Thank you for the suggestion! While thinking about what you've said here and rereading what I had, I realized that what ended was one character's words. I now suspect the way to unclog this drain is to do a flip-around and continue from the other character's viewpoint. Which actually scares me a bit because the way it's bucked me means I have no idea what he's going to say or reveal. Or what will happen next. EEK

I'm going to take some time this evening and just hack away. Thank you so much!