Part 2 — Chapter 1

Summary

• The chapter begins with a description of a music performance by a niche composer, well-known within certain artistic subcultures. He uses a video filmed by his late sister as background for his music, which involves an unexplained glitch that abruptly interrupts the dreamy landscape with a blackout and strange sounds.
• A woman named Mirella Kessler attends the performance. She finds out from the composer that his sister, and her old friend, Vincent, had passed away - something she hadn't previously known about. This distresses her greatly, and she leaves emotionally shaken]
• Flashbacks reveal that Mirella wanted to speak to the composer to find out about Vincent's whereabouts. Vincent’s husband, Jonathan was involved in a Ponzi scheme that led to Mirella's husband, Faisal, tragically taking his own life.
• Mirella had cut off contact with Vincent after Faisal’s death, believing that Vincent must have known about the Ponzi scheme. However, Mirella later begins to doubt Vincent’s involvement, swayed by a story told by her girlfriend, Louisa, about a man who managed to keep a secret family hidden from his wife
• Mirella then tries to look for Vincent in order to address the unresolved issues from the past, but is unable to track her down. Finally, she manages to get in touch with Vincent's brother, the composer, who reveals to her that Vincent had died by falling off a ship. Mirella is shocked and deeply saddened by the news.
• Mirella also meets Gaspery, an investigator with a focus on anomalies, who had been at the composer’s performance for his interest in the video glitch. In a surprising twist, Mirella recognises Gaspery as someone from her past who she believes she had seen being arrested by the police. When she confronts him about it, he seems genuinely confused, and she leaves, ending the chapter in a taxi on her way home.