Simon spots Lauren Betancourt on the street months before Halloween and immediately recognizes her after years apart.

Simon engineers a chance encounter with Lauren at a Fourth of July country club party, reigniting their connection.

Vicky secretly researches financial advisors and approaches Christian Newsome about accessing Simon's trust without his knowledge.

Simon leads a Survivors of Suicide meeting and tells the group about his mother Glory's death by suicide.

Lauren tells Simon she is pregnant and pushes him to file for divorce from Vicky before November 3.

Vicky finds Simon's diary and shows it to Christian, feigning panic that she will lose access to the trust.

Christian tells Vicky they must kill Lauren to protect their plan; Vicky secretly rejoices since this was her goal all along.

Christian breaks into Lauren's home on Halloween night and kills her by hanging her from the balcony railing.

Simon arrives at Lauren's house after Christian leaves, slides the burner phone under the foyer table, and sends a fake suicide text.

Vicky drugs Christian after he returns from the murder and shoots him, staging the death as a suicide.

Sergeant Jane Burke investigates Lauren's murder scene and discovers a hidden pink burner phone suggesting a secret affair.

Gavin arrives at Simon's home posing as an FBI agent; Simon calmly informs him the diary was entirely fabricated.

Jane and her partner Andy interview Simon at his home but cannot extract any confession or useful evidence.

The police chief tells Jane the evidence points to Christian as the killer and orders her to accept that conclusion.

Simon and Vicky meet in a remote park to say a final goodbye and share a last kiss before parting permanently.

Simon and Vicky pose as a suburban married couple while secretly engineering revenge against Lauren Betancourt and con artist Christian Newsome. Simon spots Lauren on the street and they craft a fake diary of a passionate affair, designed to manipulate Christian into committing the murder for them. Vicky begins a calculated false romance with Christian, steering him step by step toward killing Lauren on Halloween night. After Christian carries out the murder, Vicky kills him and stages the scene as a suicide, completing the double revenge. Sergeant Jane Burke investigates and suspects Simon, but the carefully constructed evidence trail leads her away from him and toward Christian. Simon and Vicky escape justice entirely and part ways, having achieved the revenge they spent years planning together.

The central revenge plot from first sighting to murder to escape.

Simon follows Lauren after spotting her and overhears a doorman confirm her married name is Betancourt.

Vicky meets with private investigator Rambo to confirm her alias Vicky Lanier is still clean and usable.

Simon meets Vicky for lunch near the law school and she warns him firmly to abandon whatever unnamed plan he has in mind.

Simon writes in his diary that Lauren has gone to Paris and he resolves to end the affair when she returns.

Simon drives to Wisconsin and buys two burner phones at separate stores, paying cash each time.

The associate dean calls Simon in and vaguely threatens to expose his criminal past if he applies for the full professorship.

Christian and Gavin relax in the apartment and laugh together about the wealthy women Christian has successfully conned.

Simon spots Reid and the dean celebrating his defeat at a restaurant and decides to submit his professorship application anyway.

Christian and Gavin practice shooting outside the city; Gavin spots a hanging rope and suggests it as a cleaner method.

Vicky walks past Lauren's house in workout clothes to scout the layout and identify the best point of entry.

Vicky uses the pink burner phone to send Lauren's breakup texts to Simon, pretending to be Lauren ending the affair.

Jane interviews Conrad Betancourt, who reveals he was separated from Lauren and she was likely hunting her next wealthy partner.

Jane receives an old police report connecting Simon Dobias to Lauren and remembers him as quiet and smart from high school.

Gavin ambushes Vicky outside Christian's apartment, holds her at gunpoint, and demands ten million dollars from the trust.

Simon instructs his financial advisor to donate the entire trust to five charitable organizations, refusing to keep his father's money.

Before the murder, both Simon and Vicky carefully lay the groundwork using untraceable phones, scouted locations, and carefully maintained aliases. Simon acquires burner phones in Wisconsin while Vicky walks Lauren's street in workout clothes to map the property and learn Conrad's schedule. Meanwhile Christian and Gavin refine their own murder plan, oblivious that they are being steered into a trap. Simon also battles a parallel threat at work, where the associate dean tries to blackmail him out of a professorship using his criminal past as leverage. After the murder, Jane's investigation produces a police report connecting Simon to Lauren, while Gavin escalates the danger by ambushing Vicky at gunpoint and demanding a share of the trust. The story closes with Simon donating his entire twenty-million-dollar inheritance to charity, severing every connection to his father's legacy.

The schemes, surveillance, and investigation running beneath the surface.

Vicky meets Christian Newsome for the first time and tests him by asking if he can secretly move trust money without Simon knowing.

Vicky begins sleeping with Christian while privately knowing he is a scammer named Nick Caracci and intending to use him as a weapon.

Simon tells his support group about finding a champagne bottle and two glasses at home, proof his father would never stop cheating.

Simon recalls how Lauren first seduced him as a teenager during the summer he worked at his father's law firm.

Rambo calls Vicky to warn her that the actual body of Vicky Lanier has been discovered in West Virginia.

Vicky obtains a secretly recorded conversation involving Paul Southern, intending to use it as leverage against the dean on Simon's behalf.

Simon confronts the associate dean after a chance encounter and warns him directly not to underestimate Simon as an opponent.

Jane speaks to the forensics expert and realizes the burner phone was deliberately slid under the table after Lauren was already dead.

Simon goes to the basement the night before Halloween, burns the fake diary, and retrieves Vicky's gun and cash from the safe.

Simon stands in Grace Village on Halloween night and watches Christian walk away from Lauren's house, silently thanking him.

Jane explains to the police chief that Simon once formally complained that Lauren stole the Dobias family money after Glory's death.

Simon privately reflects that he and Vicky met only three years earlier and that the entire revenge plot was conceived after he spotted Lauren.

Vicky's brother-in-law tells her that the body of David Jenner has been found — the man whose addiction scheme caused Monica's death.

Jane arrives at Simon's door with a champagne bottle, telling him she knows he kept it for years to frame Lauren for his father's murder.

Vicky confesses to Simon that she wonders whether killing Nick truly helped her family or only soothed her own guilt.

The story's deepest truths emerge gradually through flashbacks and private moments that reframe everything the reader thought they understood. Vicky's first meeting with Christian and her secret awareness of his real identity show she was always the one in control, while key backstory revelations about Simon discovering his father's betrayal and Lauren seducing a teenage Simon establish the full weight of grievances driving the plot. Crucial turning points like Rambo's warning about the real Vicky Lanier's body and Simon burning the diary confirm the mounting danger and irreversibility of their course. After the murder, Jane steadily uncovers Simon's true motive and confronts him directly with the champagne bottle, the one piece of evidence that proves his decades-long plan to frame Lauren for his father's murder. Simon acknowledges her brilliance but walks free, and the pool closes with Vicky quietly admitting that revenge could not undo the losses that set everything in motion.