Damon’s grandmother confronts him and says that Damon killed his father. He died soon after Damon violently attacked him. She says that before he died, Ralf told her that the ECT treatment Damon received as a child was wearing off. She tells Damon that she felt he should have been punished for what he did as a child. She tells him to get into the waiting funeral car.

Damon’s grandmother tells him that she wants him to confess to killing Daisy to clear his father’s name. She gives him the name and number of a police detective and makes him leave a message to that effect.

Damon’s grandmother tells Damon that on the day Daisy died, his father said that he would take care of it because “what goes around comes around” (299). Damon understands this is a reference to Ralf’s guilt for making Damon help cover up Callum’s death.

She explains that Ralf was in and out of prison because he beat up one of Bobbi’s abusive boyfriends and was stealing to provide for the family. Damon realizes that his father didn’t abandon them like he thought. Damon’s grandmother says that after Daisy’s death, Bobbi wanted to get rid of Damon because he was dangerous. She says that Damon killed his mother.

Damon insists that his mother died by suicide. Damon’s grandmother says that he set the fire. She points out that the lighter his father gave him was empty afterward and that Damon had a history of setting things like Callum’s shirt on fire. She says that he set the fire because his mother wanted to give him up for being dangerous. Damon considers attacking his grandmother when he gets a nosebleed. She says that the only people who knew what Damon did were Ralf and his girlfriend, Helena.

In the hospital, paralyzed from her stroke, Helena remembers her relationship with Ralf. They kept their relationship a secret because Ralf’s criminal history could impede on Helena’s status as a foster parent.

One night, Ralf arrived on Helena’s doorstep with Damon. He begged Helena to take Damon in and not call the police. She reluctantly agreed.

Damon is shocked to learn that Helena was Ralf’s girlfriend. His grandmother says that Helena arranged for Damon to see Dr. Dahl and Dr. Fernandez-Jones. His father took the blame for Daisy’s death in the hope that Damon could have a normal life. Damon’s grandmother says that she knew it was not possible for Damon to change. Then, she drops him off on the side of the road and drives away.

Damon goes to Melissa’s house, and she tells him to leave. Damon says that he’s learned everything about his past and wants to share it with her. She is begging him to leave when Adrienne storms in. They argue. Adrienne says that he’s a “manipulative, selfish, jealous little prick” and tells him to leave (314).

Damon says that he can still be a good father. Adrienne shoots back that it is good Melissa terminated her pregnancy because Damon would never be a fit parent. Damon is shocked upon learning that Melissa had a termination, not a miscarriage.

Back in his apartment, Damon allows himself to fantasize about the life he could have had with Melissa if she didn’t terminate her pregnancy. He sees Melissa as she follows him around the apartment. He yells at her to leave him alone. He has never raised his voice at Melissa like that before and is furious that he will no longer have the chance to be a father. He texts Laura to tell her that he’s ready.

Damon goes to Helena’s house and sees a young woman leaving. She introduces herself as Sally, Helena’s daughter. He’s surprised to learn that Helena has a daughter. He realizes that Helena never mentioned her because she thought Damon might be dangerous.

Sally tells Damon that Helena has had a stroke and been moved into a nursing home. She is “conscious but barely responsive” (320). Damon fantasizes about killing Sally and Helena.

Damon goes into the house and destroys the tapes. He notices a scrunched-up ball of paper in the fireplace and takes it out. It’s a copy of Sally’s provisional driving license (learner’s permit).

Helena prays for death. She is sick of being unable to move or speak. She wants Sally to focus on her GCSE exams and to not worry about her. She hopes that Laura, a volunteer at the care home, will put Helena out of her misery.

Helena thinks about how she took advantage of Damon’s altered state following ECT sessions to try and “provide him an alternate history” (325), one without the death of his mother, Daisy, or Callum. Helena had been pregnant with Sally when Ralf confessed to the murder of Daisy. Helena raised their child on her own.

Sally was diagnosed with a brain tumor that caused headaches and nosebleeds when she was a child. They were unable to operate, but they used steroids to manage the condition. When Sally was 10 years old, she became obsessed with death after seeing her schoolmate killed in a car accident.

Damon awaits Laura’s arrival at Helena’s house. He has filled the bathtub with ice water and prepared zip ties for his wrists and ankles. He sees all the people he has killed: his brother, Callum, Daisy, his mother, and his father.

Melissa appears. She says that she wishes she could see his hallucinations, too. He’s grateful that she’s there. Melissa says, “Not that you gave me much choice” (332). Damon tells her that Dr. Fernandez-Jones is not there, which means that he must be hanging onto life following Damon’s brutal attack of him following their ECT session. He explains that he attacked Fernandez-Jones because, in claiming that Damon had been successfully treated, he “put everyone around [Damon] at risk” (332). Melissa says that she forgives Damon, and Damon says that he’ll never stop loving her. Melissa asks to see “them,” and Damon says they are in the next room. Melissa walks into the living room to look at the dead corpses of herself and Adrienne, wrapped in plastic sheeting.

Three days earlier, when Damon was at Melissa’s house, he was furious to learn that Melissa had terminated her pregnancy during their marriage. Damon attacked and killed Melissa and Adrienne.

Damon feels guilty for having killed Adrienne and Melissa. After he killed them, he wrapped them in plastic and put them in the trunk of his car. Then, he texted and messaged their families and workplaces to tell them that they had COVID-19 and would be unavailable for a while.

While he cries over what he has done, Damon looks at his tattoos and realizes what they mean. For instance, his Gemini tattoo represents the two sides of himself. The four hearts and a flatline represent the murders of Bobbi, Callum, Daisy, and his mother. The words “Offering Others Direction in Sorrow” stand for “oodis,” the phrase that he hears Callum saying.

Laura arrives at Helena’s house. She holds Damon’s head under water.

Damon sees his life flash before his eyes as he drowns. This time, he sees what his life could have been like. He imagines himself raising his children with Melissa and Adrienne. Finally, he sees Callum. He tells Callum, “I wish I hadn’t [done this]” (343). Then, he hears Laura say, “First your mother and now you. I got you both in the end” (343). She kisses him, and then he dies.

Laura reflects on the pleasure she gets from taking someone’s life. She feels that she is a good Samaritan who puts an end to the suffering of people like Damon. Currently, she is volunteering in a nursing home, where she has plenty of potential victims. She thrills at having taken both Damon’s life and that of his mother.

Sixteen years earlier, Laura volunteered at a telephone helpline for people in distress. She received many calls from Bobbi Lister, who had depression following the death of her infant child and because of her sense of guilt over Callum’s death. Laura told Bobbi to set a fire so that she would die of smoke inhalation. When Bobbi panicked because of the smoke and heat of the fire, she encouraged Bobbi to jump out the window. Bobbi was the first person Laura “had indirectly killed” (351), and it sparked a sense of euphoria in her.

Laura has learned that Helena, a patient in the nursing home where she volunteers, was Damon’s foster mother. She plans to kill Helena as well. She feels it is fate.

Laura sits in the break room of the nursing home and watches the video she took of herself drowning Damon. Suddenly, the police arrive. They arrest her for the murders of Damon, Melissa, and Adrienne. Laura is shocked; she doesn’t know who Melissa or Adrienne are. The police put handcuffs on her and confiscate her cell phone.

Two years after Laura’s arrest, Sally visits her mother Helena’s grave with her aunt Carolina.

Two years prior, Sally receives an email from Damon that he had scheduled to be sent after his death. In the email, Damon confesses to all his crimes. He also tells Sally that he has learned that she’s his half-sister. His dying wish is for Sally to provide the evidence of his crimes to the police so that his father’s name can be cleared. He also sends Sally Laura’s information and says that she’s the person who killed him.

After receiving the email, Sally, her aunt Carolina, and her uncle Addo race to Damon’s apartment. Carolina says that they should not call the police or share the evidence of Damon’s crimes because it would tarnish Helena’s reputation as an excellent foster mother. They decide to delete the evidence about Damon’s childhood crimes.

Sally goes into Damon’s bathroom alone. She notices that he doesn’t look dead. Soon after, the paramedics arrive. They turn over the evidence against Laura to the police. Laura is arrested and convicted for the murders of Damon, Melissa, and Adrienne. The police also find evidence that Damon killed Garry and Dr. Fernandez-Jones.

In the present day, Sally visits Helena’s grave with her aunt. She thinks she can see Damon in a nearby car. She is shocked because she knows that Damon is dead, as Sally herself killed him.

When Sally was 10 years old, she pushed her classmate Poppy in front of a car in revenge for Poppy’s racist comments about her afro and repeated bullying. Sally subsequently obsessed over killing people “who deserved it” (371).

Five years later, she found Damon’s body in the bathtub and realized that he was still alive. She took out the handkerchief she always kept with her because of her nosebleeds and suffocated Damon with it. Soon after, she killed her mother in the same way. She felt that what she had done was “justifiable.”

Sally often dreams about Damon. Sometimes, she has hallucinations where she can see her mother. She is going to college to study criminology, and she has started dating a man 20 years her senior named Finn.

As Sally leaves the cemetery, she hallucinates a vision of Poppy, Damon, and Helena standing together. She thinks, “[I]t won’t be long before they will need to make space for others” (374).