On the first day of Paul’s trial, Connie anxiously awaits news from her temporary home in Zainab’s garden annex. Paul has pleaded not guilty to the unlawful killings of Alice McKenzie, Lucy Holden, Walter Clark, Gwen Wright, and Fran Brown, and to Connie’s attempted murder. She reflects on the attack, which failed because he accidentally threw her onto the wrong track. Her injuries were severe, requiring a medically induced coma, six months in the hospital, and ongoing physiotherapy. She now uses a walking frame and struggles with the trauma. Connie dreads testifying, as it will expose her real identity as Rachel Evans and her criminal past. Krisha reveals to Connie that Paul removed his victims’ tongues post-mortem and kept them in his freezer.

Just as the trial is set to begin, Krisha calls Connie with stunning news: Paul has changed his plea to guilty on all charges. Relieved that her secrets will remain safe, Connie realizes she will not have to testify. The chapter ends with Connie overwhelmed by emotion, grateful that Paul has ended the ordeal, though she knows sentencing is still to come.

Connie visits Paul in prison seeking closure. He greets her as Rachel and mocks her injuries. When she asks why he pleaded guilty, he claims it was to retain control of the narrative and prolong the suffering of the victims’ families. He boasts about his prison celebrity status, where he is known as “The Old Dear Hunter” (300). Paul reveals he knows Connie’s entire criminal and medical history, having paid sources on the dark web for her records. He also names his accomplice: Derek Reid from the Help for Homes charity, who identified vulnerable targets for him. 

Paul blackmails Connie into silence by revealing that Derek now possesses the video of her holding a pillow over his mother’s face. When Connie asks why he cut out his victims’ tongues, Paul claims they were all liars who confessed past sins to him during their dementia-induced confusion. He then recounts his own horrific childhood, where his father took Paul’s brother and sister to a multi-story car park, threw them over the edge, and then jumped himself. This was followed by years of his mother’s abuse, including threats to cut out Paul’s tongue. Connie realizes Paul is haunted by the voices of his victims and removes their tongues to silence them, concluding he must have killed others before the known victims.

Confronting Paul, Connie asserts that he will be tormented forever by the voices of his earlier, unknown victims. Rattled, Paul lashes out, but Connie reminds him that she is free while he is locked away awaiting sentencing. As a final, chilling threat, Paul asks about Meredith, implying that she is in danger. The visit ends, and a terrified Connie frantically tries to call Meredith. After a tense wait, Meredith calls back, perfectly safe and cheerful, explaining she was at the hairdresser’s. Relieved but shaken, Connie resolves to seek therapy for her PTSD and make a genuine effort to change her life.

Connie travels to Meredith’s house to retrieve Gwen’s will. Now using only a crutch, she feels hopeful about her future. She plans to use her inheritance to buy a car, purchase headstones for Paul’s victims, change her name to Connie Gwen Wright, and keep Gwen’s house. She decides against telling the police about Paul’s accomplice, Derek, fearing that he will release the video of her. When she arrives at Meredith’s, however, she finds the house empty. A postman informs her that Meredith moved away days earlier, leaving no forwarding address and saying she was going “far away from this life” (317).

Panicked, Connie lets herself into Meredith’s empty house and rushes to the chimney where the will was hidden. She finds it, but to her horror, the final page containing all the signatures has been removed, rendering it invalid. She realizes that Meredith has betrayed her; as Gwen’s sole surviving relative, Meredith now stands to inherit everything. Spotting the green porcelain cat she gave Meredith, Connie sees a note beneath it reading, “Look after Tom for me” (321). Enraged by the deception, she smashes the cat with her crutch. Among the shattered pieces, she finds an appraisal certificate revealing the cat was worth £50,000. Connie collapses, having destroyed the last valuable thing she might have possessed.

A year later, Meredith Harper is on a luxurious, round-the-world cruise, paid for by the sale of her and Gwen’s houses. She reveals that after his arrest, Paul sent her a package with evidence proving Connie was a con artist named Rachel Evans. Rather than accepting Paul’s offer to use his lawyer, Meredith wrote back refusing and told him she didn’t need him—she had access to Gwen’s will and if she made it disappear, the estate would go to probate and come to her as Gwen’s sole surviving relative. Meredith removed the last page of the will and sold both properties before leaving without a word. She recalls Connie’s subsequent, desperate voicemails, which ended with a call from prison.

Meredith reveals the lifelong rivalry behind her revenge: Decades ago, her cousin Gwen stole her fiancé Bill, who left her at the altar and walked out of the church with Gwen. The trauma caused Meredith to lose her pregnancy and undergo a hysterectomy. She feels her deception was justified and is glad Paul murdered Gwen. She left the porcelain cat behind, doubting it was worth anything. The novel concludes with Meredith on a beach in Cancún, burning an old photo of herself and Gwen before preparing for a date with a new man she met on the cruise: a retired charity worker named Derek, who always wears a tartan flat cap.