“It isn’t that I’m sitting at home, sad and brooding. I’m not waiting by the window with a lamp on. I have my work, which continues to fulfill me; and I have my close friends, whom I love; and, most importantly, I have Bailey and the little family we’ve managed to keep strong. The family that we’ve managed to make strong—the days of Bailey and me failing to understand each other, far in the rearview. It’s the two of us, together, first and foremost. And then it’s also the family from which Bailey came—all of whom have embraced me, becoming my family too.”

Dave uses this passage to establish Hannah’s emotional status quo at the start of this novel. Rather than show Hannah passively mourning the death of her old life, the novel finds Hannah trying to rebuild a sense of normalcy through the family she has with Bailey, the family she’s found with Nicholas and Charlie, and her friends.

“If you do this first, Hannah said, everything you have to do next will be easier.

They had, in fact, done run-throughs to get ready for this. Bailey didn’t even fight Hannah on the run-throughs because there was no fighting Hannah on this. On being prepared, on doing things that would keep Bailey safe.

Something happens when you have a mother who never asks you what to do. Who instead has the answers for you. You believe her that she knows.”

This passage reveals the depth of the relationship between Hannah and Bailey by pointing to Bailey’s trust in Hannah in the wake of the previous novel’s events. Where Bailey previously distrusted her stepmother, she now fully sees Hannah as the one person who can provide a solution, which is why she never questions anything Hannah asks her to do. This informs their dynamic throughout the rest of the novel.

“[O]ver time, he became my first phone call when anything went wrong with Bailey. When things went right with her too. Nicholas earned that with his commitment to her. He earned Bailey’s desire to spend holidays together and birthdays and college vacations. And, in the process, he earned the same thing from me.

After all, the easiest path to loving someone is when you share the most important thing together.”

In this passage, Dave reframes Nicholas’s characterization so that he no longer appears as an antagonist in Hannah and Bailey’s lives but as a figure providing necessary emotional support. Hannah qualifies this by indicating that Nicholas has “earned” the right to call himself a part of their family, suggesting that he has made an effort to show up for Bailey whenever she needed him. This develops Effort as a Means of Reconciliation as a theme.

“It took me a long time to understand that Bailey wasn’t being snarky or difficult, back then. (How easy and wrongheaded to name her fears in that way.) Bailey had just been scared—for different reasons than she is scared now—but scared all the same. She’d been scared to trust anyone who wasn’t her father, especially someone coming in as hot as I did. She’d been scared that she didn’t even know how to trust someone who wasn’t her father. We’d had that in common.”

In this passage, Hannah reflects on how the initial antagonism between her and Bailey reflected Bailey’s fear of the changes in her life, including Hannah’s presence as her stepmother. Hannah caps off this reflection with the acknowledgment that fear was something they shared, which drives the idea of common ground as a foundation for agreement. This foreshadows later agreements formed on shaky common ground, like the ones between Owen and Nicholas and, much later, Nicholas and Frank.

“‘Do we run now? Like forever?’

I think of where we were twenty-four hours ago: before Owen showed up at the design center, before the loss of Nicholas. I’d spent the afternoon participating in the First Look exhibition—making reservations to take my favorite girl (and her new friend Shep) out to get her favorite dim sum.

[…]

‘I think if we are learning anything,’ I say, ‘it’s that nothing is forever.’”

In this passage, Hannah attempts to reassure Bailey regarding their dire situation. Dave stresses the danger they’re in by underscoring how quickly their lives have changed over the last 24 hours. Instead of looking to this as proof that they are doomed, however, Hannah draws the inverse implication, suggesting that they aren’t doomed to run forever.

“‘Bailey,’ I say. ‘Nicholas was never, not for a moment of his life, anything but totally in love with you. Don’t spend a second worrying about that.’

‘I just don’t know why I had to bring him up.’

‘Because your father is who you always want to bring up. Me too.’ I shrug. ‘That’s love.’”

This exchange between Hannah and Bailey lays the narrative foundations for Nicholas’s decision to work with Owen to help Hannah and Bailey. That Bailey continues to love her father suggests that Nicholas, to please her, would be willing to help Owen reunite with her. This passage uses Nicholas’s hatred of Owen as misdirection while actually making Nicholas’s agreement with Owen narratively plausible.

“The best advice Nicholas’s father ever gave him was this: Never let fear make your decisions.”

The first line of Nicholas’s extended flashback establishes the underlying tension of his subplot. Nicholas must decide whether he is letting fear or love for his family guide his decision to work with Frank and grow closer to him as a friend. This tension continues to haunt Nicholas in the present as he moves closer to enacting his plan to liberate Owen, Hannah, and Bailey.

“‘Is this safe?’ Meredith asked.

But she was already getting out of the car. She was already heading for the stairs and up to the private cabin and the glass of champagne waiting for her.

It was like watching a switch go on: She was enjoying herself, for the first time in a long time. And Nicholas loved seeing it.”

This passage marks a turning point in Nicholas’s relationship with the Organization. The contrast between Meredith’s question and the details that suggest she is enjoying the luxury of the private plane deepens Nicholas’s internal conflict by enticing him to embrace life as a defense lawyer for criminals.

“Because that’s the thing about faith. Even if the world decides it looks crazy, it shows up for you in the moment that you need it most. The moment that you need faith to remind you that you know better.”

This passage encapsulates Hannah’s emotional arc throughout the novel. Hannah must learn to put her faith in Owen’s plan, allowing herself to let go of her control in each situation. Her reliance on faith signals her trust that Owen knows a way to bring them all back together.

“This is the thing about organizing your life the way I do—about knowing that you are only safe when you are completely prepared. When you are the one who takes control. In the rare moment where you aren’t in control, you feel like you are giving someone else the chance to undo it: all the ways you work to protect her.”

This passage provides characterization that informs Hannah’s emotional arc. Hannah typically values control, which she associates with knowledge of each situation. When she finds herself and Bailey grounded in Miami, she knows that by panicking, she will give the Organization the upper hand. To maintain control in the absence of knowledge, Hannah must put her faith in Owen’s plan.

“We’ll be back, Owen had said, sitting on that balcony that last morning. This won’t be the last time here.”

In this passage, the novel turns Hannah’s memories into directions that bring her closer to Owen. This underscores Owen’s commitment to Hannah, as Owen is getting Hannah to revisit their relationship’s past to affirm his desire to reunite with her in the future.

“It was what happened to him that very first moment—when Hannah turned toward him.

The first moment with his wife, and the last with her. Of course, you never know when you’re having your last moment with the person you love.”

Owen is haunted by the fear that he may never reunite with Hannah again. Dave stresses this by suggesting that the last time he saw Hannah could be the last moment he will ever spend with her. This heightens Owen’s resolve to keep working toward his reunion with Hannah.

“‘I don’t know how to do this just me…’

‘Well, good thing it isn’t just you then.’

Nicholas put his hand on Frank’s shoulder. And Frank started to cry.”

This passage complicates the characterization of Frank as an antagonist by painting him as a deeply vulnerable person who relies on Nicholas’s friendship for emotional support. By softening Frank, Dave prepares the reader for the novel’s final plot twist while also adding nuance to his motivations for pursuing action against Nicholas and his family.

“‘Turns out I love her more than I hate you,’ he said. ‘Both of them. Bailey and Hannah…’”

In this passage, Nicholas acknowledges the common ground he shares with Owen. Ensuring Hannah and Bailey’s well-being is enough to convince Nicholas to work with Owen, despite Owen’s actions against him in the past. The recognition of this common ground thus drives Finding Purpose in Family as a theme.

“You said stop looking for joy anymore because you’re not going to find it. Look for purpose. That will get you through.”

This passage articulates the novel’s thesis: that people should organize their lives around purpose rather than personal joy and that doing so allows people to weather any difficulty or challenge. Family, in particular, motivates many of the novel’s major characters, including Hannah, Nicholas, and Owen.

“When the boat turns, the compass continues to point at magnetic north, and the course is shown in reference to that line. That was most of my first lesson: how the compass is the one piece of navigational equipment that will operate when everything else you think you know fails.

True north, holding, even when everything else is unsteady.

When everything is shifting away from what you can control.”

This passage cements the marine compass as a symbol of purpose. As Hannah moves further away from an environment where she feels in control, she is reminded of the fact that she can always look to her family as the “true north” of her life, keeping her steady when all other things feel in disarray.

“It’s impossible to consider the lengths a woman will go if she thinks she’s protecting her family.”

In this passage, Dave suggests that Hannah is the only person who can understand Quinn’s motivations for seeking revenge against Owen and his family. Though Owen and Nicholas have planned with Quinn in mind, Hannah becomes a mirror for her, understanding that Owen’s actions have caused Quinn the same strife that Hannah has had to deal with as a wife and mother.

“‘Certainly a lot worse places to try to be a better person,’ he says.

‘Is that what he’s been doing here?’

‘Maybe in part,’ Nicholas says.

[…]

‘You think that Frank has that kind of conscience?’ I ask.

Nicholas doesn’t hesitate. ‘No,’ he says. ‘I’m just hoping that I do.’”

In this passage, Dave underscores the symbolic function of Èze as a place for renewal and redemption. Nicholas implies that Frank has come to Èze to redeem himself after a life of crime. By coming to Èze, Nicholas suggests that he is planning to do the same, but the doubt in Nicholas’s final statement creates ambiguity and tension as the conflict moves closer to its climax.

“She turns toward her father. The first time she is looking at him. His hair is different and his face more angular, rigid, the skin pulled around his mouth. He looks older and too thin and worn down. He looks sad, a sadness she isn’t used to seeing in his face. But his eyes, the emotion there, is the same. It’s him. Undeniably him.”

Dave uses an allusion to Homer’s Odyssey in this passage to depict the reunion between Owen and Bailey. Dave casts Owen as Odysseus, a father finally coming home to his family for the first time in years, and Bailey as Telemachus. However, where Odysseus is merely supernaturally disguised as an old man, The First Time I Saw Him hews closer to literary realism. Owen’s experiences truly have aged him; Bailey only recognizes Owen through his eyes, the one part of him that hasn’t changed when everything else has.

“He was trying to imagine a day when keeping watch like that wouldn’t be what was required of him—in order to keep his family safe.

Apparently, nearly two decades later, he doesn’t have that answer. Not just yet. Not tonight.”

This passage develops dealing with the consequences of the past as a theme by suggesting that Owen can never fully escape his checkered past and that this will always affect his relationship with his family. Dave underscores how far-reaching Owen’s actions are by pointing out that it has already been two decades since he started running from the Organization; his efforts to evade the syndicate have lasted all of Bailey’s life.

“‘If my children were sloppy enough to allow this to happen, who is to say that I care enough about them that I won’t just let them go down?’

‘Isn’t that the one thing we have in common? Even now, Frank?’ He pauses. ‘We’d do anything for our children.’”

This exchange between Nicholas and Frank represents Nicholas’s attempt to appeal to the common ground between them. Nicholas knows that Frank will defend his children from threats like the one that Nicholas has brought to him. He therefore gambles on an appeal to Frank’s better nature. Though Frank is a criminal, Nicholas knows he has it in him to be selfless on behalf of those he loves, including Nicholas, one of his closest friends.

“‘I mean, there’s always a cost,’ she says. ‘You get that by now, don’t you? When you come for my family, there’s always a cost.’”

Quinn reminds Hannah that no deed goes unpunished in their family, so someone must take the fall for the danger that Nicholas has placed them in. This passage stresses that there is no outcome where everyone can walk away unscathed. Someone must bear the burden of Nicholas’s actions, which drives dealing with the consequences of the past as a theme.

“‘Didn’t you hear, Frank?’ he says. ‘I’m already dead.’

And, forty-three years too late, Nicholas walks away.”

As Nicholas parts ways with Frank, he reminds him of the widespread assumption that he is dead. This statement takes on a metaphorical meaning in the larger context of his character arc. By referencing Nicholas’s decision to work with Frank 43 years earlier as the turning point in his life, Dave suggests that Nicholas died when he chose to sign his life away to the Organization. He may walk away with his life, but at the cost of almost everything he valued, including Kate and his connection to Bailey.