Chapter 20

Ten years earlier, at nearly three a.m. in Fern’s apartment, Fern confesses to Will that she once fantasized Peter was her father until she found Margaret’s diary naming Eric, a former resort lifeguard who left when Margaret became pregnant. Eric refused contact when reached, which devastated Fern.

Reeling, Fern spiraled into heavy drinking, risky behavior, and a rift with Whitney. A dare led to her drunkenly riding a tractor and being arrested. Later, during a party at her house, a cigarette sparked a sunroom fire while Fern was unconscious from a concussion; Margaret and Peter broke in and rescued her.

Shaken by the fire and her mother’s sacrifice, Fern accepted Margaret’s push toward business school and the Brookbanks track, believing she owed her mother. She admits she lacks a clear passion and envies Will’s artistic certainty.

Will rejects the idea of ten-year plans, arguing they are unrealistic. Instead, he proposes one-year plans. Together they write Fern’s goals—not working at Brookbanks, not living in Muskoka, moving to Toronto, and reassessing in a year—making an alternate future feel possible.

Will sets his own one-year intentions: avoid office work, accept being broke if needed, treat art as nonnegotiable, and try to run his comic Roommates in a paper. The night ends with quiet intimacy—linked pinkies and Fern’s whispered trust—cementing a deep bond and a shared commitment to near-term, self-directed choices.