The Expatriates

Mercy is living in what she thinks of as a bubble—fragile and easily disturbed, but happy enough. She and David see each other a few times a week, but she never goes to his furnished hotel. She also never asks about his wife or the future.

Margaret attends a charity luncheon as a favor to a friend. Once there, she is angry when the mother of one of Daisy’s schoolmates tries to gossip about Daisy. She warns Margaret that Daisy is looking at websites about child loss and other tragedies. Margaret is angry and leaves for the bathroom. There, she runs into Hilary, who tells her about David leaving. The two women commiserate.

At home, Margaret worries about all three of her children. She remembers their vacation to Thailand earlier that year, which ended abruptly when Philip was briefly lost. Though they found him in a few minutes, the whole family was shaken, and they returned home immediately.

When the children get home from school, Margaret gently tells Daisy that she is available for any questions her daughter might have and that she doesn’t have to turn to the Internet for answers. Daisy is embarrassed and doesn’t reply.

Olivia and Hilary go for a walk, and Hilary shows her friend a text message David accidentally sent her about a sexual encounter. Appalled that David is so obviously seeing someone else, Olivia convinces Hilary to break into his new apartment. They talk their way inside, but the room is sad and empty of any personal touches, causing Hilary to burst into tears.

Mercy and David are at the beach, and she awkwardly tells him that she is pregnant. He is shocked and not very excited, though he tells her it will be her decision and he will need to think about things. She does want to keep the child, but she does not tell him this. Instead, she asks him to “be a good guy” (181). When she gets back to her apartment building, she is shocked to find her mother in the lobby.

Margaret needs a new phone but insists on keeping her old number, which G has memorized. She imagines horrible scenarios for him such as sex slavery, and she thinks that he could escape years later and call the number he learned as a child.

At home, Daisy tells Margaret that she started her period. Margaret is glad that her daughter is trusting her with this, and she helps her find pads and tampons. She gets a call from Seoul—the detective assigned to G’s case has a new development.

Hilary is spiraling, spending more and more time online. She stays up late looking at Facebook accounts from old high school friends and then realizes that she is being weird. Suddenly, a moth crashes into her laptop screen and she screams, unplugging an emotional well within her. She screams and swears, then bursts into tears, the first time she has cried in years.

She decides to spend more time with Julian and reasons that she is a better person around him. She posts on the message board about Julian using her HappyGal alias.

Mercy feels awkward about her mother’s visit, especially when her mother tells her that she left Mercy’s father for good because he gambled away her nest egg. She is not sure how long she will stay but offers to help Mercy with her rent.

David has stopped reaching out, but Mercy reconnects with Charlie Leung. He takes her to dinner, and they get drunk and spend the night together. She leaves the next morning, ashamed and hungover.

The detective says that they found a little boy around the right age who is living in a village with a woman who is not his relative. Margaret gets on the first flight to Seoul, and Clarke is planning to follow. She is hoping, desperately, that the child is G. It has been 17 months since he went missing.

Mercy sees Charlie again for sushi. She thinks he is naive and is unsure if she likes him, but he is attracted to her and seems kind. They sneak into the pool at his apartment and skinny dip, then return to the apartment and have sex. She does not tell him about her pregnancy.

Margaret is forced to wait at a hotel. The detective is frustrated that she traveled to Korea and tells her she needs to wait for more confirmation. Finally, he calls back and tells her that it is not G. She screams at him and hangs up, crying. The hotel staff come to check on her, and she dismisses them. Later, Clarke arrives, and she tells him the news. They cling to each other, and she is grateful that they at least have this relationship.

Mercy and Charlie have dinner at a nice restaurant. He tells her that she is always trying to talk about irony and other silly things, but he prefers to talk about practicalities. She is irritated, but he is also very kind to her, and she realizes that he thinks he might marry her. She tells him about G, and he is sympathetic but says that she must live her life because terrible things happen all the time. At the end of dinner, he invites her on a beach vacation with him.