# Complicate-Don't-Resolve Audit - Chapter 16

id: complicate_dont_resolve | owner: codex | target: `output/chapters/chapter_16.md`

- `WORSE - scene 1 - problem: fake public couple pressure - escalation quoted: forty flyers show the post-kiss photo and Sam moves them so "people see it first."`
- `DIFFERENT - scene 1 - problem: Theo's misreading of June's fear - partial fix quoted: "The real one went over it" + new issue: the class and June see that he heard her fear before telling the truth.`
- `WORSE - scene 1 - problem: Theo's useful self-erasure - escalation quoted: June's painting lights the blank ground, and June says he was honest only in the room's paint.`
- `WORSE - scene 1 - problem: catalog/nephew truth - escalation quoted: he considers `Odile's my aunt` and withholds it while the catalogs remain at June's apartment.`

Chapter verdict: `COMPLICATES`.

Closest clean-resolution candidate: Theo's improved fear painting; it survives because the improvement creates the more dangerous evidence rather than resolving the relationship.

REVISION ORDERS: none.
