The Pact continued :)

I am about two thirds of the way through in the book The Pact by Jodi Picolt. The last entry I left off by explaining the two families closeness and how this unexpected event of Chris and Emily’s supposed suicide pact was the one thing no one ever expected. Now as legal dealings and court dates are being fought over Chris was sentenced to wait in jail until his hearing.

            A few more stories have been added to this book, one being Emily’s. When Emily and Chris were about nine or ten, Chris dared Emily to go into the men’s bathroom. Emily was molested by an older man and has kept this as a hidden secret from everyone. This story is eating her up inside and she feels like no one will help her. Also Emily was pregnant when she killed herself and she knew about it. They found that she had made many trips to Planned Parenthood and never told Chris about it. Emily’s mom found a diary that Emily had been keeping, and in it she mentioned the pregnancy saying she knew if she told Chris he would have married her. Emily’s mom burned the diary.

             The Harte’s and the Gold’s are both going through marital issues. James, Chris’s father, won’t ever mention Chris and Gus is upset about it. Gus goes to see Chris one or two times a week and James never does. Also Melanie and Michael almost barely speak to each other. Melanie wants to see Chris go to prison for the rest of his life, but Michael sees Chris as all he has left and regularly visits Chris in jail behind Melanie’s back.

While in jail Chris surprisingly makes a friends with a man who is in jail for shaking a baby to death. They watch each other’s backs and share a cell. Hector is sort of like the jail’s bully. He tests Chris to see if he is a rat by planting a cigarette in Chris’s shoe before an inspection. Chris passes by not ratting on either Hector or his cellmate. Hector starts picking on Chris’s friend and pushes Chris. Chris snaps and almost chokes Hector to death. Hector said that Chris would pay for that. Chris is put into an isolation cell and gets out on Christmas.

            Christmas and Chanukah come around and Gus and Michael happen to both visit Chris at the same time. The start up secret meetings to talk about things they can’t talk to their own spouses about. Gus and James have been so busy lately that there younger daughter Kate on Christmas decorated their fake palm tree decoration and bought her parents gifts. James and Gus were so shocked, and then they realized they had forgotten Christmas altogether, including gifts. Kate was upset, not about the gifts but that her parents were neglecting her and she is forgotten. For the Gold’s it was Chanukah and both Melanie and Michael go to Emily’s grave but separately. Michael sees that Melanie left out all presents for Emily on her grave. Everyone involved has open wounds, and none of people affected will ever begin to heal until the verdict for Chris is given.