During the break, Shannon tries frantically to think of a way to explain Elizabeth’s outburst. She also reveals that Ruth Weiss will testify that Pak threatened her. Elizabeth believes that it was Ruth herself that set the fire, thinking about how Ruth “stalked her on autism chat boards, threatening and bad-mouthing her, even going to CPS […]” (294). Shannon disagrees and wants to blame Pak, to give the jury cause for reasonable doubt. However, Elizabeth refuses to let Shannon try to frame Pak or to suggest that someone else might have hurt Henry, and tells Shannon she wants to plead guilty. Shannon tells Elizabeth to give her one more day, noting she’ll “ask the judge to adjourn for the day, and we can all sleep on it” (291).

Elizabeth goes to the restroom and runs into Young. She apologizes to Young for Shannon’s accusations about Pak and notices, but does not understand, Young’s expression of “sorrow and repentance” (292. She tries to tell Young that this will all be over soon. When she returns to the room where she was meeting with her lawyer, everyone is gone, and Elizabeth’s sees Shannon’s notes, which indicate that Shannon is not going to allow Elizabeth to plead guilty, that she might even call Elizabeth’s competence into question.