You Deserve to Know

The Le Cannu pen is a symbol of betrayal and the terrible pain that results when someone trusted is revealed to be lying. Initially, it appears as a minor plot device when Aimee discovers her daughter, Noa, has stolen it from Lisa’s house. For Aimee, the pen is an opportunity to teach Noa a lesson about honesty, and returning it is a simple act of neighborly courtesy. However, when Aimee gives the pen back to Lisa in front of Gwen, its meaning shifts dramatically. Gwen instantly connects the pen to a suspicious, expensive restaurant charge from Anton’s recent “work trip” to Tampa, confirming her fears that he was not there for business. Her internal reaction is visceral: “For a moment she can’t breathe. That was the name she couldn’t remember. The restaurant with the outrageous bill” (113).

In that moment of recognition, the pen becomes the smoking gun proving Anton’s affair with Lisa. It symbolizes how the ugly realities of infidelity and deception fester just beneath the surface of the characters’ seemingly idyllic suburban lives. Gwen’s anguish at learning about her husband’s infidelity is particularly charged because he didn’t cheat with an anonymous stranger; she had been betrayed by both her partner and a beloved friend. The symbolism of the pen has additional layers because Lisa created risk by bringing it home from the restaurant (and the trip to Tampa). For Lisa, the affair is driven by a desire to hurt Gwen and not simply lust for Anton. She keeps the pen because it satisfies the sense of power that the secret relationship gives her, but this ultimately proves her undoing. The symbolism of the pen also aligns with the novel’s exploration of stories and writing (Anton is an author, and Gwen later becomes one). In a metafictional twist, the Epilogue reveals that Gwen was aware of Anton and Lisa’s affair before her discovery of the pen, but in her constructed narrative, the symbolic meaning of the pen still has weight.