The Third Wife

Lisa Jewell

56 pages 1-hour read

Lisa Jewell

The Third Wife

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014

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Part 3, Chapters 28-37Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of substance use, death by suicide, suicidal ideation, bullying, sexual content, emotional abuse, death, and cursing.

Part 3, Chapter 28 Summary: “January 2011”

On January 1, 2011, Maya receives another anonymous “Dear Bitch” e-mail mocking a Christmas pudding she made. Feeling isolated, she deletes it. Later, she and Adrian attend a New Year’s party hosted by his first ex-wife, Susie. Cat arrives and introduces her new boyfriend, Duke.


Feeling awkward around Luke after their kiss, Maya retreats to Susie’s den. Luke finds her, and they discuss family trauma. He apologizes for kissing her, and they agree to forget it. Their conversation is interrupted by Luke’s girlfriend, Charlotte. As Maya leaves, she notices Luke giving her a lingering look.

Part 3, Chapter 29 Summary: “July 2012”

Adrian listens to a voicemail from Dolly about the mobile phone. Dolly clarifies that the phone is not hers and directs him to her boss, Jonathan Baxter. Adrian calls Jonathan, who explains that he gave a box of old work phones to his son, Matthew.


Remembering Jane was on a date with a man named Matthew, Adrian asks Jonathan if his son has a female friend with mismatched eyes. Jonathan agrees to ask Matthew. Feeling he is making progress, Adrian tells Luke he has a promising lead in his search for “Jane.”

Part 3, Chapter 30 Summary

Later that month, Adrian meets Caroline for dinner. He questions her about her boyfriend, Paul, then confronts her about the ovulation sticks he found in her bathroom.


Caroline admits she has undergone fertility tests and stopped using contraception without telling Paul. She expresses anxiety about their blended families and history of leaving partners. When Adrian dismisses her worries, Caroline becomes angry, reminding him that his actions have consequences and stating that Maya died. Adrian denies any responsibility for her death.

Part 3, Chapter 31 Summary

Back at the flat, Luke regrets sleeping with Charlotte, who is now texting him frequently, assuming they are back together. He suspects she sent the poison-pen e-mails to Maya out of jealousy. When Adrian returns, he asks Luke if he blames Adrian for Maya’s death.


Luke confirms Adrian’s actions were a factor. He then reveals that he and Maya had a close friendship and that Maya often confided in him, admitting she felt like a “spare part” in the family. Shocked, Adrian questions his past choices and wonders if he should have stayed with Caroline.

Part 3, Chapter 32 Summary: “March 2011”

In a flashback to March 2011, Maya’s period confirms she is not pregnant. Soon after, she reads an anonymous e-mail mocking her new haircut and claiming that everyone in the family hates it. Maya pulls up the text chain with Cat when Maya had sent a photo of the new haircut and Cat had responded that she looked gorgeous. She texts Cat asking if she showed the photo to anyone else. Distraught, Maya meets her friend Sara for drinks and confesses she is miserable and has fallen in love with Luke.


Back at home, Maya suggests to Adrian that they stop trying for a baby, admitting she is unsure their marriage is working. He dismisses her concerns as drunken ramblings and goes to bed. Later, a text from Cat reveals that only Luke had seen a photo of her new hair. Believing that Luke made the cruel comment about her hair behind her back, Maya feels betrayed.

Part 3, Chapter 33 Summary: “August 2012”

At his apartment, Adrian takes down the Board of Harmony. Otis and Beau notice what he’s doing, and Otis expresses intense hatred for the board and Maya’s attempts to manage their lives, leading Adrian to briefly suspect him of sending the emails.


Adrian’s thoughts are interrupted by a call from Jonathan Baxter, who confirms his son Matthew’s roommate is a woman named Abby with mismatched eyes. Adrian goes directly to her office building. When a receptionist says Abby is out, he finds a bench across the street and decides to wait.

Part 3, Chapter 34 Summary

Luke visits Cat at Caroline’s house, where she is babysitting their siblings, Pearl and Beau. Luke confesses to Cat that he slept with Charlotte and suspects she sent the anonymous e-mails to Maya. Otis overhears them and asks what they’re talking about, but Luke proposes they all go out to Nando’s.


At the restaurant, Otis claims Maya died by suicide because she was in love with someone else, information he says he learned from a woman who knew the man. Realizing he has said too much, Otis flees. Luke chases him but can’t find him anywhere. Back inside, Cat discovers Otis left his phone behind.

Part 3, Chapter 35 Summary

While waiting outside the office, Adrian spots Abby. He confronts her, calling her “Jane.” Abby initially feigns ignorance but agrees to speak with him later and tell him everything she knows after he mentions “unsettling developments” regarding Maya’s death.


They arrange to meet at a pub at seven o’clock. Before she leaves, Abby warns Adrian that he may not like what she has to reveal about Maya.

Part 3, Chapter 36 Summary

After failing to find Otis, Luke returns to Caroline’s house. He and Cat coordinate a search. Cat calls Caroline, while Luke calls Adrian to report his brother is missing.


Adrian tells Luke he has found “Jane,” whose real name is Abby, and is meeting her in an hour. He insists he cannot reschedule but promises to keep his phone on. Luke is angry that his father is prioritizing the meeting over his missing son, but agrees they need to know what Abby has to say.

Part 3, Chapter 37 Summary: “April 2011”

In a flashback to an Easter holiday in April 2011, the family stays in Suffolk. Luke arrives with his ex-girlfriend, Charlotte, who has invited herself. In private, Luke compliments Maya’s haircut, making her realize he could not have been the source of the cruel e-mail. Maya reflects that her marriage was a mistake and feels alienated, noting Beau’s subtle rejection of her.


Later, Charlotte approaches Maya and offers passive-aggressive sympathy for her infertility. Her friendliness turns cold, and she asks if their situation is a competition, confirming Maya’s suspicion that Charlotte sees her as a rival for Luke.

Part 3, Chapters 28-37 Analysis

In this section, Adrian finds himself continually confronting his wives’ and children’s view of his life with his own, emphasizing The Fragility of the “Perfect Family” Ideal. While Adrian pursues the identity of “Jane,” convinced that an external agent is responsible for his family’s trauma, the flashbacks reveal the source of Maya’s despair to be internal. While Adrian lives blissfully ignorant of the pain his past infidelities and divorces have caused, Maya’s perspective reveals the strain they have placed on her. This juxtaposition creates a profound gap between Adrian’s perception and Maya’s reality.


Adrian’s conversation with Caroline forces him to reckon with this disconnect directly. Caroline echoes the questions Luke posed in an earlier confrontation, asking Adrian, “How do you make yourself feel okay about it?” Adrian’s incredulity at the question positions his arc as still very much in progress. He reflects that “[i]t had never occurred to him that he had made any decisions he needed to reconcile himself with” (200). Luke’s subsequent revelation that Maya felt like a “spare part” (177) further erodes Adrian’s idealized memory of his marriage. This disclosure repositions Maya from a tragic victim of circumstance to a complex individual whose unhappiness Adrian actively ignored. These interactions chip away at his identity as a benevolent patriarch, compelling him to question his life choices and exposing the deep-seated resentments his actions have caused.


Adrian’s character development is marked by the progressive dismantling of his self-serving narrative, as confrontational dialogues with Caroline and Luke force him to acknowledge his emotional culpability. Jewell undercuts Adrian’s insistence that no one could “ever feel bad about making beautiful families” (200) with flashbacks depicting Maya’s profound isolation within that very structure. The structural choice to position the reader as a witness to both timelines exposes Adrian’s self-delusion. His search for an external villain is rendered tragic by Jewell’s reveal that Maya’s suffering was endemic to the family dynamic he curated. Otis’s visceral hatred for the Board of Harmony shifts its symbolic significance from family unity to deep-seated resentment. Otis’s preference for the past, when Adrian was more forgetful but more authentically himself, reiterates the false nature of Adrian’s idealized understanding. The family holidays—New Year’s at Susie’s and Easter in Suffolk—function as public performances of unity that mask simmering tensions. Maya’s alienation, Luke’s conflicted loyalties, and Charlotte’s passive-aggressive antagonism continue to expose the facade, demonstrating that Adrian’s insistence that everything is fine prevents genuine emotional processing.


Throughout these chapters, the motif of the “Dear Bitch” e-mails is juxtaposed with failures of direct communication, illustrating how suppressed anger finds expression through toxic, indirect channels. The anonymous e-mails weaponize intimate details like Maya’s haircut to maximize psychological damage. Yet, the characters consistently fail to communicate honestly in person. Maya cannot bring herself to mention the e-mails, even with her friend, Sara, demonstrating the depth of her shame and isolation. Her attempt to directly address the failure of her marriage is met with Adrian’s complete avoidance; he simply kisses her head and goes to bed. Similarly, Charlotte’s hostility toward Maya in Suffolk is not expressed openly but through pointed, passive-aggressive questions. This contrast between the aggression of the digital attacks and the characters’ inability to engage in open dialogue creates an environment where resentments fester without resolution.


The resolution of Adrian’s hunt for “Jane” serves as a narrative misdirection, a structural device that redirects the novel’s focus from the family’s external circumstances to their internal workings. Adrian’s pursuit of the woman with mismatched eyes follows the logical progression of a detective story, providing a clear external goal that allows him to postpone internal reckoning. However, the climax of this investigation—his confrontation with Abby—coincides with the implosion of the family’s internal secrets, catalyzed by Otis’s disappearance. Abby’s final warning that he should “wait to hear what I have to tell you before you feel too grateful” (237) signals the narrative’s pivotal shift. The “stalker” is not the villain but the messenger, and the truth she carries is of Adrian’s own failure to see his wife and children’s pain.

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