We Live Here Now

Freddie leaves the house with an overnight bag, claiming he has an evening work event. In reality, he wants to spend a night away to contemplate whether to kill Emily.

Emily meets Paul, Sally, and Joe for a book club meeting, wanting to observe the Carters now that she knows the truth. Sally is clearly happy and oblivious to the part of herself that is trapped in Larkin Lodge. Paul drives Emily home and reveals that Freddie has expressed concern about her anxiety and depression. Emily is furious at her husband’s disloyalty.

That night, Emily experiences a terrifying ordeal. The house’s windows and doors repeatedly slam open and shut, and the water supply boils, scalding her hands. The onslaught ends when Emily promises to set Sally free.

Emily meets Sally and Joe for lunch, surreptitiously stealing Sally’s napkin and other items likely to carry her DNA. Back at Larkin Lodge, she takes the items to the primary suite and burns them in a roasting pan. The atmosphere of the room immediately changes.

Emily feels as if she is a part of the house as she watches a younger Sally and Joe arguing in the bedroom. Crying, Sally accuses Joe of infidelity while he reminds her that she has always known he needs his sexual freedom. Emily experiences Joe’s thoughts as he wishes that Sally were as liberated as she first appeared when he fell in love with her.

As Sally clings to him, he pushes her away, and she falls backward. When Joe sees blood, he realizes an upturned nail is embedded in the back of Sally’s head, and he recalls how he promised to remove it from the floorboard. Although Sally is alive, she has a severe brain injury. Joe knows that if she survives, he will spend the rest of his life caring for her. He cries as he suffocates Sally.

Joe uses drugs as he stays beside Sally’s body, unable to decide what to do. By the second day, a rotten smell emanates from her corpse, and he opens the landing window. On the third day, he moves Sally to the primary suite on the top floor. The next day, Joe plans to go to the police, but when he wakes up, Sally is alive again. She remembers nothing about her death and shows no trace of her former jealousy. Joe convinces himself that the whole episode was a delusion. Nevertheless, he decides they should move from Larkin Lodge.

Emily returns to the present and is determined that she and Freddie will escape the fates of the other couples who have lived there. She wonders if Sally will remember her imprisonment and if Joe will notice the difference in his wife now that she is free. Optimistic that she may be pregnant, she commits to a “fresh start” with Freddie.

The Raven forgets about Bright Wing as he rejoices in Broken Wing’s return. He observes that his mate is nicer than she used to be, and she is as lovable as when they first nested together. They fly away from Larkin Lodge toward their future, “Forevermore” (271).

Freddie has noticed Emily’s renewed warmth toward him and tells himself that he will not kill her. However, when Paul visits Larkin Lodge, Freddie tells him that Emily is still “emotionally unstable.” Paul’s visit is interrupted by the arrival of the Carters, who reveal that they are taking an impromptu road trip to Scotland.

Once they are alone, Sally tells Emily that Joe has not noticed the change in her. Sally describes how, imprisoned in the primary suite, she began to feel that the house was absorbing her, and she could feel the presence of other people trapped there. Sally observes that she witnessed how the house intensified the worst aspects of Emily and Freddie. Acknowledging that she owes Emily a debt for freeing her, she vows to make Joe pay for his actions.

Freddie wishes that Emily would give him a reason to kill her, as he cannot escape the consequences of his debts for much longer. He tells himself that overdosing on sleeping pills would be a painless death for his wife. Checking the post box, he finds an envelope addressed to Emily and suspects it contains divorce papers. Opening the mail, he finds details of Emily’s new account containing £150,000, and a note from Mark instructing Emily to destroy the video of him and Cat. Furious, Freddie assumes that Emily is planning to leave him once she receives the blackmail money.

Emily decides that she and Freddie should sell Larkin Lodge and buy an Airbnb in France. She waits for the right moment to tell Freddie about the blackmail money and her plan.

That night, Freddie stays downstairs brooding after Emily goes to bed. Gazing at the wallpaper, he reflects that when Emily is dead, he will inherit the blackmail money as well as the life insurance policy. Noticing that Emily’s iPad is illuminated and unlocked, he sees old emails between Emily and her boss, Neil, that reference their one-night stand. Freddie realizes that the baby Emily lost in the accident was likely not his.

The next morning, Freddie is chopping vegetables when Emily greets him, saying they “need to talk” (289). Anticipating that she is going to request a divorce, Freddie is overwhelmed with rage and stabs her.

Emily happily bursts into the kitchen, ready to tell Freddie about her positive pregnancy test. At first, she thinks Freddie has hit her. When she sees the knife embedded in her body, she loses consciousness.

Horrified, Freddie realizes that Emily is dead and remembers that Pete and Merrily Watkins are outside, working in the garden. He decides to hide his wife’s body in the bedroom on the top floor.

Emily’s memory of recent events is hazy, but Freddie reassures her that this is the aftermath of a concussion she got from falling and banging her head in the kitchen. She discovers that she is pregnant and looks forward to telling Freddie.

Paul visits, breaking the news that Joe Carter has passed away. According to the vicar, Joe fell in the shower and fatally cracked his skull while Sally was out hiking in the Scottish hills. Paul reveals that Sally does not plan to return to the area, but she gave him a letter to pass on to Emily. Sally’s letter describes her alarm at Paul’s description of Emily’s recent transformation. Sally reminds Emily of her entrapment in the second-floor bedroom and suggests that Freddie may have emulated Joe’s actions.

Freddie feels guilty as Emily calls him up to the second-floor bedroom, recalling how he hid her dead body there. He remembers how, the next morning, Emily appeared alive and well. Since then, they have both been happier, recapturing their initial love for each other. Freddie tells himself that he was mistaken about Emily’s death, and he may have experienced a hallucination. Nevertheless, he is keen for them to move from Larkin Lodge as soon as he works out how to transfer Emily’s blackmail money into his own account. Since discovering the incriminating video on Emily’s phone, he has extracted further money from Mark.

In the primary suite, Emily presents Freddie with a beer as she reveals her pregnancy. Delighted, he envisions their happy future but suddenly feels dizzy. Emily tells him that she drugged his beer because she knows that he killed her. She explains that for the baby’s sake, she has decided not to revive her old self. Instead, she intends to eliminate the negative aspects of Freddie’s personality as well. Freddie gives in to his inevitable death.

Trapped inside the second-floor bedroom, Emily is sick of the sound of Broken Wing tapping against the window. She recalls how she screamed for days when Freddie joined her in the room.

Emily and Freddie watch from the window as the best versions of “them” move out, ready for their new lives in France. The other Emily is noticeably pregnant, and Freddie has his arm around her as they give the house keys to the new residents, Russell and Cat.

In the primary suite, Emily and Freddie bicker, arguing over who is to blame for their situation. Finally, they make a plan. If they can attract Russell and Cat’s attention, they can persuade them to burn some of their possessions that remain in the attic. Emily resolves to make contact before Freddie, as she knows he will not willingly release her, and she has no intention of freeing him. The couple simultaneously declares, “Marriage is teamwork” (311).