Amber Reynolds wakes in a hospital coma, aware of her surroundings but completely unable to move or speak.

Paul visits the hospital and police note unexplained marks on Amber's neck inconsistent with the car accident.

Claire visits the hospital and then leaves together with Paul, deepening Amber's suspicions.

Amber recalls her increasingly strained relationship with domineering radio host Madeline Frost.

Amber runs into her ex-boyfriend Edward Clarke at a restaurant while out for lunch.

Amber suspects Paul is having an affair with Claire after finding the two of them alone together with wine.

An unknown man whispers into Amber's ear in the hospital that he can keep her comatose for as long as he wants.

Amber manages to lift a finger while alone, giving Paul the first proof she is still conscious.

Amber goads Madeline into making offensive remarks on a live microphone, leading to Madeline's immediate firing.

Edward breaks into Amber's home on Christmas Eve and physically assaults her before Paul's unexpected arrival stops him.

Edward sneaks into Amber's hospital room on New Year's Eve and rapes her while she is comatose and helpless.

Paul whispers that he loves Amber and she opens her eyes fully, waking from the coma.

Claire confesses to Amber in the hospital that she deliberately slammed on the brakes and caused the crash.

Amber poisons Claire and Claire's husband at a Valentine's Day dinner she prepares for them.

Amber and Paul begin arranging to adopt Claire's twins and settle into their new family life.

Amber Reynolds wakes up in a hospital coma after a Christmas Day car accident, aware but completely unable to move or speak. As she lies helpless, she pieces together her failing marriage, her suspicious ex-boyfriend Edward, and the schemes she has set in motion at her radio job. Edward, now working as an orderly at the same hospital, exploits her vulnerability and ultimately rapes her while she remains comatose and defenseless. Amber fights desperately to signal her consciousness before Paul gives up hope and disconnects her life support. After finally waking, she uncovers the full truth — that her supposed sister Claire deliberately caused the crash — and takes calculated, violent revenge. The novel closes with Amber outwardly content, raising Claire's twins with Paul, but a final mysterious discovery on a hotel tray shatters any sense of lasting resolution.

The core story of Amber's coma, her dangerous relationships, and her violent revenge.

The Morning Coffee producer tells Amber confidentially that she will likely be let go after the new year.

Amber creates a fake Twitter account and begins spreading rumors that Madeline Frost is leaving Morning Coffee.

Amber walks to Claire's house one evening and finds Paul's car parked in the driveway with no explanation.

Diary: Young Claire steals a pretty bracelet from Amber's jewelry box during their first sleepover together.

Amber's parents appear at her hospital bedside — a moment revealed seconds later to have been a dream.

Paul is briefly detained by police who cannot explain the marks on Amber's neck, then released.

Amber writes anonymous threatening letters to Madeline and sends them in bold red envelopes.

Amber wakes in Edward's unfamiliar apartment, bruised and disoriented, believing she has been drugged.

Paul tells Amber his second novel has sold, and Amber tells him she quit her job at the radio station.

Diary: Claire's mother discovers the stolen bracelet on Claire's wrist and yanks it off, snapping it in two.

Diary: Claire is suspended from school after punching a girl who was taunting Amber with a Bunsen burner.

Diary: Claire's father tells her the family must leave their grandmother's house and relocate to Wales.

Diary: Claire cuts off most of her long hair so it matches Amber's short bob before their final sleepover.

Amber deliberately siphons gas from her car and charges two fuel canisters to Madeline's credit card.

Police investigating Edward's disappearance discover his tanning bed covered in blood and burned flesh.

This pool traces the web of schemes and secondary secrets operating beneath the surface of Amber's story. At the radio station, Amber launches a methodical campaign to destroy her boss Madeline using fake social media rumors, anonymous threatening letters, and a siphoned credit card tied to fuel canisters. Meanwhile, childhood diary entries reveal young Claire as a calculating and possessive child who stole from her only friend, pushed her pregnant mother down the stairs, and ultimately staged a fire that killed her own parents to keep Amber from moving away. After her parents' deaths, Claire manipulates the foster care system with a performance of helplessness, securing a place in Amber's family. The pool closes in the story's resolution, when police investigating Edward's disappearance discover his tanning bed stained with blood — silent confirmation of the violence Claire exacted on Amber's behalf.

Workplace schemes, childhood betrayals, and the hidden machinery behind the plot.

Diary: Young Claire meets Taylor at a new school and begins an intense, possessive bond with her only friend.

Diary: Claire shoves her pregnant mother down the stairs during a fight, causing her mother to miscarry.

Diary: Claire ignites a fire during a Christmas Eve sleepover at Amber's house, killing both of Amber's parents.

A gravelly male voice whispers into Amber's ear in the hospital that she is entirely to blame for the accident.

Amber is taken off the ventilator and breathes on her own after Claire's imaginary friend Jo departs the room.

Paul searches Amber's phone for Jo's number and discovers no one by that name exists at the radio station.

Amber learns from bedside conversations that she suffered a pregnancy loss as a result of the accident.

Amber admits to herself she only applied for the Morning Coffee job six months ago in order to destroy Madeline.

Claire reveals she authored all the harassment letters that got Edward expelled from medical school.

Claire confesses she told Edward the letters had come from Amber, redirecting ten years of his rage toward her.

Amber recalls the deal she struck with Claire — destroy Madeline in exchange for Claire leaving Paul alone.

Paul brings a box of old diaries down from the attic and assumes they are Amber's childhood journals.

Amber tells Paul the diaries belong to Claire, not her, heading off his plan to read passages aloud.

Diary: Claire is placed with Amber's family after her only living relative, Aunt Madeline, refuses to take her in.

Amber discovers an unexplained bracelet held together with a rusty safety pin on a hotel room service tray.

This pool collects the novel's most shocking reversals and key moments of revelation. Early diary entries establish Claire as Amber's only childhood friend — a lonely, volatile girl willing to commit extreme acts in the name of protecting the person she loves. The reader gradually learns that Claire has been controlling Amber for decades, from engineering Edward's expulsion from medical school to orchestrating the destruction of Madeline Frost, the woman who legally seized Claire's childhood home. The discovery that Jo is entirely imaginary strips away the last illusion of Amber's independence, while Paul's discovery of the old diaries brings years of buried secrets dangerously close to the surface. Amber burns the diaries to erase the past, apparently freeing herself at last — but the appearance of an unexplained bracelet on a hotel room service tray plunges the reader back into irresolvable uncertainty.

The discoveries and reversals that rewrite everything the reader thought they knew.