# Chapter 21 Ending Quality Audit

- `LANDS — scene 1 — final lines quoted — "next to his entry on the loan sheet... she wrote her own initials, *O.M.*, small and square... She hung the clipboard back on its nail one degree straighter than he'd left it and went upstairs." — what closes the beat: Odile materially owns the loan on the page and leaves without granting fuller confession; pressure it cuts on: responsibility without absolution. Strongest weak candidate considered: the scene might over-certify Odile's wisdom; current text resists that by leaving "It is faster than nothing" unratified and wrong-feeling.`

- `LANDS — scene 2 — final lines quoted — "He left the wire a half-inch low on the left... walked to the storage rack... and reached behind them" — what closes the beat: he refuses the repair-task dodge and goes to the hidden study; pressure it cuts on: recognition becoming action. Strongest weak candidate considered: the "kinder reading" of the canvas could sound solved; it survives because the sentence attributes the reading to Theo's wanting and Ch22 is reserved to correct it.`

- `LANDS — scene 3 — final lines quoted — "painted side faced to the wall, the labeled bar outward where anyone walking through the stockroom could read exactly what was there and no one could see it. He did not put it in a crate." — what closes the beat: Theo refuses the freight/delivery move; pressure it cuts on: consent instead of romantic proof. Strongest weak candidate considered: the sightline sentence could over-explain consent; it survives because it states label visibility and image non-visibility without granting moral credit.`

- `LANDS — chapter-final — final lines quoted — "The study stood against the wall where he'd left it, stretcher bar out, pencil label legible from the doorway, painted side against the brick. / He turned off the last light, locked the freight door behind him, and walked home through the cold with his keys in his pocket and both hands empty." — what closes the beat: Theo leaves without taking or delivering the object, after sending the ask and receiving no answer; pressure it cuts on: waiting without control. Strongest weak candidate considered: "both hands empty"; it survives because hands are the chapter's object motif and the emptiness is literal after the freight/portrait setup.`

Chapter verdict: `ENDINGS-CLEAN`.

`REVISION ORDERS`: none.
