Nora reflects on meeting Dan while living with Izzy in Tooting. Dan, a PR man with an art history background, dreamt of running a countryside pub and drew Nora into an engagement she later questioned. Fear of repeating her parents’ marriage and of being trapped undercut her resolve to marry him.

Three months before the wedding, Nora’s mother died. Grief merged with depression and anxiety. Though Nora suggested postponing, the date was never moved, and the wedding came to symbolize a loss of control. Seeking escape, she canceled it, yet the aftermath—staying single in Bedford, abandoning Australia plans with Izzy, starting at String Theory, and getting a cat—felt like the opposite of freedom.

Back in the Midnight Library, as Nora stares at the Book of Regrets, her remorse intensifies. Regrets coalesce into physical agony, each memory amplifying the others until she feels constricted and breathless.

Seeing her distress, Mrs Elm urges her to close the book herself. Nora forces it shut, and the pain subsides at once, revealing that choosing to limit the flood of regret can restore a measure of control and relief.