Handle With Care

A recipe for Divinity precedes this chapter.

Charlotte meets with a plumber about replacing the pipes in their home. The pipes have been eroded with something similar to acid. She agrees to the new pipes, even though they do not have the money to buy them.

Charlotte doesn’t talk to her daughters about the lawsuit because she was brought up in a family that believed if you didn’t talk about your problems, they didn’t exist. As the family sits down for dinner, they wait for Sean. Willow entertains them with trivia facts. Sean doesn’t show up, and when Charlotte calls dispatch to see if he’s taken another shift, she is told he left earlier.

Sean finally comes home from drinking, telling Charlotte he no longer enjoys coming home. The two fight about the lawsuit, with Sean focusing on his feelings that the lawsuit was filed because he cannot financially provide for his family.

The next morning, Sean is gone before anyone wakes up. Willow goes out to the mailbox and takes longer than usual to come back. When Charlotte goes looking for her, she finds her on the edge of the frozen pond. Charlotte grabs her before she falls into the icy water but breaks through the ice in the process.