White Oleander continued....

Spoiler Alert

The only thing Astrid had going for her was that she was going to graduate high school, which most of the other girls in the house had not done. While she was at Rena's, Ingrid was trying to appeal her case. She was stating that her ex-boyfriend was crazy and that he committed suicide and made it look like she killed him, because he wanted her back. Ingrid had followers from around the country who supported her. Ingrid's attorney came to the house to persuade Astrid to come talk to her mother to help her get out of prison. After receiving money for the attorney, Astrid went back to the prison she hadn't been to since she went with Claire. Her mother asked her if she would help get her out, she promised her the childhood she did not have. When she got out she was going to take a teaching job at a California university, which Astrid would be able to go to for free. This news torn at Astrid, should she lie to the court to get her mom out so she could have a childhood, or should she just go on with out her mom, and be the hard person she has turned into.

Astrid asked her mother if she wanted her to go back to the way she was and love her mother, or did she want her daughter to testify on her behalf? After a few minutes of silence, Ingrid told her daughter she wanted her to love her, and that she didn't have to testify for her.

Astrid went back to Rena's. She finished out her time there and went in search of Paul. They moved to Berlin, and continued to do their art. They moved from place to place that friends could find them. Astrid used suitcases to hold each world she had lived in. One for her mother, Starr and Ray, Marvel and Ed, Claire, and Rena. After she turned 21, Paul came home to show Astrid an article, her mother was acquitted. She was a free woman in California, going to work at a university to teach poetry and writing. Astrid was torn between staying with Paul in the cold apartment or living with the mother that had abandoned her when she was an infant because she could not handle a child by herself. Astrid would always know what time it was in California, no matter where in the world she was, so she was connected to her mother.