Chapter 21

Summary

• The narrator, hiding in Celia's apartment for over a week, becomes more intimate with Celia but still struggles and fearfully denies her feelings, trying to label them as platonic friendship due to fear of being labeled homosexual.
• There's a knock on the door one morning - it’s Harry who came with her divorce papers. Her husband has cited abandonment as grounds for divorce.
• It is revealed that the narrator’s husband is ensuring that she gets half the money, their house, and all her assets in exchange for her silence about their marriage – he is not under the same obligation.
• Harry explains that her career at Sunset studio is over, as her husband Don wants her out and plans to block her Oscar nomination if she seeks one. He wants to ensure her ruin in Hollywood as a result of their divorce.
• The narrator assures Harry that she can build her career again from scratch and asserts that their friendship will remain unchanged despite her change in circumstances.
• After Harry leaves, the narrator reflects on her changing life, and the financial safety she has retained, but she realizes her denial of her feelings for Celia is exhausting and accepts that she loves her.
• The narrator takes a bold step by confessing her love to Celia and initiates physical intimacy with her, to which Celia responds positively
• The chapter ends with the narrator accepting her feelings without any guilt or shame, and they both sleep together, nude and unashamed.