Opening
A blizzard closes in as Sadie Foust stumbles on evidence that seems to tie her family to the murder of Morgan Baines. Each discovery isolates her further—until her own mind fractures and the truth shifts beneath her feet. What begins as domestic suspicion erupts into a showdown with memory, manipulation, and identity, with devastating consequences for Sadie, Will Foust, and their son Otto Foust.
What Happens
Chapter 36: M for Morgan
Before dawn, Sadie steps on a sharp object—a broken silver pendant engraved with “M” on a rope chain. She stares, terrified, and leaps to the conclusion that it belongs to Morgan Baines. Why would Morgan’s necklace be in her house?
In the laundry room, while loading the machine, she finds a forgotten washcloth stiff with brown, dried blood—far too much for a shaving nick or skinned knee. Sick with dread, she hides the cloth beneath the washer, convinced it holds Morgan’s DNA. When Will finds her pale and shaking, she fakes a stomach flu and waits for a moment without Tate to tell him the truth.
Chapter 37: Mouse
A flashback to Delilah—“Mouse”—in captivity. After she sneaks cookies and sneezes on the stairs, she freezes, waiting for “Fake Mom” to descend. When no one comes, she crawls into bed and soothes herself by holding an imaginary conversation with her real mother, a coping tool her father taught her. The scene exposes Mouse’s constant hypervigilance and the survival strategies born of Trauma and Its Lasting Effects.
Chapter 38: A Witch Hunt
Back in the present, Sadie stays in bed pretending to be ill while Will tends to the morning rush. After they leave, she finds one of Otto’s drawings in the hallway: a dismembered body beside a doll. She remembers a disastrous encounter with a therapist that left her wary of seeking help, but she resolves that Otto needs professional care now.
In the kitchen, the “M” pendant she left on the counter is gone. Suspicion lands on Imogen. She calls Will as his ferry pushes through a gathering storm and tells him about the bloody washcloth and the necklace. He dismisses her as paranoid, accusing her of a “witch hunt.” Desperate to make him understand, Sadie asks who else could be responsible—and her fear swings toward Otto, recalling his knife incident at school. Will explodes, defends Otto, blames Sadie for not stopping the bullies, then softens at the panic in her voice and promises to cancel his classes, come home, and go with her to the police.
Chapter 39: The Best Way to Kill Them
The front door opens. It’s Otto, claiming he came home sick. The storm worsens; the ferries are delayed. They are alone. Otto’s demeanor shifts: he grips Sadie’s wrist and accuses her of lying about Chicago. He recounts a chilling alternate version of events: she climbed onto their sixth-floor fire escape despite her fear of heights, smoked a cigarette, chose a chef’s knife, sharpened it, and tucked it in his pack, coaching him that, “Any old artery will do.” Sadie realizes he truly believes this—reality has warped. This is the novel’s beating heart of Unreliable Perception and Memory.
She de-escalates, and Otto retreats. Shaking, she checks the study and finds Will’s recent search history, including an article about his former fiancée, Erin Sabine. The accompanying family photo leaves her rattled. Then the dogs’ frantic barking drags her outside into the blizzard, where they’ve unearthed a bloodstained boning knife in the yard. Terrified of Otto and unwilling to wait, Sadie flees on foot toward the police station.
Chapter 40: Camille
Another Mouse memory: “Fake Mom” punishes Mouse for not flushing by locking her in a dog crate. She brings down Mouse’s beloved guinea pig, Bert, and, brandishing a knife, says, “Did you know, Mouse, that a dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp one?” Then she kills the pet. The scene cuts to Sadie’s father leaving on a work trip while “Fake Mom” squeezes Mouse’s shoulder—abuse continuing unchecked.
In the present, Sadie staggers into the public safety building, hypothermic and frantic. Officer Berg says Will called already, painting her as unstable and “upset about some washcloth.” In an act of calculated Deception and Manipulation, Will also changes his alibi, now claiming Sadie was gone for a long stretch the night Morgan died. Berg shows her graphic crime scene photos. In one, a framed picture on Morgan’s wall matches the family photo from the article about Erin Sabine. The pieces snap into place: Morgan is Erin’s younger sister.
Shock warps the room. Sadie’s fear hardens into something else. When Berg presses for her name, the woman before him is not timid, not apologetic, not Sadie.
“I thought Sadie was your name. Sadie Foust.”
“You thought wrong, then, didn’t you?”
“If not Sadie, then who are you?”
I stick a hand out to him, tell him my name is Camille.
Sadie dissociates. Her assertive, steely alter, Camille, takes control.
Character Development
In a whiteout of fear, loyalty, and lies, the family implodes. Each character’s choices tighten the noose around the truth until identity itself splinters.
- Sadie Foust: Evidence in her home, Otto’s warped memory, and Will’s betrayal drive her to a breaking point, culminating in a dissociative split and the emergence of Camille.
- Will Foust: He shifts from attentive partner to self-protective manipulator—gaslighting Sadie, preemptively undermining her with police, and revising his alibi.
- Otto Foust: No longer just troubled, Otto reveals a dangerously altered memoryscape that recasts him as both victim and potential threat.
- Camille: Sadie’s alter surfaces as confident, confrontational, and in command—an embodiment of survival when Sadie cannot cope.
Themes & Symbols
The chapters crystallize how memory lies and how abusers weaponize doubt. Otto’s fabricated Chicago narrative and Sadie’s final dissociation demonstrate that perception is malleable under pressure; memory can be a weapon, a refuge, or a trap. The arrival of Camille reframes the entire narrative, forcing a re-evaluation of every prior scene and claim.
Will’s minimization, blame-shifting, and preemptive call to police exemplify Gaslighting and Psychological Abuse, while the Mouse vignettes mirror the present with their brutality and control. The result is a double helix of past and present abuse that explains how Sadie’s mind learns to divide to survive.
- Symbol: The Storm. The blizzard cages Sadie with Otto and delays rescue, externalizing her inner chaos and isolation. It traps characters together long enough for secrets to surface and identities to shift, matching the whiteout confusion of memory and truth.
Key Quotes
“Any old artery will do.”
Otto’s line—remembered as Sadie’s instruction—embodies the terror of false memory. It flips nurturance into predation and shows how convincingly Otto inhabits an invented past, destabilizing both Sadie and the reader.
“Did you know, Mouse, that a dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp one?”
“Fake Mom’s” lesson is sadism disguised as instruction. The knife motif links Mouse’s conditioning to the present-day boning knife, tying cruelty, control, and bloodshed across timelines.
“You thought wrong, then, didn’t you?”
This pivot marks the instant Sadie cedes ground to Camille. The cool, clipped correction rejects authority and announces a new narrator—one who will not be minimized or discredited.
“Witch hunt.”
Will’s word choice reframes Sadie’s evidence as hysteria, signaling his strategy: delegitimize her before facts can cohere. It’s the cornerstone of his manipulation with both Sadie and the police.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These chapters form the book’s fulcrum. The washcloth, the pendant, and the unearthed knife move the story from suspicion to proof, while the revelation that Morgan is Erin’s sister supplies motive and stakes. Will’s call to the police escalates the conflict from private panic to public crisis.
Most crucially, Camille’s emergence transforms the novel from a neighborhood whodunit into a psychological labyrinth. The central questions shift: not only who killed Morgan, but whose memory can be trusted—and who, exactly, is telling this story.