The Wrong Daughter

Six days later, Caitlin hasn’t returned to Blossom Hill House but sends Olivia a mobile phone; they speak nightly. Missing Oscar and feeling the sting of her father’s accusation, Caitlin works on Wanderlust Illustrations, her online art business. Oscar surprises her with a trip to St. Ives, where they discuss getting a dog and setting a wedding date. Citing their engagement of nearly three years, Oscar pushes for an autumn wedding, but Caitlin, feeling that marriage would prevent travel, negotiates for next year instead.

As they walk along the seafront, Oscar reveals that he once loved creative writing but abandoned it for computing to please his father, mirroring Caitlin’s artistic sacrifices. He encourages her to pursue illustration full-time, promising financial support. On a clifftop, he surprises her with an easel and art supplies. Caitlin is moved and feels deeply loved.

The next morning at breakfast, Oscar shows her an article that features photos from the sisters’ trip to the bridal boutique. The article suggests that Olivia wasn’t abducted but ran away with a boyfriend. Relieved that the wedding-dress comment wasn’t overheard, Caitlin confides in Oscar about Olivia’s marriage secret. He accidentally reveals that the abductor’s name is Simon, claiming that he learned details from his cousin Rachel’s husband, who he says is a police officer. He explains that Simon held Olivia in a rural Forest of Dean house. Though upset that Oscar kept these secrets, Caitlin promises silence and fantasizes about killing Simon.

The following Tuesday, Caitlin drives to Bath to collect Olivia from therapy. Outside a coffee shop, she finds her sister looking confident and chic. Dr. Gideon Temple, Olivia’s therapist, arrives with her handbag (which she deliberately left as a ploy for him to meet Caitlin). The handsome Irish therapist and Caitlin share immediate chemistry.

Olivia leaves them alone, and Gideon asks how Caitlin thinks Olivia is coping. He reveals that Olivia experiences night terrors and struggles with their parents’ behavior, particularly their mother’s suffocating presence. Most significantly, Olivia feels lonely and wants Caitlin to move back into Blossom Hill House temporarily. Reluctantly, Caitlin says that she must discuss it with her fiancé. As they talk, Caitlin observes that Gideon isn’t wearing a wedding ring and has noticed her engagement ring. He offers his support if she ever needs to talk. Olivia returns, and as they leave, Caitlin glances back to find Gideon still watching her.

More than a week after Uncle Robert’s work party, he hasn’t returned to Ledbury Hall and has cut off the siblings’ income. Heath brings home money and food but remains absent most days, returning with Sofia’s perfume on his clothes. When Flynn appears at the gate to retrieve his jacket, Elinor accepts his invitation to go ice skating, desperate to escape her lonely existence.

At the Rawcliffe rink, Elinor’s exceptional skating ability impresses Flynn. They go for hot chocolate, and Elinor teases him about a purple stone he claims to have left for her. Flynn reveals that he’s studying medicine, plans to practice psychiatry, and has a placement in South Africa starting in September. When he mentions his stable, loving family, Elinor feels the gap between her isolated upbringing and “normal” life. She confesses that she accidentally set fire to the curtains at her uncle’s party. Riding on a wave of excitement, she kisses him. Flynn lets her keep his jacket and asks to see her again on Monday. After he leaves, Elinor finds the purple stone he mentioned.

Approaching Ledbury Hall, she sees Uncle Robert’s car speeding away; he gives her a malevolent look. Fearing for Heath after their uncle’s earlier threat, she races inside and discovers her brother unconscious on the kitchen floor in a pool of blood and a lead pipe nearby.

Caitlin picks up Florence from the train station. Her best friend, dressed beautifully, reveals that she has landed a major audiobook narration deal and worries that Olivia’s return will diminish their friendship. Caitlin firmly reassures her that she’ll always be like a sister, likening the maturity of their 19-year friendship to that of a person old enough to vote and drink.

At Blossom Hill House, Caitlin finds Olivia wearing their grandmother’s emerald necklace (a piece that their mother had promised to Caitlin) and feels a pang of jealousy. Olivia asks to spend time with Florence alone. Clara stops Caitlin to ask anxiously if she stole Myles’s credit card, which Caitlin denies.

Watching from the kitchen, Caitlin witnesses Olivia and Florence’s seamless, emotional reunion in the garden. Feeling like an unwelcome little sister, she eventually brings drinks outside but is clearly intruding. Florence mentions that someone named Daniel is collecting her, so Caitlin doesn’t need to drive her home. Later, Caitlin sees Florence kiss Olivia goodbye and leave. Heartbroken, she watches Olivia pass her on the stairs without a word and slam her bedroom door.

For four days after their reunion, Olivia and Florence have ignored Caitlin. Lonely, she calls Gemma for lunch but learns that Gemma is shopping for their mutual friend Sarah Newbury’s hen weekend (an event to which Caitlin wasn’t invited). Gemma confronts her about never mentioning having a sister, suggesting that Caitlin didn’t consider her a close friend.

Olivia calls. She’s lost in Bradford-on-Avon after a difficult police interview and is having a panic attack. Caitlin finds her by the canal and uses a grounding technique, having her name objects and colors. Their shared laughter over the unusual color name “aureolin” breaks the tension. Olivia explains that she fled the house through the woods, using the old shed as a landmark, because their mother’s suffocating attention was overwhelming.

Seeking drinks at a café, Caitlin leaves Olivia outside and spots Oscar having an intimate lunch with a blonde woman, sharing dessert. According to his calendar, he should be in London meeting a client named Sam. When she texts him, Oscar lies, claiming that he’s still in London meeting with a man. Caitlin realizes that he’s hiding something significant, possibly an affair.

Oscar arranges to meet Caitlin at his parents’ home for a make-up dinner after claiming that his train is delayed. Before leaving, Caitlin drinks wine and searches his study, finding a tin containing blonde hair.

At dinner with Oscar and his mother, Helen, Caitlin grows increasingly combative and drunk. When Helen pressures her about the wedding plans and comments that children should have their father’s surname, Caitlin challenges her. Oscar deflects by announcing that they’ve set a date for next summer. Drunk and angry, Caitlin reveals to Helen that Oscar knows secret police details about Olivia’s case. Helen questions this, mentioning that Rachel’s husband, Tim, works for an estate agent, not for the police, exposing another of Oscar’s lies.

As Caitlin and Oscar walk home, she confronts him about the café meeting. He furiously denies an affair, claiming that the client, Samantha (Sam), is from Adaline Fray Interiors. When Caitlin asks about the blonde hair, he says it’s from his own first haircut and suggests that she needs therapy. He walks off toward the train station, leaving Caitlin alone on the street. She sees the man in the Venetian mask watching her, but again he vanishes.

Elinor calls an ambulance for Heath, lying to authorities about his attacker to protect their uncle’s secret and prevent social services’ involvement. At the hospital, after hours of anxious waiting, she learns that Heath will recover despite having a head wound, bruised ribs, and numerous other injuries.

She calls Flynn, who arrives within an hour. In the children’s waiting area, he finds a picture book of Rapunzel and compares Elinor to the imprisoned princess, calling Ledbury Hall her tower. When he mentions Disney films she’s never seen, Elinor feels self-conscious about the gaps in her sheltered upbringing. Overwhelmed by guilt (believing that Heath’s attack is her fault), she confesses her feelings. Flynn comforts her, insisting that she couldn’t have stopped the intruder and that calling the ambulance saved Heath’s life. Overcome with emotion and his kindness, Elinor kisses him, and he kisses her back.

The police remain skeptical of Caitlin’s masked-man sighting. After fighting with Oscar, she has moved back into Blossom Hill House, as Olivia wanted. The media presence has dwindled, diverted by another major crime, though a police officer remains posted outside. Olivia goes out with Florence again without inviting Caitlin.

While sorting old photographs for Olivia, Caitlin finds one of Hathaway Cottage, the family’s former Easter holiday home. When Olivia asks where it is, showing no recognition of the place where they spent weeks every year, Caitlin is shocked. To test her, Caitlin deliberately refers to their cousin Edward as “Edmund.” Olivia fails, sympathetically calling him “poor Edmund” without correcting the error.

Olivia’s failure to remember Hathaway Cottage and their cousin’s real name (details likely omitted from the diaries she has been reading) confirms Caitlin’s growing suspicion: The woman is an impostor. As Olivia leaves to meet Florence, Caitlin sits reeling, now certain that the woman claiming to be her sister is a fraud.

Caitlin creates a list documenting evidence that the woman isn’t Olivia: She didn’t remember the gold-bee journal or the boy on the bus; she arrived well-groomed, with manicured nails; she never reminisces about their childhood; and she doesn’t remember Hathaway Cottage or their cousin Edward. Caitlin theorizes that Olivia might be fleeing an abusive husband.

At her first therapy session with Gideon Temple, Caitlin admits that her father blames her for Olivia’s abduction and that she has always resented her parents’ expectations. She confesses that her happiness feels like an echo because she has suppressed her true desire to travel and live without roots. Gideon encourages her to be braver and live the life she wants. Their connection intensifies.

When Caitlin shares her suspicion that the woman who has returned as Olivia isn’t Olivia and reads her evidence list, Gideon offers a rational explanation (a head injury causing memory loss) but validates her instinct to investigate. He advises her to be the main character in her own life and stop letting things simply happen to her.

Returning home, Caitlin overhears Olivia on an urgent phone call, expressing panic that someone knows something. Olivia discovers her eavesdropping and slams the door. Downstairs, Caitlin finds Olivia’s old mobile phone, realizing that she must secretly have a second phone. When she confronts her sister, Olivia denies everything. When Caitlin presses her about a second phone, Olivia picks up a large knife and tauntingly tells her to rest. Caitlin confronts her about calling their cousin Edmund instead of Edward. Olivia dares her to voice her accusation, but Caitlin hesitates.

That night, Caitlin wakes to see Olivia standing silently over her bed before leaving. Checking Olivia’s room, Caitlin finds her seemingly asleep and questions her own sanity. Making tea downstairs, she hears scratching at the kitchen window. The man in the Venetian mask is pressed against the glass. She screams and drops the mug, scalding herself. Her family rushes down as she reports the intruder. Her father and a police officer search but find nothing. Her father looks at her as if she’s a liar.

Three weeks after Uncle Robert’s attack, he hasn’t returned to Ledbury Hall. After two weeks of Elinor’s care, Heath has resumed his mysterious daily absences. Elinor has spent the last week growing closer to Flynn, who asks her to go to South Africa with him.

When Heath unexpectedly returns and discovers them in bed together, he violently attacks Flynn. To drive him away, Heath lies that Elinor is only 15 years old. Horrified and disgusted, Flynn leaves. Elinor confronts Heath, who reveals that he’s with Sofia only because she got him a job at a music shop. He explains that he has been secretly working to save money for them to escape Ledbury Hall, believing that Uncle Robert tried to kill him and will do so again to secure the entire inheritance for himself. Heath worries that he won’t be welcome back at the shop after what happened with Flynn. He comforts his guilty sister, telling her that he needs her to do better, and he promises to kill Robert if he ever touches her.

The evening after Caitlin’s masked-man sighting, police find no evidence of an intruder. Myles accuses Caitlin of lying for attention. During a heated argument, she confronts him about years of emotional neglect. When Caitlin asks if the police checked the shed in the woods, Clara reveals that it was built only 10 years ago—six years after Olivia’s disappearance. This timeline discrepancy intensifies Caitlin’s certainty that the woman is an impostor, as the real Olivia couldn’t have known about a nonexistent shed.

When Caitlin confronts “Olivia” about the shed and visiting her room at night, the woman denies everything, and when Caitlin slaps the woman’s hand away, her parents watch, horrified. Caitlin packs and leaves.

Letting herself in at home, Caitlin hears Oscar in his study. When he calls her phone, however, she realizes that he’s elsewhere. Someone else is inside. The masked intruder bursts from the study and violently attacks her, pinning her against the wall. He destroys her phone and throws her into the study, locking the door. Caitlin escapes through the ground-floor window.

The police arrive after Oscar (hearing the attack over the phone) calls for help. They find no evidence of forced entry and discover the study door unlocked, contradicting Caitlin’s account. Oscar expresses doubt about her story and claims that he was out for drinks with friends, though one of those friends is supposedly on holiday.

For several days, Caitlin stays in bed while Oscar sleeps in the spare room. Her parents visit, treating her with cautious pity. Determined to pull herself together, she finally showers and dresses.

Hearing laughter from the spare bedroom, she finds Olivia and Oscar sitting close together on the bed. They spring apart guiltily. After Oscar leaves for the deli, Olivia taunts Caitlin, noting that he has been attentive and asking if sisters should share. When Caitlin tests her by referring to her childhood nickname for Caitlin, Kitty-Cate, the woman doesn’t recognize it. Caitlin accuses her of knowing only facts she learned from reading diaries. The woman again dares her to voice her suspicion. Finally, Caitlin tells her she isn’t her little sister. The woman seems pleased and impressed, treating the confrontation like an eagerly awaited game.

After another argument, Oscar has gone to Birmingham. Feeling trapped and lonely, Caitlin walks in a park in Frome, theorizing that the impostor, the masked man, and possibly Oscar are conspiring to drive her mad.

She encounters Gideon Temple out running. Noticing that Caitlin looks lonely, he asks about her week. She describes the break-in and how no one believes her. Gideon offers unwavering support. She asks about his personal life; he reveals that he’s separated from his wife, who wanted more than he could give.

When Caitlin mentions the impostor’s second phone, Gideon helps by telling her that Olivia has a 90-minute therapy appointment with him next Tuesday morning (implying that Caitlin might use that time to search for it). As they talk, Caitlin spots the masked man leaving the park. Gideon sprints to catch him, but the man vanishes. Furious on her behalf, Gideon insists that stalking isn’t acceptable. Caitlin asks if his concern is professional or personal. Looking at her intensely, he says it’s personal. Tempted to kiss him, Caitlin instead remembers Oscar and walks away.