Like Mother, Like Daughter

The chapter is an excerpt from Katrina’s childhood journal. She describes how she wrote a story for her writing club about her parents leaving her alone for three days when she was four years old. Reed complimented the story as “one of the best things he’d ever read” (81).

Seven hours after her mother went missing, Cleo returns to her dorm room with Katrina’s laptop. She looks at her mother’s Facebook profile but doesn’t see anything suspicious. She wonders if Kyle was somehow involved in her mother’s disappearance.

A biology major named Geoff knocks on Cleo’s door. Cleo was previously his dealer, but Kyle cut Geoff off after their breakup as a petty way to get back at her. Kyle also demanded $2,000 from Cleo to make up for what she “owed” him, which is what was in the envelope that Cleo dropped off at the gym. When Cleo tells Geoff that she doesn’t have any Ritalin, he says that Annie was right about what a “selfish bitch” Cleo is. After Geoff leaves, Cleo reads Katrina’s journal and learns that Katrina had a crush on Reed, the writing club tutor.

Cleo goes to Katrina’s friend Lauren’s apartment. Lauren tells Cleo that Katrina was dating a man named Doug who recently died in a car accident. She also tells Cleo about how Katrina’s parents abandoned her when she was four years old. Lauren reveals that Aidan asked Katrina for money and had an affair with Bella, his former student turned assistant, which is why Katrina and Aidan separated.

This chapter is a transcript of a meeting between Cleo and her therapist, Dr. Bauer. Cleo tells Dr. Bauer that she sleeps with people because she “like[s] how their wanting ma[kes her] feel” (97). Cleo says that it was hard for her to end things with her high school boyfriend, Charlie, after Katrina “completely freaked out” about them having sex (98). Katrina had said to her, “I can’t believe you have so little self-respect […] I can’t believe you’re my daughter” (99). Cleo says that she loved her mother a lot when she was young but that when she started getting into trouble in middle school, they began to fight a lot.

Four days before she disappears, Katrina goes to meet Aidan at his office. He is running late. He texts her that he had a meeting with HBO but will be there soon. Katrina logs on to Aidan’s computer and reads his text message exchange with “Her,” the woman with whom he had been having an affair, whom she assumes is Bella. She is shocked to see that they have been talking about how Katrina needs therapy. Katrina gets another threatening text message about “the blood on [her] hands” from an unknown number (103).

Aidan arrives. He tells her that Cleo needed the $2,000 for “an environmental activism group” (103). Katrina is skeptical and tells Aidan that she isn’t going to give him the loan for his company.

Katrina leaves and gets a call from her boss, Mark, asking her to come to the office that evening. Then, she goes to the gym where she saw Cleo drop off the envelope. The receptionist tells Katrina that Cleo dropped the envelope off for Kyle Lynch.

One day before Katrina goes missing, Janine texts Aidan, asking what kinds of pictures Katrina claimed that Kyle has on his phone. Aidan tells Janine that he will try to find out more but that she should not worry.

Thirteen hours after her mother went missing, Cleo contacts the men whom Katrina matched with on the online dating website. Then, she texts Jules, who says that she will call Cleo soon. Detective Wilson arrives and tells Cleo that Aidan contacted a divorce lawyer and was trying to get some of Katrina’s inheritance. She also tells Cleo that Aidan told her that Cleo and Katrina had a “volatile” relationship. Detective Wilson suspects that Aidan is involved in Katrina’s disappearance.

Cleo goes to Aidan’s office, but no one is there. Aidan texts her that he is at a breakfast meeting with HBO. Cleo logs in to Aidan’s computer and reads an email he sent to his co-producer. Aidan wrote that he got the $2.75 million from Katrina that he had asked for.

Cleo is shocked. She texts Will and then listens to a voice mail from Katrina’s boss, Mark, offering to help. She calls him back and leaves a message.

This chapter is a Reddit thread. Users are discussing whether to join the MDL against Darden Pharmaceuticals. Their children have all experienced health issues after they took Xytek while pregnant. One user, NYCMaMa, encourages the others to join the MDL because it is the best way to stay safe. She writes that “Darden will stop at nothing to protect itself” and that she has firsthand knowledge of this (120).

Four days before her disappearance, Katrina thinks about one of the first times Cleo deliberately disobeyed her. Cleo was seven years old when she ate a box of chocolate truffles without permission. Katrina felt “paralyzed” in that moment.

Katrina leaves the gym and thinks about how Cleo was seeing Kyle again even after Katrina had gone to Kyle’s apartment with a police sergeant and threatened Kyle. She texts Cleo and asks if they can meet. Cleo says that she will get back to Katrina about it.

Katrina gets another threatening text message from “someone who knows what [she] did, bitch” (124). Katrina wonders if it is the Haven House staffer named Silas because he called all girls and women “bitches.” The anonymous sender says that they know Katrina “stabbed someone that night and Haven House helped […] cover it up” (125).

At her office, Mark tells Katrina that Darden Pharmaceuticals wants their help to pin the Xytek controversy on Doug Sinclair. They claim that Doug failed to pass their product warnings on to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and died by suicide due to the extortion threat. They want Katrina to find proof. Katrina knows that the law firm could really use the business. Katrina doesn’t tell Mark that she was seeing Doug before he died and agrees to look into it.

Fourteen hours after Katrina went missing, Cleo meets with Will, the man she has been seeing. They walk along the Hudson River and talk. She tells him about the progress on the case so far and her suspicions about her father. She feels guilty that she and Katrina were fighting when she disappeared. Will comforts her.

Cleo returns to her dorm room. She worries because she hasn’t yet heard back from Jules. She texts Jules again, but Katrina’s assistant seems reluctant to talk to her. Cleo decides to go to Katrina’s office building to find her. 

The head of Human Resources tells Cleo that Jules no longer works at the law firm. Then, Cleo gets a text from Jules warning her to leave Blair, Stevenson because “it’s not safe” (138). Cleo gets in the elevator, and Jules texts her that there are two men in a black car outside watching her. As Cleo rushes out, she is stopped by Mark in the lobby. He tells her that Jules was fired for having a “manic” episode.

Cleo agrees to meet with Mark in his office. They talk about Katrina’s disappearance, and Cleo shares what she knows thus far. Mark agrees to help investigate how Aidan got his hands on Katrina’s inheritance. He reassures Cleo that Katrina was a patent attorney who did not work on anything dangerous and suggests that her disappearance may be connected to her difficult past.