The woman who advised Cady to bake her favorite cake refuses to let Miss Mallory enter the event without a ticket. Miss Mallory feels a tug in her chest similar to the sensation that helps her match orphans to their perfect families. She offers the ceramic bird to the woman, who joyfully accepts it and explains that it is used to vent pies. The woman lets Miss Mallory in, and she has a seat by Toby. As Miss Mallory watches Cady, she feels “the same heart-yanking tug she’d been ignoring all week. For over a decade, really” (197). She fears that it is too late to listen to the tug now that Cady has a perfect family that doesn’t include her.

Mrs. Asher arrives in New York City and finds a place to park a few blocks from the convention center. Sally runs off suddenly and leads her to Will. Mrs. Asher hugs her son tight and tells him that he should find his adventures in books from now on. He asks her, “Haven’t you ever had anything you loved doing, Mom? [...] Something that was worth getting in real big trouble for?” (200). Thinking of the toe bone she left inside the car in her haste to look for Will, she acknowledges that she has found something like that.