55 pages 1 hour read

Jodi Picoult

The Pact

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1998

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Part 2, Chapters 10-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2: “The Girl Next Door”

Chapter 10 Summary: “Now: Late November 1997”

Chris is taken to the Bainbridge Police Department, where he is booked, then meets with his layer, Jordan McAfee. McAfee has spoken briefly to Gus and James, who worries that the gun involved in Emily’s death belongs to him. Chris is transported to Grafton County Jail and is arraigned the next day. His parents and the Golds are in attendance. At the arraignment hearing, Chris pleads “not guilty,” and his request for bail is denied. Melanie is removed from the courtroom after an outburst. After the hearing, Gus is angry that McAfee was not able to get Chris released. Melanie smokes outside and meets a local reporter, who requests to interview her.

Chapter 11 Summary: “Then: April 1996”

The chapter alternates between Emily’s and Chris’s points of views. Emily grows increasingly uncomfortable around Chris and dislikes being physically intimate with him. Though the teens have not had sex together, Chris knows that his peers speculate that they have. One night, at the children’s amusement park where Chris works, Emily runs off after Chris tries to touch her intimately. She decides afterward that the two should take a break from dating. Meanwhile, their mothers discuss them, both assuming that the teens are having sex.

While they are broken up, Chris dates—and later has sex with—a teen named Donna DeFelice.