Already under financial strain, Eddie receives two alarming phone calls. The first is from Layton Gray, Madeline and Trevor’s attorney, who threatens legal action if their $50,000 investment is not returned. The second is from Philip Meier at the bank, who informs Eddie he is 92 days behind on his mortgage and owes over $27,000. Eddie forms a plan to use an incoming $84,000 cash payment from a renter to pay the bank while giving Barbie less than she expects.

When Grace excitedly shows him the Globe article, Eddie is consumed by his financial desperation and doesn’t read it, accepting her explanation that the photographs were staged. Instead of feeling jealous of Benton, Eddie sees the successful landscape architect as a potential source of investment capital for his failing properties.

After seeing the romantic photographs in the Boston Globe, Madeline feels a surge of inspiration and finishes the first draft of B/G. In the book’s new ending, G’s husband, Renfrew, discovers the affair by checking her cell phone records. Once the relationship is exposed, G leaves her husband and runs away with B to start a new life in St. John. Madeline is confident in the completed draft and believes that Angie will be thrilled with the result.

On Monday morning, Barbie confronts Eddie with the newspaper article, telling him the island gossip is that he is “paying this guy to screw [his] wife” (292). She urges him to handle the situation. Provoked, Eddie drives home and finds Benton’s truck in the driveway. After searching the empty house, he discovers the door to the garden shed is locked. Hearing movement and breathing from inside, he assumes Grace and Benton are together.

Speaking through the locked door, Eddie fires Benton, refuses to pay his final bill, and orders him never to return. He then waits in his car down the road and watches Benton’s truck leave, confirming his suspicions. The realization of Grace’s betrayal leaves him heartbroken.

Feeling emboldened by the article, Grace pulls Benton into the garden shed and tells him she wants to marry him. Their encounter is cut short when Eddie arrives home and fires Benton through the locked door. Benton panics, dismissing their relationship as “a summer romance” (311) and expressing fear that a scandal will damage his business. He then officially ends their relationship via a text message and tells Grace that he is moving to Detroit. Grace, distraught, tracks Benton down at a client’s house, but he accuses her of stalking him and insists on a clean break.

That night, Eddie doesn’t come home. In the middle of the night, Barbie awakens Grace to tell her that Eddie has been arrested by the FBI because they “suspect him of running a prostitution ring” (230). Grace goes to the police station to post bail and finds four of the cleaning girls sitting outside while Nadia is inside the interrogation room being questioned. She talks with Eddie’s lawyer, Ben Winford, who gets Eddie out of jail. However, he also warns Grace that he should find a more suitable lawyer and that he will likely end up with jail time.

A few hours later, Eddie is released. He comes clean to Grace, admitting that they have no money. He then tells her about the cleaning women, arguing that he said no at first and that he was desperate for the money. However, Grace plainly responds that he was “exploiting” them despite Eddie’s continued insistence that they “never complained” (326). They end the conversation by agreeing not to tell Hope and Allegra.

Madeline calls her editor, Angie, and withdraws her novel, B/G, from publication. Angie is furious and threatens legal action, but Madeline’s agent, Redd, intervenes to support her decision, assuring her she will not have to repay her advance.

Shortly after, Rachel calls with news that Eddie has been arrested. She tells Madeline that Eddie’s secretary, Eloise, contacted the police after overhearing Barbie discussing the operation. Concerned for Grace, Madeline goes to her house and finds her smoking a cigarette on the front step. The two women go inside, putting aside their recent conflict to talk.

At Ben’s recommendation, Eddie gets a new lawyer, Bridger Cleburne. Bridger informs him that the evidence against him is overwhelming. The FBI has a wiretap, and one of the women involved in the operation is a minor. There were two informants: Eloise, who overheard Barbie, and the billionaire owner of the rental property, who had learned of the arrangement through a chance encounter in Las Vegas and gave the FBI surveillance access. To protect Barbie from prosecution, Eddie accepts a plea deal and is sentenced to three to five years in prison, losing his home and commercial properties.

Before his sentencing, Eddie apologizes to his daughters, Hope and Allegra, who are surprisingly forgiving. On the drive to the courthouse, he makes a confession to Grace: Before his arrest, he summoned Benton to his office and threatened to have him killed if he ever contacted Grace again. Acknowledging his own failures, Eddie now tells Grace that she should be with Benton if that is what she wants.

With her father in jail, Hope adjust to a new routine of household chores. Allegra insists they go to Nobadeer Beach, a popular spot with their high school peers. There, they encounter Allegra’s former friends, including Hollis. Allegra confidently confronts the group and reveals that Calgary had previously made advances toward her, sparking a fight between him and his girlfriend, Kenzie. Bluto insults Allegra but then defends her, calling Hollis a “backstabber” for circulating the photograph of Allegra and Ian. The twins also notice that Brick is now dating Hannah. As they leave the beach, they share a rare moment of genuine closeness and solidarity.

Madeline begins writing a new novel titled The Before, a prequel to Islandia. Grace arrives at Madeline’s apartment looking surprisingly peaceful and “radiant.” She reveals that she read the unpublished manuscript of B/G. Crying, Grace embraces Madeline and confesses that the story’s happy ending, in which the lovers begin a new life together, was the ending she had wanted for herself. The exchange completes the reconciliation between the two friends.

During the car ride to MCI-Plymouth prison, Eddie reflects on his life. Rather than dwelling on what he has lost, he focuses on memories of his daughters. He recalls the intense fear and love he felt on the day the twins were born, when Hope’s life was in danger and she had to be airlifted to Boston. He also reflects on the recent dinner he had alone with Hope, feeling proud of her growing curiosity and courage. As the van arrives at the prison gates, Eddie feels “blessed.”

In the wake of the scandal, the island’s social landscape shifts. Eddie’s secretary, Eloise, tells her story to anyone who will listen but receives no official recognition for being an informant. Glenn Daley buys Eddie’s last spec house and proposes to Barbie, who accepts. Grace sells the large Wauwinet estate for $3.5 million and moves with the twins to a cottage on Lily Street, repaying Madeline and Trevor their $50,000 only hours after closing on the house. 

Grace is seen mailing Eddie a care package in prison containing a new Panama hat. A rumor that Allegra received a modeling contract proves false when she is seen working at the children’s library. With the Pancik scandal resolved, Nantucket’s gossip mill turns its attention toward whatever story comes next.