Into the Water

Louise deals with her feelings following Nel’s funeral. She decides that her family needs to move away from Beckford. She also worries that her marriage is faltering because “no marriage could survive this loss. It would always sit between them—that neither of them had been able to stop her” (134). Louise feels that she and her husband will never move on but that Josh can. Louise starts to put away Katie’s things from her room; Josh discovers her there and becomes anxious and upset.

Louise continues believing that Nel is at fault and that she knew everything about Katie, despite guidance from a grief counselor, who points out: “That’s what all parents think […] and I’m afraid all parents are wrong” (139). As she cleans up Katie’s room, Louise comforts herself by thinking about Nel Abbott dead.

Sean wakes in the middle of the night to Louise pounding on his front door. Louise hands him a bottle of diet pills prescribed to Nel, with the warning: “Studies in the United States have linked their use to depression and suicidal thoughts” (142). Sean reminds Louise that Katie’s blood tests were clean when she died. Louise insists that the pills are proof that Nel killed her daughter and may have harmed other people as well.