visible in the background once stood at the end of their driveway until his mother had it torn down. Later that evening, Chase leaves a letter for his father in the mailbox before joining him and T.C. as they run through a field catching fireflies. The letter, which reads, “I was looking the wrong way” (334), is the first he has ever signed with his birth name, Liam.

As a boy, author Charles Martin saved his allowance for a prized Schwinn dirt bike but was still $60 short. His father matched his savings, and Martin describes the bike as giving him a sense of freedom for the next three years. At age 11, while trying to amend his own recent bullying behavior, Martin decided to share his bike with a boy he’d just met. The boy promptly stole it, leaving Martin heartbroken and angry. His father, sharing his pain, surprised him weeks later with a brand-new Schwinn 10-speed, exponentially widening Martin’s world. Martin reflects on this event as an example of how his father filled an essential void within him, contrasting his own experience with friends who grew to resent their fathers. He connects this to his own actions as a father, finding joy in buying a bike for his young son. He concludes that the boy who stole his bike was empty and that the character of Uncle Willee is his exploration of the incomparable role a father plays in his son’s life.