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Mary goes to see Father McShane and asks if Jack can really get an annulment if she is opposed to it.  Father McShane says he's afraid Jack can because the issue is one of fraud.  The church has a traditional position that when the marriage contract is "tainted by fraud either party can seek an annulment."  Concealing not wanting children is the kind of grounds the church recognizes.

Mary insists it isn't true, Jack was never opposed to having children, he's just saying it now.  Father McShane asks Mary if there was ever a time Jack talked to someone about the possibility of the two of them having children, but Mary can't remember anything.  She says she can't prove it; she just knows Jack wanted children someday.

When Father McShane tells her Jack insisted that he doesn't want children, even the one she is carrying, Mary defends Jack, insisting he doesn't mean it.  He's simply getting back at the accident, his impotency, her, being cooped up with her family.  She thinks Jack feels he has failed her, but she doesn't and she doesn't want their marriage to end.

Father McShane says that if Jack wants to press the annulment, there's a possibility he can get it.  Mary asks Father McShane if there isn't anything he can do.  He tells her he's insisted Jack see a specialist. A medical solution might help Jack rethink his decision.  The longer it takes, he tells her, the more time Jack will have to reconsider.

Mary says that in her heart she doesn't think an annulment will change anything.  She's married to Jack in the eyes of God, and she always will be.  She wishes they could go back to the apartment on Weehawkin St. and have time to work things out.  She loves Jack and she knows Jack loves her, but she doesn't know how to persuade him of that.

Father McShane reminds Mary that the real problem is Jack doesn't think he can be the husband and father Mary wants and deserves.  Jack wants to leave her before he hurts her more than he already has.  Mary asks how Jack can hurt her any more and Father McShane replies, "In Jack's mind, by staying."