You Deserve to Know

Aimee Stern functions as the novel’s deuteragonist and moral center, serving as a foil to the duplicitous Gwen and the insecure Lisa. Initially, Aimee embodies the suburban ideal, a landscape designer who prizes community and genuine connection. Her defining trait is her fierce loyalty to her friends and family; for Aimee, “Loyalty is everything” (6). She acts as the trio’s peacemaker, consistently trying to smooth over the tensions between Gwen and Lisa, ignorant of the deep-seated resentments simmering beneath the surface of their friendship. Her trusting nature makes her the last to recognize the betrayals surrounding her, as she initially defends her husband Scott’s secrets and dismisses Gwen’s suspicions as grief-induced paranoia.

Aimee’s development is a journey from innocence to disillusionment. As the secrets of Nassau Court unravel, she is forced to abandon her trusting nature and adopt the role of an investigator. The discovery that Scott has been lying about his past and has hired a private investigator, coupled with Gwen’s withholding of crucial information, compels Aimee to seek the truth on her own. Her tenacity leads her to uncover the identities of “Cathy Stocker” and Jon Block, and ultimately to confront Scott about his past as Michael Finch. In the end, Aimee’s core morality prevails. She reveals Scott’s identity to the police, but she also chooses to stand by him after he chooses to turn himself in. She also cooperates with police to secure Gwen’s confession by wearing a wire during their visit. This final act signifies her complete transformation from a trusting friend into a woman who understands that truth, however painful, must be brought to light.

Lisa Greco-King is the story’s primary antagonist and a direct foil to Aimee. She is portrayed in a negative light throughout the plot, but it is eventually revealed that readers only have access to the version of Lisa that Gwen fabricated. Thus her character is ultimately unknowable: All of Lisa’s motivations and decisions are filtered through the lens of Gwen’s self-serving portrayal.

Lisa is depicted as defined by a profound insecurity and an insatiable jealousy that drives her to destructive and violent acts. From the moment Gwen arrives on Nassau Court, Lisa perceives her as a threat to her friendship with Aimee. She immediately intuits that “the delicate ecology of the cul-de-sac was being threatened” (22), and her actions from that point are aimed at undermining Gwen and securing her place as Aimee’s “FP—favorite person” (22). Her jealousy is rooted in a lifelong struggle to form stable female friendships, a history hinted at by the traumatic end of her relationship with her college roommate, Ruth.

Lisa is manipulative and impulsive, using seduction and deception as her primary weapons. She begins an affair with Anton Khoury not out of affection for him, but as a calculated act of revenge against Gwen. The affair is a means of control, allowing her to possess something that belongs to her rival. This manipulative tendency escalates into extortion when she discovers Scott Crowder’s secret identity. However, her impulsivity proves to be her undoing. When Anton threatens to confess their scheme, Lisa murders him to ensure his silence. Her confession to Gwen reveals her rationale: “I told Anton the same thing, and he didn’t listen, either” (300). Though she acts as a significant villain, her more overt and emotionally driven antagonism serves to mask the colder, more calculated villainy of Gwen.

Scott Crowder is a major secondary character whose hidden past is central to the novel’s plot. To his wife Aimee and their neighbors, he is the model suburban husband: successful, patient, and devoted. This persona, however, is a carefully constructed facade. Scott is actually Michael Finch, a fugitive who has been hiding for 28 years after his involvement in a botched robbery that resulted in the death of his friend, Dexter Kohl. His entire adult life is an attempt to escape his past and the criminal world of his mother, Jen Finch, and his stepfather.

Scott’s actions are driven by a desire for self-preservation. When Anton and Gwen begin extorting him, he does not confess to Aimee but instead hires a private investigator and prepares a getaway fund, demonstrating his instinct to run from conflict rather than confront it. His lies and secrecy create a rift in his marriage and make him a prime suspect in Anton’s murder. His character embodies the idea that even the most seemingly perfect lives can be built on a foundation of deception. Ultimately, Scott makes a choice to stop running. Persuaded by Aimee, he turns himself in to the authorities, accepting the consequences of his past actions in the hope of one day returning to his family. This decision marks a significant moral shift, as he finally chooses accountability over evasion.

Anton Khoury is the catalyst for the novel’s central tragedy. His character is defined by weakness, self-pity, and a profound dishonesty that extends to both his personal and professional life. His literary career is a fraud, built upon the plagiarized journal of his deceased mother. This foundational lie leaves him unable to produce a second novel, leading to financial dependence on Gwen’s parents and a deep-seated resentment of his wife’s control over their finances and his life. He sees himself as a “brilliant writer, misunderstood by his cold, heckling wife” (18), a narrative he uses to justify his destructive behavior.

Driven by this resentment and a feeling of emasculation, Anton engages in an affair with Lisa and becomes a key player in the extortion plot against Scott. However, he lacks the constitution for criminality. His guilt and fear lead him to a drunken attempt to confess everything on the night of his death, whispering to Aimee, “You deserve to know” (12). This act of conscience, however misguided, directly leads to his murder by Lisa, which in turn sets off the chain reaction that exposes all of the secrets on Nassau Court. His death is the inciting incident that dismantles the community’s idyllic facade.

For most of the novel, Marcus Greco-King is a flat and static character, presented as the successful, good-natured, and oblivious husband of the manipulative Lisa. He enjoys the camaraderie of the neighborhood husbands and appears unaware of his wife’s affair with Anton or her involvement in the extortion plot. However, the Epilogue reveals a dynamic transformation. Driven by the humiliation of Lisa’s betrayal, Marcus conspires with Gwen to exact revenge. He becomes the instrument of her plan, murdering Anton at Villain & Saint by running him down with Lisa’s car. This reveal recasts him from a victimized spouse into a cold-blooded killer, demonstrating that even the most unassuming characters on Nassau Court are capable of extreme violence.

Jen Finch, Scott’s mother, operates under the alias of “Cathy Stocker,” the gentle, retired schoolteacher. She is a minor antagonist whose purpose is to bring Scott’s hidden past into the present. Her initial goal is to warn her son that his identity has been discovered, but she stays in the area to insinuate herself into her grandchildren’s lives. By hiring Aimee for a nonexistent landscaping job, she creates a pretext to spend time with Noa. Jen represents the inescapable nature of Scott’s criminal past and acts as a catalyst for his ultimate decision to either flee again or face the consequences.