What I Saw and How I Lied Chapter 22 Summary

  • In the morning, Joe leaves early and Bev comes and crawls into bed with Evie. She tells Evie that she was glad that Evie grew up plain and that when she started getting pretty, she didn't know it; she doesn't want her daughter to make her same mistakes.
  • Evie doesn't know what she's talking about, and her mom says that she was already pregnant with Evie when she got married the first time. Evie's dad didn't even want to marry her and left as soon as she was born.
  • Bev talks about how hard it was being an attractive single mother; all the men tried to take advantage of her, and all the women distrusted her. When she found Joe, she found a safe place to rest.
  • Evie asks her mom if she ever even loved Joe. Her mom says that she did, but not as much as Evie loved him.
  • Joe comes back and they all go down to breakfast as a family—except no one is talking to each other. Evie is determined to fix her parents.
  • To her surprise, Peter walks up to them and says that he's taking off too, heading up to New York to look for the Graysons so they can chat.
  • Because he says this, Evie turns over the letter from Mr. Grayson to Joe because she figures it will make Joe want to go home too, so he can patch things over with Mr. Grayson. That way, she'll still be in the same city as Peter.
  • Joe surprises them all by announcing that they can't possibly go home before their fishing trip. Both Bev and Peter are reluctant, but Joe says that they're going and that Evie is staying at the hotel to do homework.
  • The adults go to rent a boat from Wally's dad, and Peter tells Evie that they'll be back soon, by 2:00 or 3:00PM at the latest.