Panicked by the news that she is a suspect, Clare calls Tasha to ask if she learned who Gabriel was buying Longfin for. Tasha reports that the contract was standard and did not name a third party. Clare then shares her theory that MoCA’s curator, Clement Rosier, conspired with his friend Gabriel to deaccession Longfin, sell it at a price Gabriel could then flip for more, and split the proceeds. Tasha immediately dismisses the idea, revealing that Gabriel’s offer was an “astronomical” $18 million, a price too high to allow for a profitable resale. Tasha sternly warns Clare to stop making accusations against Clement, as it could damage both Clare’s career prospects and the museum’s reputation. Clare apologizes and agrees to drop the matter.

Unsatisfied, Clare arranges to meet with Clement to ask him directly why MoCA sold Longfin. At the restaurant, Clement is initially defensive, stating that the decision was a collective one made to diversify the museum’s collection and that he finds Webley’s work “derivative.” When Clare presses him about whether Gabriel’s large offer came before or after the decision to sell, Clement becomes enraged. He accuses Clare of being a “dilettante” spreading “half-baked conspiracy theories” (165) before storming out. On the bus ride home, Clare reflects on her vulnerable position, realizing she is financially dependent on her husband, Jed, and has no resources of her own as her life begins to unravel.

Upon returning home, Clare discovers a mysterious deposit of $50,000 in her personal bank account from an unknown company called Kallsten Holdings Ltd. She immediately suspects she is being framed. She calls her friend Maggie, a reporter, to investigate the company. Just after she hangs up, NYPD Detective Breznick and her partner arrive at the apartment for more questions. Breznick reveals they have found text messages from Gabriel urging Clare to leave her husband. Clare realizes Breznick is also building a case against Jed as a suspect as the wronged husband who may have killed Gabriel for revenge. Desperate to protect Jed, Clare tells the detectives about Longfin. Breznick is highly skeptical, noting that Clare is the only person who has mentioned the painting. To lend her story credibility, Clare gives Breznick Elise Vargas’s business card, claiming Elise can corroborate her story.

Later that day, Maggie calls back with information about Kallsten Holdings. She explains that Kallsten is a shell company registered in Cyprus and is officially owned by a man named Peter DeGroot. Maggie clarifies that DeGroot is a “nominee director”—a lawyer who acts as a legal front to hide the identity of a company’s real owner, known as the “ultimate beneficial owner” (175) (UBO). The UBO’s identity is protected by a confidential contract, making it nearly impossible for anyone, including the police, to discover who truly owns the company. Clare is dismayed, realizing the person framing her is untraceable.

The following morning, Clare calls Detective Breznick, who confirms she spoke with Elise. However, she told the police she had found no evidence of theft or any other crime related to Longfin. Frustrated, Clare urges Breznick to investigate Clement who sold Gabriel the painting. Breznick reveals that they have already spoken to him and learned that Clare met with Clement in his office, and that four days later Clement emailed the museum’s director with a proposal to sell Longfin. Breznick now views Clare’s actions as a chain of damning coincidences: She met with the curator, began an affair with the buyer, was known to be upset about the painting going into a private collection, and is the sole source of the Longfin theft story. Breznick coldly informs Clare that she is a suspect.

Furious, Clare calls Elise and accuses her of deliberately making her look like a liar to the police. Elise denies it but admits Clare’s desperation is a helpful “bonus” that forces her to cooperate. Clare agrees to trade information. Elise reveals she was hired by Michael Kline, the executor of Gabriel’s estate, because Longfin is missing from Gabriel’s assets, creating an 18-million-dollar discrepancy. Evidence suggests Gabriel still owned the painting, yet no buyer has come forward.

In exchange, Clare confesses she was at Gabriel’s house during the murder. They conclude the intruder came specifically for Longfin. Elise then reveals the most puzzling detail: There are no records of a buyer in any of Gabriel’s files. They develop two theories: Either Gabriel staged the theft for insurance fraud, or a real buyer orchestrated the murder and theft after erasing his identity.

At Clare’s prompting, Elise calls Gabriel’s assistant Rachel, who recognizes the name Peter DeGroot—the nominee director for Kallsten Holdings—as a frequent private caller who worked for a company called Axion, not Kallsten. Clare realizes the owner of Axion must be the buyer, who then used a different shell company, Kallsten, to wire her money and frame her. Before they part, Elise instructs her tech to search Gabriel’s hard drives again, this time targeting the names Peter DeGroot and Axion. Elise advises Clare to get a lawyer and confess everything to the police before they uncover the Kallsten payment themselves.

That evening, Clare and Jed attend dinner at his parents’ apartment. On the way, Clare tries to tell Jed they need to talk, but he misinterprets it as a sexual advance, leading to a tense argument about her not wanting another child. At dinner, the family discusses Gabriel’s murder. Jed’s sister, Lauren, mentions that Freya Michelson’s father-in-law, Dick Michelson, sits on MoCA’s board and told her the police interviewed the top curator there in connection with a painting Gabriel bought from the museum. Jed, who has been drinking heavily, becomes uncharacteristically sarcastic and misquotes a line about Webley’s art as “indescribably brutal,” the same misquotation Gabriel used just before kissing her for the first time. Later, Jed’s mother, Dorothy, reveals that the caretaker at their East Hampton house saw Jed there a few weeks prior, a trip he never mentioned to Clare. The series of revelations leaves Clare suspicious of her husband.

Late that night, while Jed is asleep, Clare takes his phone. After finding nothing under the names “Gabriel” or “Kallsten,” she searches for “Axion” and discovers over 100 emails related to the company, many mentioning Peter DeGroot and large financial transactions. Jed wakes up and startles her, but he is too groggy to see what she is doing and goes back to bed. Realizing the emails are intentionally vague and that Jed keeps his most sensitive files on paper, Clare connects his secret trip to East Hampton with his unexplained knowledge of the Longfin sale details and his use of Gabriel’s exact misquote. She begins to suspect he is hiding documents in a specific closet at his parents’ beach house that he used as a childhood hiding spot.

The next day, Clare drives to the Basts’ deserted house in East Hampton. She goes directly to the closet at the end of an upstairs hallway and begins searching through its contents. Behind a pile of old sweaters, she discovers a flat wooden crate secured with bungee cords. Her heart pounding, she opens the box and finds Longfin inside.

In a state of shock, Clare buckles the crate containing Longfin into her car and drives back to New York City. She suspects Jed must have discovered her affair, hired someone to kill Gabriel, and stolen the painting, though she remains uncertain whether his motive was jealousy and revenge or a calculated attempt to misdirect the police. Unsure of what to do, she picks up Sadie from a playdate at her friend Mina’s apartment. To hide the painting, she tells Mina the large crate is a birthday gift for Jed and asks to store it in Mina’s closet, and Mina agrees.

As Clare and Sadie walk toward their own apartment building, they see police cars parked outside. Detectives Breznick and Nguyen are escorting Jed out of the lobby in handcuffs. Jed stops and locks eyes with Clare, his expression unreadable, before being led away. Clare quickly picks Sadie up and turns in the opposite direction, preventing her daughter from seeing her father’s arrest.