The Good Girl

Eve grieves her daughter. She thinks about the ways she failed Mia, along with memories of playgrounds and days of afternoon sun. The reporters come around less often. She wonders if she will ever be reunited with her daughter, dead or alive. She gets angry and throws expensive dinnerware, family heirlooms, at the wall: “I scream at the top of my lungs, a barbaric sound that certainly doesn’t belong to me” (172). She remembers the day she failed Mia the most, when James insisted Mia attend law school against her will. Eve didn’t protect her. The robins and geese leave for winter, and Eve cries.

Mia names the cat Canoe and makes a bed for it in the shed. It goes missing. Colin worries about his mother again, wondering if his neighbors are checking in on her, and whether she got the money he sent. He worries about buying more supplies when his wanted poster might be on national TV. He grills fish and talks to Mia, who asks him if he’s ever worked. He talks to her about trying to survive on minimum wage. As they eat, they hear approaching footsteps. Colin reaches for his gun but realizes it’s missing.

Gabe tries to gather more information before informing the Dennett’s, but Eve comes down to the station before he’s ready. He takes her to an interrogation room to give her the news of Colin Thatcher’s identity. He explains the surveillance footage, which Eve wants to see—Gabe cautions against it. Eve wants to know why this petty criminal took her daughter. Gabe vows to find out.

A woman with a water jug approaches. She has walked from the road looking for someone to help her with a flat tire. Colin agrees to help her and drags Mia along, threatening to kill her and the woman if she doesn’t comply. The whole drive to the car, Colin thinks he’s being set-up. The woman asks about their trip, and Colin makes up a story about being from Green Bay. He works on the tire and thinks about murdering the woman before she drives away, but something stops him: “I think of my own mother, lying in the abandoned woods…” (187). Mia digs her nails into his arm, encouraging him to leave. The woman drives away safely.

James and Eve bring Mia to a gynecologist for a check-up. Mia doesn’t understand what’s happening. The doctor is James’s friend, someone who will keep things quiet. Mia undergoes a transvaginal ultrasound, and the doctor declares Mia is five weeks pregnant. Eve and Mia are shocked. Eve starts crying, looking at the ultrasound photos. Mia claims she doesn’t remember having intercourse with Colin Thatcher. She is numb as Eve wails about the rape, and James enters the examination room.

It’s freezing cold in the cabin now. Colin looks at a map and tries to plan an escape. He knows their options are limited. He thinks about stopping off at home in Gary, Indiana but suspects police have a watch on his family home. He offers Mia a hot cup of coffee, and she takes it despite quitting caffeine years before. Mia offers to draw him, and he reluctantly agrees. Colin is attracted to Mia in a way he doesn’t want to admit. As she draws him, he reveals that he paid off her ex-boyfriend Jason. She tells him she only went home with him that night because she was drunk. He is upset: “She’s watching me and I wonder what it is she sees. She thinks I’m numb to her indifference, but she’s wrong” (198). Finally, Colin admits that his life of crime isn’t a choice anymore—it’s a cycle that only ends in death or jail time. Mia nods in understanding.

James startles Mia awake for an early morning appointment with Dr. Rhodes. They are going to discuss Mia’s options for the baby. Mia has been in denial for days, certain the baby doesn’t exist. In the lobby, James tells Eve that Mia must have an abortion. He already has a story for what “we’ll say […] when people ask” (201). When Mia departs, Dr. Rhodes encourages her to take time to think over what she wants, but Eve knows James has already decided.

Colin is grieving missing his mother’s birthday when Mia tiptoes into the dark bedroom. He begins to talk to her about his life story: When Colin was young, his father was an alcoholic and always between jobs; his mother worked all day and night to pay bills, though they still were homeless and didn’t have enough money for groceries. Colin began helping his mother when he was five or six, when she developed Parkinson’s Disease. By high school, he was dressing and feeding her and working to pay the bills. He moved to the city to make more money to send home for medical bills. When he was offered that high-interest loan, he had to take it.