Chapters 17-20 Summary

Adam's aunt, Lee, has managed to live a fulfilling life despite her family's past. She married into a wealthy family by hiding her father's shameful past. As the wife of Phelps Booth, Lee is well known and liked in social circles. The love in her marriage eventually subsides, and she and Phelps live apart but are content with their arrangement. They make a handful of appearances together every year and stay married because divorcing late in life would be distasteful to his family. Lee works as a counselor at the Auburn house, a home for young, unwed mothers. Her time there is on a volunteer basis and she also donates large sums of Phelps' money to keep it running. She finds her work there rewarding, but she has difficult times as well. Lee is a functioning alcoholic, an artifact of her...