51 pages • 1-hour read
Happy Wife
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Chapter 36-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 36 Summary: “Eleven Days After”
In the present, Detective Ardell arrives at Nora’s house with a warrant to search the house and two cars. When Ardell asks Nora to come to the station for questioning, Este begs her to call Fritz. Nora dismisses her concerns, insisting that she is innocent.
Nora is photographed repeatedly on the way to the station. Ardell reveals that he knows Mia did not call Will on the night he disappeared. Before Ardell can name the caller, Fritz appears and pulls Nora out of the interview.
Later, Este reveals she saw Marcus drop Nora off the day after she spent the night at his house. Este asks Nora if she killed Will, and Nora insists she is innocent.
Chapter 37 Summary: “Before”
In a flashback, Nora returns home to find that Will has cleaned up the broken glass and all evidence of their fight. Disturbed by Will’s behavior, Nora schedules a consultation with a prominent divorce attorney. Although she doesn’t want to leave her marriage, she wants to know that she has options.
Will appears and apologizes profusely, offering to take Nora on vacation to make up for his behavior. She rejects the idea, insisting that they need to work out their problems. Will opens up about stress with a case at work and begs her to forgive him. She does, and offers to throw him a 46th birthday party to make his friends like her.
Chapter 38 Summary: “Thirteen Days After”
In the present, sensationalist TV journalist Lindy Bedford brings body language experts onto her show to suggest that Nora and Marcus were having an affair. Nora is furious that her personal life is being speculated on publicly while she is grieving her husband.
Fritz calls with news that the murder weapon, a hammer, was found buried in the mud under Nora’s dock. Fritz suggests that Nora may be arrested. Nora’s mind is flooded with memories of the last time she saw someone holding a hammer.
Chapter 39 Summary: “Before”
In a flashback, after apologizing for the fight, Will books a romantic getaway to the Breakers, a luxury resort in Palm Beach, Florida. In the weeks that follow their vacation, Nora feels as if the old Will is back: He is loving, supportive, and eats dinner with her at home multiple times a week.
Nora’s good mood is rattled by an unexpected meeting with Marcus, who is helping with a construction project at Este and Beau’s house. Marcus suggests that Will is trying to buy Nora’s affection back, and encourages her to leave him. When Nora tells him not to interfere, he storms off, holding a hammer.
Chapter 40 Summary: “Thirteen Days After”
In the present, Nora confronts Marcus at his restaurant and accuses him of murdering Will. She suggests the he confronted Will about his treatment of Nora and killed him when their argument turned violent. Marcus denies any involvement, and tells her to leave. Nora immediately apologizes, realizing that her grief is causing her to act erratically.
On her way out of the restaurant, she is stopped by Gianna Hall and other women in the Winter Park circle, who criticize her appearance. Gianna questions Nora’s relationship with Marcus, but Nora does not respond.
Chapter 41 Summary
Este chastises Nora for accusing Marcus of murder, but agrees to drive her to see Perry Conroy, the investigator and friend of Dean Morrison who agreed to help Nora. Conroy reveals that it was Fritz who called Will the night he disappeared, and that Will had hired Dean Morrison to investigate Fritz. Morrison’s investigations stretched into Fritz’s personal life and finances as well as his work at the law firm.
Remembering the tense conversation she saw between Fritz and Will the night of the party, Nora begins to believe that Fritz is responsible for her husband’s death. She decides to drive to the law office to investigate personally.
Chapter 42 Summary
Nora convinces Lenore to let her into Will’s office, explaining that she wants some photos and personal items. When Lenore leaves her alone briefly, Nora rummages through Will’s desk and finds a folder full of documents related to the Martinez case, which Will had identified as the source of trouble between him and Fritz. She brings the file home, but struggles to understand it.
Nora explains to Este that she believes Will found something bad while investigating Fritz, and Fritz murdered him when he found out. In the file, Nora finds a photo suggesting that Fritz and Autumn were having an affair.
Chapter 43 Summary
Nora drives to Autumn’s apartment to confront her about the affair. She is surprised by the out-of-date, faded building, given Autumn’s polished appearance.
Autumn explains that the affair ended long ago, and insists that she had nothing to do with Will’s death. She reveals that, on the night Will disappeared, she overheard him arguing with Fritz, demanding to know where a large amount of money had gone. Fritz demanded to know why Will had him followed, and admitted to running Dean Morrison off the road, leading to his death. When Nora demands to know why Autumn hasn’t told the police, Autumn explains that she is paid for her discretion as a party planner.
Chapter 44 Summary: “Before”
In a flashback, Will invites Nora to meet him at the country club for dinner after he plays a round of golf with Fritz. Although Nora often feels like an outsider at the club, she agrees to go to spend more time with Will.
While waiting for him, Nora is confronted by Fritz, who reveals that he has heard that she contacted a divorce lawyer. Nora assures Fritz that she is not planning to divorce Will. Fritz tries to coerce her into signing a postnuptial agreement protecting the firm if she does divorce Will. Nora insists that she will sign anything Will asks her to, but that she won’t sign anything unless he explicitly asks. Fritz threatens Nora with violence.
Chapter 45 Summary: “Fourteen Days After”
Perry Conroy uncovers evidence suggesting that Fritz opened lines of credit in Will, Nora, and Mia’s names, resulting in millions of dollars of debt. Nora assures Perry that Will has enough money to cover the debts, and that he would not have opened the accounts or let the debt stand.
She obtains evidence that Fritz forged Will’s signature, and brings it to Detective Ardell, along with Autumn’s testimony about the fight she overheard. Ardell apologizes to Nora and promises to investigate Fritz. When Nora arrives home, Fritz is waiting for her. He insists that no one will side with her, and attacks her when she argues back. Beau intervenes, and Nora kicks him off of her property.
Chapter 46 Summary: “The Day of the Party”
In a flashback, Nora feels happy and hopeful on the morning of the party, which she spends on the boat with Will and Mia. Before leaving the house, Nora introduces Will to Marcus for the first time. The meeting is awkward, but Nora refuses to apologize to Marcus on Will’s birthday.
While on the boat, Will offers Nora a small present: A small amber necklace that had belonged to his mother. Nora is grateful to be given an heirloom, and feels as if Will is finally letting her in. She feels certain that their marriage is going in the right direction, and that they have a bright future together.
Chapter 47 Summary: “Twenty Days Later”
In the present, Detective Ardell arrives with bad news: Fritz has a solid alibi for the night Will was murdered. He left the party early with an unnamed woman, spent the night drinking at clubs, and checked into a hotel. Ardell assures Nora that she is no longer a suspect. He reveals that Will’s autopsy uncovered a suspicious item, and asks for her help identifying it.
Nora immediately recognizes the item as a rare sapphire belonging to Gianna Hall. She confronts Gianna at the country club, accusing her of killing Will after she and Fritz committed fraud to cover their debts. Police arrive to arrest Gianna, and Nora leaves, ignoring the gossip that surrounds her as she goes.
Epilogue Summary
Nora sells Will’s house, feeling like there are too many bad memories there for her to remain. Mia and Nora share an emotional goodbye, and Constance makes tentative gestures towards friendship.
Nora theorizes that Will lied to her when Gianna called him the night of the party because he didn’t want a fight. Gianna confronted Will on the boat dock then attacked him when she learned he had evidence of her husband’s fraud. A rare sapphire from Gianna’s ring was knocked loose in the attack, and Will swallowed it, knowing that it would provide evidence of her involvement. The law firm is sold to cover Fritz’s debts, earning Nora millions. She determines to start a new life, beginning with art school. As she leaves the house, she thanks Will for his role in her life.
Chapter 36-Epilogue Analysis
In the final section of the novel, Nora is questioned by police about her involvement in Will’s murder. Nora’s experience as a murder suspect reflects the novel’s thematic interest in The Influence of Media on the Criminal Justice System. From the beginning, Nora is keenly aware of the fact that she is being photographed, and of the media’s attempts to shape her role in the narrative. As she is escorted into the police station for questioning, Nora’s focus is on the reporters waiting for her: “I look around, feeling the cameras […] the weight of suspicion bearing down on me” (233). This passage suggests that the cameras have a tangible, oppressive weight, and that Nora feels the pressure of the media from the start. She refers repeatedly to her role in the narrative as the “young, dumb, pretty wife” and the “young, dumb, pretty murderer” (262, 236). Nora’s self-identification with this familiar true crime trope highlights her awareness of her role in the story of Will’s death, and of the importance of these narratives for making sense of violence.
Later, when she successfully proves that Gianna Hall is the murderer, Nora reframes this narrative, positioning herself as “an urban legend: the second wife who took down the queen” (293). Her assertion that “the buzz of this story will linger in the air at cocktail parties and Park Avenue brunches for years” suggests that she fully understands the influence of the media in shaping popular understanding of criminal justice (293). This narrative refocuses the attention to Nora, rather than on her late husband Will. Nora’s repeated references to how the media and public will perceive the case reflect her understanding of how media can mirror or distort public understanding of crimes.
The final chapters of Happy Wife contain the novel’s most direct criticism of Nora’s ultra-wealthy social circle and The Power of Cliques. The novel suggests that the ultra-wealthy residents of Winter Park believe that they are fundamentally different from, and better than, the rest of the city. When Nora suspects that Fritz is responsible for Will’s death, she worries that she’ll have a hard time proving his guilt in a town “where Fritz is king” (276). Nora believes that there are “different rules” (270) for people like the Halls, and that “the people with the money and power always have the upper hand” (270). As a result, she determines to collect all the necessary evidence on her own before going to the police, so that Fritz cannot flex his influence and escape. Nora’s hesitation to approach police reflects her belief that Fritz Hall and the ultra-wealthy elite of Winter Park are above the law, while she, as an outsider with a working-class background, is more vulnerable by comparison.
The novel’s villains, Fritz and Gianna Hall, explicitly suggest that the elite of Winter Park are separate from and better than interlopers like Nora. When she confronts him about Will’s death, Fritz warns Nora that Winter Park is “my town” (282, emphasis added), and reminds her that she is “nothing, nobody” compared to him and his influence. Fritz’s explicit comparison between their social statuses suggests that he believes his money and social status make him a fundamentally different category of citizen than Nora. While Fritz focuses on influence, Gianna’s insults are aimed at Nora’s background. Gianna claims that, despite the money she inherited from Will, Nora will never fit in in Winter Park: “[Y]ou couldn’t be me if you were born a thousand times to the right family” (291). Later, Gianna claims that she doesn’t need to listen to “trash like [Nora]” (291), further insulting Nora’s background. The novel thus exposes how classism and socioeconomic hierarchies poison social relations and can aid in corruption and crime, with the Halls trying to intimidate Nora and derail the investigation through their threats and arrogance.
The closing section also speaks to The Complex Nature of Grief, with the title of the novel coming from the colloquial phrase, “happy wife, happy life” (298), which is traditionally taken to mean that the secret to a successful heterosexual marriage is for a husband to keep his wife content. The novel’s ending suggests that this philosophy can have deadly consequences. Nora theorizes that Will lied to her about the call he received the night he disappeared because he knew that “if he told [Nora] Gianna was having boat problems, [Nora] would’ve told him to let her sink and drown” (298).
Rather than risk the fight, Will “handled the misdirect deftly” and told a white lie in order to “to skip the dumb fights” (298). Nora explicitly attributes this decision to the fact that her husband “never wanted the fight” (298), and believed in the concept of “happy wife, happy life” (298). However, the lie sowed a seed of division between Nora and Will that resulted in her distrust of him, while Will’s earlier bursts of temper and abusive behavior, compelled with his tendency to try to control Nora, suggest that she may never have been such a “happy wife” after all, even if he had lived.
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