While Alida is shocked to discover that Grace responded to her letter and Delphin actually met her that night, Grace is equally shocked to discover that Alida had written the message letter that he held dear to his heart. Yet Alida is determined to win, and so she notes with satisfaction “After all, I had everything; I had him for twenty-five years, and you had nothing but that letter he didn't write” (521). Grace retaliates and rattles off the audience with the subtle but fateful line, "I had Barbara," finally revealing the root of the tension (521). Alida's arrogance and pride push social competition so far that she is left only with the disturbing knowledge that Barbara is Delphin's firstborn. While Alida has a memory of her two and a half decades with Delphin, Grace has a daughter to remember it with: the same daughter Alida was envious of at the beginning of the story shatters before the women as they experience the unraveling of long-hidden secrets that they force them to see each other differently than they have ever seen before.