After talking with Zach on the telephone, Lily thinks, 'Both of us, it seemed like, were doomed to misery.' What does she mean?

After talking with Zach on the telephone, Lily thinks, 'Both of us, it seemed like, were doomed to misery.' What does she mean?

• A. They would never be together
• B. They would be separated by distance
• C. She would never see him again
• D. They wouldn't be together; she would return to T-Ray

Answer: (D)

Lily’s line expresses a sense that their relationship is doomed because external forces—specifically her situation with her father, T-Ray—will pull them apart. When she says they seem doomed to misery, she’s foreseeing that she won’t be able to stay with Zach or be with him in a future that works for both of them; she would have to return to T-Ray, which would mean they wouldn’t be together and would face unhappiness as a result. That’s why the best interpretation is that they wouldn’t be together and she would return to T-Ray. The other ideas—that they’ll just be separated by distance, or that she’ll never see him again—are less precise and don’t tie the future to the concrete constraint she’s facing.

Lily’s line expresses a sense that their relationship is doomed because external forces—specifically her situation with her father, T-Ray—will pull them apart. When she says they seem doomed to misery, she’s foreseeing that she won’t be able to stay with Zach or be with him in a future that works for both of them; she would have to return to T-Ray, which would mean they wouldn’t be together and would face unhappiness as a result. That’s why the best interpretation is that they wouldn’t be together and she would return to T-Ray. The other ideas—that they’ll just be separated by distance, or that she’ll never see him again—are less precise and don’t tie the future to the concrete constraint she’s facing.