63 pages • 2-hour read
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Chapters 21-30Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses sexual content, violence, substance use, and death.
Chapter 21 Summary: “Last January”
After their second sexual encounter, Lisa asks Anton if she is his first extramarital affair. He admits he has cheated before, disappointing Lisa, who wanted to be special enough to make him break his vows solely for her. The moment triggers memories of her college roommate, Ruth, who pulled away and formed new friendships. Lisa retaliated by seducing Ruth’s boyfriend, but Ruth responded by moving out and calling campus security when Lisa tracked her down and set a small fire outside her new dorm room. The incident led to Lisa’s quiet transfer from the school.
Anton tells Lisa that discovering their affair would end his marriage. Their affair continues over the following weeks and Lisa relishes the feeling of power she derives from tricking Gwen. She learns intimate details about Gwen’s past. She also nurtures Anton’s feelings of anger and resentment toward Gwen and others.
In April, at an Easter party, Lisa overhears Scott telling Aimee it is acceptable to outgrow her friendship with Lisa, whom he calls a “drama queen.” Lisa is immediately enraged and believes that Scott is trying to take Aimee away from her. She visits Aimee’s house and secretly photographs Scott’s social security number from a medical form. That night, Lisa orders a comprehensive background check.
Chapter 22 Summary: “Now”
On Monday evening, Gwen drinks wine in her bedroom, haunted by identifying Anton’s body at the morgue earlier that day. She remains convinced that Anton was having an affair with Lisa but wants more proof. She cross-references her phone’s calendar and Instagram, confirming Lisa was out of town the same weekend Anton attended a writers’ conference in Tampa. Gwen resolves to confront Lisa.
Gwen goes to Lisa and Marcus’s house and accuses Lisa of sleeping with Anton. Lisa denies the affair, admitting that she and Anton were in Tampa the same weekend and had a friendly dinner together. She also tells Gwen that she told Anton about the tattoo and that he could have borrowed the detail in his story, even without seeing her naked. Marcus interrupts their conversation, wondering what is going on, and Lisa calmly tells him about Gwen’s accusations, implying that they are absurd and unfounded. Gwen is disoriented and storms off, stating that she is going to Aimee to share her suspicions. Lisa grabs hold of her to try to prevent this.
Chapter 23 Summary: “Now”
On Monday evening, Aimee is making dinner when Scott arrives home. He promises to explain everything after the children are in bed. As Aimee prepares to pick up Noa, Scott spots Gwen and Lisa fighting outside. He offers to pick up Noa so Aimee can intervene, and she texts him the address.
After Scott leaves, Aimee interrupts her two friends. Gwen tells Aimee that Lisa was sleeping with Anton. Lisa denies it, and Aimee sends Lisa home so that she can comfort Gwen. Lisa seems hesitant to leave, fearing that Gwen will persuade Lisa about her version of events. Gwen and Aimee go inside together and Aimee is evasive when Gwen asks if she believes her claims about the affair. Eventually, Gwen falls asleep on the couch. When Noa arrives home, she is dropped off not by Scott but by Cathy, who tells Aimee that Scott never arrived to pick up Noa.
Chapter 24 Summary: “This Past Spring”
The narrative flashes back months earlier, to the period when Lisa began investigating Scott. Researching Scott, Lisa discovers his social security number was first used 28 years ago in Northern California’s Emerald Triangle, a cannabis-growing region. This contradicts Scott’s claim that he grew up in New Mexico. At a neighborhood gathering, Lisa baits Scott about visiting California, but he denies ever visiting or living there. In the same conversation, Aimee reveals that Scott played varsity baseball in high school.
The next day, Lisa researches online and finds an archived newspaper article from the year Scott was in California. The article reports two missing high school baseball players, Michael Finch and Dexter Kohl, both 18-year-old co-captains at Mad River Regional High School, who disappeared during a backpacking trip. The mention of baseball convinces Lisa that Scott is connected to their disappearance.
Chapter 25 Summary: “Now”
On Monday night, Aimee calls the police to report Scott missing. The dispatcher is dismissive but Aimee files a missing-person report. By morning (Tuesday) Scott is still gone and Aimee is increasingly distressed.
Aimee calls Detective Salazar. He arrives and listens to her account of Scott’s disappearance but quickly shifts to asking about the night Anton was murdered. Salazar points out that the positioning of the doorbell camera would not have captured whether or not Scott drove to Villain and Saint (instead of walking, as he has reported). If Scott drove to the bar, he would have access to a vehicle and could potentially have been the one to fatally hit Anton. Salazar tells Aimee that if Scott makes contact, he must be told the police want to speak with him immediately.
Chapter 26 Summary: “Now”
On Tuesday morning, Gwen sees Detective Salazar’s car at Aimee’s house and fears Anton confessed something to Scott before he died. Salazar leaves Aimee’s house and walks to Gwen’s, where he abruptly asks if she was aware that Anton was having an affair.
Gwen admits she learned of it after his death and names her suspicion that Lisa is the other woman. Salazar reveals he found WhatsApp messages hidden on Anton’s phone, confirming that Lisa and Anton were having an affair. Salazar questions Gwen in an accusatory fashion, implying that she might have followed Anton to the bar and struck him with her car. He also says neighbors overheard them arguing and asks whether Anton’s head wound came from their fight. Gwen denies this, claiming he slipped and hit his head during their fight before he stormed out of the house. Barb tries to end the interview, but Salazar presents a warrant to search Gwen’s house and car.
Chapter 27 Summary: “Now”
On Tuesday morning, Aimee worries about the possibility that Scott is involved in Anton’s murder: Her husband’s sudden disappearance raises the possibility that he has fled. She finds a jade heart in Noa’s room and recognizes it from Cathy’s home (Noa has taken it, mirroring her earlier pattern of taking the pen from Lisa’s home). Aimee phones private investigator Jon Block, who agrees to a brief meeting after she explains that Scott is missing.
As Aimee rushes out, she sees a police car pull onto their street. Still driving, she calls Lisa, who confirms that the police car is going to Gwen’s house. Lisa is anxious to deny the accusation of the affair with Anton, but Aimee is distracted and hangs up. At Block’s office, Aimee demands to know why Scott hired the detective and Block reveals that Scott wanted to find out who was extorting him.
Chapter 28 Summary: “This Past Spring”
The narrative flashes back to May, months before the murder. Continuing her research, Lisa calls Mad River Regional High School (the school attended by the missing baseball players), posing as a podcaster covering missing-person cases. She has already uncovered that the region where the high school is located is notorious for missing person and murder cases; it is also home to an active marijuana growing industry. A secretary at the high school sends Lisa yearbook photos of the two boys and she immediately recognizes that Scott and Michael Finch are the same person.
Chapter 29 Summary: “Now”
Aimee demands more information from Block who reluctantly reveals that someone had been repeatedly contacting Scott, demanding money. The extortioner used encrypted WhatsApp, making it nearly impossible to trace. However, the initial contact was an email from a dummy account. Block traced the email’s point of origin: a library on the campus of American University (where Anton worked).
Chapter 30 Summary: “Now”
Aimee rushes from Block’s office to Gwen’s house and angrily confronts her, demanding to know if she knew about the extortion. Aimee explains that Scott was being extorted by someone who sent an email from American University’s library and she believes it was Anton. After Aimee appeals to their friendship, Gwen explains the events of Friday night. She became convinced that Anton was cheating and when he stepped outside to walk their dog, she followed him and confronted him. To Gwen’s surprise, Anton confessed to extortion, not infidelity. He explained that he had been extorting Scott for money. Gwen became very angry during this confrontation, leading to their argument and her throwing the mug at him (which caused the wound to his head).
Gwen reveals Anton was panicked because the situation had gotten out of control and was somehow connected to Cathy. Anton told Gwen he needed to warn Aimee about Noa, saying Noa’s visits to Cathy’s house were somehow putting the child in danger. However, Gwen insists that she doesn’t know how these events and people are connected.
Chapters 21-30 Analysis
As the plot progresses, the novel’s fragmented, non-linear structure reinforces the theme of The Subjective Nature of Truth and Narrative by deliberately withholding and reordering information. The narrative alternates between the escalating tension of the “Now” timeline—Scott’s disappearance and the police investigation—and revelatory flashbacks from “Last January” and “This Past Spring.” This technique forces constant re-evaluation of characters and motives. For instance, the reader learns of Lisa and Anton’s affair and her subsequent discovery of Scott’s true identity long after witnessing the fallout from Anton’s murder.
This structural choice occasionally positions the reader in a state of uncertainty akin to Aimee’s, piecing together a puzzle from disordered fragments. However, it also creates dramatic irony by giving the reader access to information that characters seemingly lack. The crisis on Nassau Court is not a sudden eruption of violence, but the inevitable collapse of a structure built on long-hidden fractures of betrayal and resentment. This narrative craft mirrors the novel’s autofiction frame, highlighting how the selection and arrangement of facts construct a particular version of reality, a process the characters themselves are engaged in as they lie to the police, to each other, and to themselves.
Modern technology increasingly contributes to the development of suspense within the plot. Digital tools serve as instruments of both concealment and discovery, creating a landscape where secrets are simultaneously easier to keep and impossible to hide permanently. Lisa initiates her plot by photographing Scott’s social security number from a medical form, using her phone as a tool of espionage. Her subsequent discovery of Scott’s past as Michael Finch is made possible by online newspaper archives. Conversely, Detective Salazar uncovers Anton’s affair not through traditional police work but by finding incriminating messages hidden on the encrypted application WhatsApp. The private investigator, Jon Block, circumvents the digital anonymity of a dummy email account by tracing its physical point of origin to a library computer at American University. This recurring pattern demonstrates that technology is a double-edged sword: while it empowers characters to lead double lives, it also creates an indelible digital footprint, reflecting a distinctly contemporary anxiety about the erosion of privacy.
The physical setting of the cul-de-sac, Nassau Court, reinforces the community’s insularity and the psychological pressure of constant surveillance. The enclosed street creates a panopticon effect, where characters are perpetually observing and being observed. Aimee sees the police car at Gwen’s home; Scott witnesses the fight between Gwen and Lisa from his window; Lisa watches for Aimee to leave her house. This environment of mutual scrutiny is not just incidental but formative, compelling characters to maintain a performance of normalcy that masks deep-seated secrets. Salazar’s reference to “neighbors [overhearing them] arguing” (177) validates this reality, turning casual observations into official evidence. The cul-de-sac, therefore, is not a sanctuary from the outside world but a pressure cooker where proximity amplifies conflict. This claustrophobic atmosphere forces characters into elaborate deceptions simply to manage their public image, reinforcing the idea that the suburban ideal of peaceful community is an illusion maintained only by the secrets it keeps.
The revelation of new secrets deepens character arcs in this section. Scott’s mysterious disappearance casts further suspicion on his character and continues the erosion of trust within his marriage. The disappearance likewise transforms Aimee from a passive peacekeeper into a determined investigator. This shift is solidified when she seeks out Jon Block, consciously choosing to pursue a difficult truth over maintaining a comfortable ignorance. Aimee’s maternal instinct and desire to protect Noa also influences her character development: She begins to lose trust in Gwen after learning that Gwen delayed revealing information about the potential for Noa to be in danger. Throughout the novel, motherhood is presented as a powerful motivating force that can sometimes lead to destructive consequences: Barb Buckley and Jen Fincher, for example, both create additional conflict through their desire to do what they think is best for their adult children. The roots of the Epilogue, wherein Aimee betrays Gwen and tricks her into confirming her crimes, are sowed when Aimee learns that Gwen put herself first and did not share crucial information.
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