Thirty-Two

Pip receives a late message from Naomi Ward: a Facebook screenshot of Max Hastings celebrating his acquittal at The Savoy with his parents and lawyer. Overwhelmed, Pip flees her house into heavy rain, seeking air and space from her parents’ muffled conversation and the suffocating room.

She walks the neighborhood until she spots Charlie Green outside Zach’s former house. Not wanting to return home, Pip accepts Charlie’s offer to sit under his porch. When Charlie asks what’s wrong, Pip explains that Max was found not guilty, and how her belief in truth and justice now feels naïve and betrayed.

Charlie counters that courtroom justice often fails, but personal justice and one’s own definitions of right and wrong still matter. He tells Pip she did nothing wrong and that Max only “wins” if she lets him. He urges her to consider whether she truly cares what others think if she knows she’s right.

Pip confronts the guilt she has carried: last year’s events, her family’s safety, secrets for friends, and the pressure to be “good” and “likeable.” She realizes she hasn’t been losing herself; she may have finally met who she is. Rejecting the need to be liked—contrasting it with Max’s performative charm—Pip embraces a harder, truer resolve.

Encouraged by Charlie’s faith in her, Pip smiles for the first time that day. She decides not to give up on Jamie Reynolds and leaves the porch determined to act, recommitted to finding him regardless of public opinion or institutional failure.