A week later, Jude attends a dinner party at Violet’s penthouse with Dahlia, Kane, and Preston. Dahlia warns Jude not to hurt Violet, threatening that Kane will defend her. Jude watches Violet and Preston setting the table together, irritated that she smiles more freely at Preston than at him. He reflects that he has stopped trying to separate them because Violet seems genuinely comfortable with Preston, which is rare for her. Violet has been guarded around him since their encounter on the hill.

During dinner, Jude notices a severe bruise on Preston’s torso that Preston lies about, which concerns him. When Kane compliments Violet’s cooking and she blushes, Jude’s jealousy intensifies. Preston teases Jude about having “mommy issues,” and Jude realizes that Preston has been sharing details of his past with Violet. Mid-dinner, Jude receives urgent texts from Julian stating that their father is furious about his absence from a family dinner. Regis is threatening to lock Jude up and harm Violet if he doesn’t arrive within 30 minutes. Jude abruptly announces that he must leave for a family emergency. Violet follows him outside, concerned by his distressed appearance while texting. When she offers to accompany him, Jude is moved and allows her to join him on his motorcycle.

Violet accompanies Jude to the imposing Callahan family mansion for dinner. They are greeted by Lucia, who Jude confirms is Mario’s mother. Lucia is helping Jude investigate the attacks. Inside the cold, pristine mansion, they join Regis, Julian, and Julian’s wife, Annalise, for an extremely tense meal. Regis immediately criticizes Jude for being late, and Jude antagonistically introduces his father as the “sperm donor.” The atmosphere grows hostile as Jude accuses Regis of murdering his mother, Susie.

Regis denies the accusation, revealing that Susie actually died by suicide. He proceeds to disclose that Susie struggled with mental illness and made multiple attempts to kill Jude as a child through drowning and suffocation. Regis explains that he only allowed her to return from a psychiatric hospital because young Jude went on a hunger strike. Julian corroborates the account, adding that Susie stalked Regis for years and inadvertently caused Julian’s own mother to die by suicide. Regis also reveals that most of Susie’s pregnancies resulted from her taking his sperm to fertility clinics without consent.

When Jude refuses to believe them, Regis produces a suicide letter that Susie wrote to Julian. In the letter, Susie confesses that she hired a patient from a psychiatric hospital to murder her and make it look like a random act of violence, intending to spare Jude the pain of her death by suicide. She also admits to intrusive thoughts about killing him and apologizes for failing as a mother. The revelation devastates Jude. After leaving the mansion, Violet tries to comfort Jude, but he angrily pushes her away. He yells that she should hate him and drives off alone.

Days after the devastating family dinner, Jude is in the penalty box during a hockey game, consumed by uncontrollable rage. He watches Preston get violently checked by an opposing player. Jude reflects on the flash drive that Regis asked Lucia to give him; it contains security footage of his mother’s attempts to kill him as a child. He recalls pushing Violet away after the dinner when she offered comfort and realizes that he terrorized her based on a lie about his mother’s death.

Jude repeatedly scans the crowd for Violet, but she is absent. He thinks about her supportive text messages, including one from three days ago that sounded final, which troubles him. Though he resolves never to let her go, he stays away to avoid hurting her in his volatile state. His uncontrolled aggression gets him benched, and the Vipers lose the game. Coach Slater berates him for the worst performance of his career.

After the game, Jude texts Larson, the bodyguard he assigned to Violet, and learns that she’s home after visiting the HAVEN bar. Preston confronts him, teasing about the loss but genuinely concerned about his state. Recognizing that he needs to talk to someone, Jude agrees to go with Preston to Kane’s place.

A week and a half after the Callahan dinner, Violet and Dahlia have a weekend picnic in a local park. Preston crashes their gathering. Violet feels distressed because Jude has been ghosting her, though her therapy has taught her to set boundaries and stop absorbing others’ pain. Preston and Dahlia discuss the recent hockey loss, attributing it to Jude’s erratic behavior. To provoke Jude, Preston photographs himself holding Violet’s hand and texts their team group chat, claiming that she’s his new girlfriend. Jude immediately responds with a furious message threatening to break Preston’s neck.

Preston notices the bracelet on Violet’s wrist, a memento from her mother. His playful demeanor vanishes, and he becomes menacing, demanding to inspect it. He opens a hidden clasp, revealing a sun-and-moon symbol matching his own ring, along with the initials “W.J.A.” Preston realizes that the bracelet belonged to his grandfather, Winston James Armstrong, and is a significant family heirloom passed from father to children. As he processes this revelation and pockets the bracelet, gunshots suddenly ring out. Violet attempts to push Preston to safety, but he swings them around, taking the bullet meant for her. More shots follow as Jude arrives and shields Violet with his body while Larson returns fire. Violet sees Preston lying motionless and bleeding on the picnic blanket. She runs to him, screaming.

Violet awakens in a hospital after a nightmare about her mother’s ghost calling her a “curse.” Dahlia confirms that the shooting was real and that Violet’s arm was grazed. Preston is in critical surgery. Violet insists on going to the operating-room waiting area, where she finds Jude and Marcus fighting. Preston’s father, Lawrence Armstrong, stands nearby with an unnervingly calm demeanor. Marcus rages at Lawrence for showing no emotion about his son’s condition and then turns on Violet, saying that she should be the one in surgery. Jude punches him.

Lawrence approaches Violet with the bloodied bracelet, asking if she was one of Julian’s test subjects during her coma. He keeps the bracelet and instructs her not to discuss it with outsiders, saying that he must verify information. The surgeon emerges and announces that Preston has died. Violet collapses in grief. Jude attacks the doctor in denial, and Marcus roars in agony as he’s dragged away. Jude makes a desperate call to Regis, begging him to use their medical empire to revive Preston, but his father says that they cannot bring back the dead.

Four days later, at Preston’s funeral at the Armstrong estate, Violet observes a lavish ceremony with little visible grief. Preston’s family shows scant emotion except his young sister, who is chastised and removed when she openly weeps. Overwhelmed, Violet finds Jude standing alone by a tree in a side garden. He admits that he has been secretly sleeping beside her at night because her presence calms him. He shows her a fading mark on the tree from a blood pact that he and Preston made over 10 years ago. When Violet says that she should have died instead, Jude forbids it, telling her that she must live for Preston and Mario. He whispers that she should live for him and kisses her.

After Preston’s funeral, Jude remains alone at the cemetery. He recalls Violet grounding him during the service by holding his hand and how he sent her away with Kane and Dahlia to say a private goodbye. While standing at the grave in the rain, he speaks to Preston, expressing grief and guilt for failing to save him. He grieves for Preston, who was like a brother to him, and promises to find and kill whoever is responsible for his death.

After hours at the cemetery and an aimless motorcycle ride, Jude goes to Violet’s apartment and slips into bed beside her. When she wakes up, they discuss his mother’s death. Jude explains that the man Susie hired to kill her was more violent than she planned. Violet opens up about her traumatic past, revealing how her mother’s lifestyle led to abuse by her mother’s clients and her foster father. She admits that she initially believed such treatment was normal and only recently recognized that she was failed by every adult in her life.

Jude reflects that Kane has convinced him to become more involved in Vencor, his family’s organization, to gain power to protect Violet. When she asks why she must attend Preston’s will reading, Jude internally connects it to the bracelet but only says that Preston likely mentioned her. He promises not to ice her out again and to be by her side at the reading. Their conversation becomes intimate, and they have passionate sex. During their encounter, she asks if he is hers, and he responds that he always has been. Afterward, Jude holds her and vows to protect her.