Opening
The pressure cooker of lies and longing explodes as Erin Wooler confronts Marion Cooke while Avery Wooler listens from a locked basement. What starts as a scheme to ruin an enemy turns into a fatal duel between two predators—one adult, one child—with the police closing in at the worst possible moment.
What Happens
Chapter 41: You’re Lying
Erin arrives at Marion’s house, sending Marion into a barely concealed panic. Avery—hidden behind a locked basement door—could hear her mother at any second. Erin presses hard, asking if Marion is the anonymous caller who claimed to see Avery get into Ryan Blanchard’s car. Marion’s denial falters; her eyes keep tracking the basement door, and her composure slips.
Cornered, Marion admits she made the call and repeats the story she told police: she delayed out of fear, claiming she’s hiding from a violent ex. Erin doesn’t buy it. Rage floods her as she realizes the day-long delay might have cost her daughter’s life. “If my daughter is… gone, it’s on your hands!” she screams, sobbing. Marion, shaking and furious, orders Erin out. Alone again, she wonders whether Avery heard every word.
Chapter 42: I Heard Everything
Avery has crept up the stairs and heard everything. She realizes Marion’s lie is designed to frame Ryan and punish his mother, Nora Blanchard. Meanwhile, Erin calls William Wooler to report that the hospital nurse Marion is the “witness.” William spirals, convinced Avery was abducted and murdered by the son of the woman he loves.
Marion descends to the basement to face Avery. Avery steps out of the shadows and hisses, “Why would you do that, Marion?” before smashing a lamp against the wall. Marion confesses she hates Nora—her beauty, her affair with William—and admits her tip was an act of Deceit and Lies born of Revenge and Obsession. Avery is unmoved. She issues a clear ultimatum: retract the statement about Ryan, or she’ll blow open the truth about her “disappearance.”
Chapter 43: A Change of Plan
Avery doubles down, promising to expose everything unless Marion reverses her story. Marion feigns agreement, soothing Avery to her face and, once upstairs, locks the basement door. The struggle for Manipulation and Control becomes a direct, personal war.
In the fallout, Ryan sits catatonic in jail while his father, Al Blanchard, suffers a terrifying break. Convinced Nora believes he raised a child killer, Al drives to a dumpster and fantasizes about murdering her before wrenching himself back. Below, Avery begins crafting a darker plan: she’ll claim Marion kidnapped her. When she tries the basement door and finds it locked, her fury curdles into fear. She screams and pounds until she’s hoarse, terrified Marion has abandoned her. Late that night, Marion returns. Avery swallows her panic and pretends nothing has changed.
Chapter 44: A Terrible Mistake
Marion descends and performs her lie flawlessly: she tells Avery she went to the police and took back her statement. Avery appears satisfied but warns her not to lock the door again. Upstairs, Marion turns the deadbolt. She accepts an unthinkable conclusion—Avery cannot be allowed to live.
She designs the murder with the precision of a nurse: drug the milk with sleeping pills, wait for sleep, then strangle and dispose of the body. She remembers how she once framed her ex-husband by injuring herself, and she dreams that with Avery dead and Nora ruined, William will finally choose her. In the basement, Avery, now certain she’s been betrayed, commits to her own counterplan: accuse Marion of kidnapping and claim she narrowly escaped. She believes she holds all the cards.
Chapter 45: Danse Macabre
Morning. Marion crushes sleeping pills into a glass of milk and carries the tray downstairs. Upstairs, she waits for the drugs to work. Avery, watching the news, sees no report of Ryan’s release and knows Marion lied again. She checks the door. Locked. She is trapped with someone who intends to kill her.
At the station, Detective Gully studies Marion’s testimony and senses it doesn’t fit. A woman “in hiding” wouldn’t return to her hometown. Calling the story bogus, she heads for Marion’s house. There, Marion takes a rope to the basement. Avery waits behind the hinged door at the top of the stairs. As Marion steps onto the landing, Avery shoves her with everything she has. Marion crashes down, skull striking a post. Bleeding and stunned, she looks up to see Avery’s “horrible grimace of a smile” and recognizes the truth: the child is a psychopath just like her. Avery has won. After confirming Marion is dead, Avery rehearses her “escaped victim” story and flings open the front door—straight into Detective Gully.
Character Development
These chapters strip away every façade, exposing who these people are under pressure.
- Avery Wooler: Crosses from manipulative child to ruthless survivor. She anticipates an adult’s attack, uses force without hesitation, and shows no remorse—her final smile over Marion’s body reveals a chilling void of empathy.
- Marion Cooke: Evolves from jealous deceiver to would-be murderer. Past self-injury and false accusations show a history of vindictive control. Her fatal error is underestimating Avery’s resolve and capability.
- Al Blanchard: Reaches a breaking point. His brief but horrifying homicidal fantasy shows the collateral psychological damage radiating from the central lie.
- Detective Gully: Proves sharp, steady intuition. Her skepticism about Marion’s testimony places her at the exact moment the truth reenters daylight.
Themes & Symbols
The mask of normalcy cracks. Appearance vs. Reality defines this stretch: a concerned nurse plots a murder; a “missing child” engineers her own narrative; a quiet suburb hides a dungeon behind a basement door. Identity—mother, nurse, victim—becomes a costume each character weaponizes.
Power dynamics shift from psychological fencing to lethal action. Manipulation and control move from whispered threats and fake tips to ropes, pills, and a staircase. Revenge and obsession drive the adults, while Avery’s survival instinct fuses with an icy appetite for victory, making morality irrelevant to the outcome.
Symbols sharpen the story’s edge:
- The locked basement door embodies secrecy turned captivity. The moment Avery finds it re-locked, the conspiracy curdles into a death match.
- The sleeping pills invert care into harm. Medicine becomes a murder tool, and their residue promises to serve the “escape” story Avery will spin.
Key Quotes
“If my daughter is… gone, it’s on your hands!”
Erin’s raw accusation turns Marion’s delay into moral culpability. The line signals the moment grief hardens into rage and drives the narrative toward reckoning.
“Why would you do that, Marion?”
Avery’s hissed question isn’t innocence—it’s exposure. She forces Marion to admit jealousy and spite as motives, flipping their balance of power and making Avery the interrogator.
A “horrible grimace of a smile.”
Marion’s final sight reframes Avery not as a rescued child but as a victor. The image seals the parallel between them and confirms the chapter’s title: Danse macabre ends with the most ruthless dancer standing.
Marion knows that Avery has won.
The language of winning recasts the entire episode as a competition, not a rescue. It crystallizes Lapena’s portrait of two predators locked in a zero-sum game.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
This sequence delivers the novel’s violent climax and flips the central question. The secret of Avery’s whereabouts dissolves into a new suspense: Will the world believe her next story? Marion’s death frees Avery physically while indicting her morally, and Detective Gully’s arrival welds personal deception to public consequence. The suburban façade, the basement’s truth, and the duel between two liars converge into a single moment at the front door—the point where private evil must face the light.