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Summary: Chapters 34–36
Chapter 34: On the Lake
Charlie drives Hannah to Nicholas’s secluded ranch home. It resembles a fortress, with a gate, bodyguards, and watch dogs, causing Hannah to wonder if this was a good idea.
Nicholas greets her and talks about his wife, especially her care for the house. Hannah realizes that, though Charlie is nervous, it is not because of his father because they are clearly close and affectionate with each other. Nicholas asks one of his guards to search Hannah before she can stay and then orders Charlie to leave. Despite her overwhelming urge to leave, Hannah enters his home.
Chapter 35: Two Years Ago
Hannah recalls an outing to Los Angeles with Owen and Bailey shortly before their engagement. Hannah compliments Bailey’s dress, but is met with silence from the teen. Owen excitedly talks about his plans to take Hannah to Big Sur, jokes about his lack of family other than Bailey, and communicates his excitement about possibly marrying Hannah.
Owen disappoints Bailey when he reveals they will go to a play with Hannah the following day, when she had thought they would have the time to themselves. Hannah encourages them to go without her given how much work she has to do. Though Owen prefers they attend as a threesome, Hannah can tell that the girl appreciates the respect that her withdrawal conveys. For the first time, Bailey smiles at her.
Chapter 36: You Have to Do Some Things on Your Own
Nicholas guides Hannah through his home. She is surprised to realize that one of her own tables is there. The bodyguards leave the two of them alone in his office. There Hannah sees photographs of a young Bailey with Katherine. Still in doubt about the wisdom of what she is doing, Hannah shares some details about Bailey with Nicholas.
Then she explains why she has come—she wants to reach an agreement with Nicholas. Even though he assumes she has come to see if he really merits his bad reputation, she denies that notion. Nicholas insists that nobody can really know anything.
He explains how he came to work for the drug dealer, insisting it was no more unethical than working for a tobacco company. Hannah cannot agree, but Nicholas persists, asking if it is ethical for her to hide a child from her family. That Nicholas wants to cause her pain is obvious, especially as he complains about Ethan’s (Owen’s) hypocrisy in testifying against him. Even if he wanted to help Owen, which he does not, his strong ties to his former employers make that impossible. They would never agree to leave Owen in peace given his betrayal. Hannah surmises that Nicholas’s resentment against Owen has other causes, including Owen’s humble background which made him not desirable as a husband for his talented daughter. When she asks him if this is true, Nicholas says it is and that Katherine refused to speak to him for more than a year because of Ethan.
Though Nicholas threatens to tell her things that will alter her view of Owen permanently, Hannah continues to press for a mutually beneficial arrangement. She offers Nicholas the chance to know his granddaughter in exchange for assurances that neither she nor Hannah will be harmed, a deal she is willing to make even if it means that Owen must remain in hiding and away from his family. At first Nicholas doubts her commitment to this plan but agrees after Hannah asserts that Bailey is her priority. He too wants to do what is best for Bailey. Their discussion ends as Grady and other marshals arrive at the house.
Analysis
Though the book introduces Nicholas somewhat earlier, both Hannah and the readers only now meet him. This delay adds to his mystique. Nicholas is unquestionably a sinister, dangerous figure with a compromised moral code. However, Hannah recognizes that he is not all bad. This nuanced depiction of Nicholas as an antagonist but also a three-dimensional person encapsulates Dave’s approach to characterization throughout the novel. The fact that Nicholas is a corrupt lawyer does not preclude him from being a loving family man. Nor does his bitter hatred of Owen negate the fact that he sincerely loves Owen’s daughter because she is also his granddaughter. If Hannah had accepted Grady’s overly simplistic characterization of Nicholas, she would have been unable to negotiate a deal with him because doing so required her to see him as a person and not just a villain. Nicholas does not change or grow in the story, but Hannah’s ability to see him as a potential ally despite not liking him shows that she does grow over the course of the story. This complicated approach to characterization, and Nicholas’s threats, indicate that he might be right about Owen.
That Nicholas owns one of Hannah’s tables underscores how dangerous he can be, while also foreshadowing their eventual agreement to work together. As Hannah notes, if Nicholas’s wife was able to find the table, they would not have needed to explore much further before finding Hannah’s connection to Owen and Bailey, jeopardizing their safety. Nicholas seems unaware of the connection and is sincere in explaining to Hannah that his late wife decorated the house. Hannah always connects best with people who appreciate her work and enjoy it as much as she does. The fact that Bailey’s grandmother liked her work enough to purchase a table—and that Nicholas trusted his wife’s sense of design enough to maintain her decorating style even after she died—suggests that there may be more common ground between these two very different people than one would otherwise assume. This tentative common ground is enough to forge an alliance between Hannah and Nicholas.
Nicholas’s intense, foreboding ranch home highlights Hannah’s courage. Its numerous security features underscore the fact that Nicholas is trying to keep out perceived danger. The bodyguards, guard dogs, and security cameras exist just as much to project strength, intimidate visitors, and discourage opponents as they do to protect Nicholas. Visitors should not find this place welcoming, and Hannah most certainly does not. Given the novel’s emphasis on home as both a location and a feeling, Dave repeatedly demonstrates that Nicholas’s sanctuary will provide little sense of home for Hannah, regardless of her table. Still, Hannah is now secure enough in herself to trust her instincts and negotiate an arrangement with him, despite her doubts and fears and his obvious hostility. In this intimidating, unfamiliar place, Hannah stands her ground and secures Bailey’s future, ensuring she can bring Bailey back to the houseboat she knows as home.
In this section, both Hannah and Nicholas demonstrate compromise and love to protect Bailey. They have almost nothing in common and do not like each other. But what they share is a love for Bailey and a willingness to compromise because of that love. Indeed, the novel suggests that compromise is at the root of love. For the love of Bailey, Nicholas sets aside his hatred for Owen enough to guarantee that no harm will come to Owen’s second wife in much the same way that Hannah forsakes her marriage to Owen out of love for Bailey. Nicholas even unwittingly signals his potential willingness to compromise for the sake of family when he mentions he had already compromised by accepting Owen into the family initially out of love for his daughter. Katherine made her father choose between accepting Owen and sacrificing their close father-daughter relationship. Hannah and Nicholas’s willingness to compromise for Bailey’s sake mirrors Owen’s own sacrifices for his daughter, further confirming they make the right decision. He gives up the life he has built and his identity for her twice, his own compromise for the sake of love.
