Opening
Eleven years before the main story, a quiet domestic scene curdles into dread. A new mother spots a lipstick smudge on her husband’s collar and swallows the confrontation, cementing a marriage ruled by routine lies and weary silence—an early flare of Deception and Manipulation. Her isolation hardens into resolve as she plans her own secret escape.
What Happens
After settling the baby, the woman tells her husband she’s going out for a run. He studies her and tosses out a chilling line: “When people do dumb shit like this, they always wind up dead.” She leaves the front door unlocked, jogs for a single block in case he’s watching, then slows—because the run is a cover. She is meeting a man who calls himself “Sam.”
As she walks through the dark neighborhood, she frames the affair as “escapism, release, revenge” for his cheating. It isn’t her first illicit rendezvous, and she doesn’t pretend it will be her last. But the quiet streets amplify every sound. Doubt and fear work their way in—early signs of Unreliable Perception and Memory—as she wonders who might have discovered her secret: her husband, or Sam’s wife.
Her nerves spike. A lace slaps loose against her sneaker; she stops, bends to tie it, and looks up. Headlights roar straight at her, swallowing the street and cutting the scene to black.
Character Development
The Unnamed Woman (Shelby Tebow) The prologue casts her as both victim and perpetrator—trapped by a neglectful, dishonest spouse yet mirroring his betrayal to reclaim control. Her competence at lying coexists with raw fear, exposing a volatile mix of defiance and vulnerability.
- Uses infidelity as a coping mechanism and power play
- Practices careful deception (the “run,” the unlocked door, the one-block jog)
- Oscillates between hardened resolve and spiraling paranoia
- Feels confined by new motherhood and her husband’s dismissiveness
The Husband (Jason Tebow) With few words, he reads as dismissive, combustible, and adept at turning accusations back on his wife. His ominous “people wind up dead” line instantly marks him as a potential threat.
- Lies casually about work and fidelity
- Gaslights by preempting confrontation and weaponizing anger
- Delivers a statement that can be warning, threat, or both
- Becomes a primary suspect the moment the cliffhanger hits
Themes & Symbols
Deception and manipulation saturate the prologue: a lipstick-smeared collar, a staged late-night “run,” a lover with a fake name. Both spouses maintain parallel lies, turning marriage into a battleground of petty retaliations and covert maneuvers. Each secret functions as both shield and weapon, deepening their estrangement.
Unreliable perception tightens as the night stretches on. The woman’s guilt and fear blur the boundary between real danger and imagined threat; every sound could be footsteps, every shadow a watcher. The narrative traps us in her mind, where suspicion morphs into a physical hazard at the exact moment the headlights bear down.
Symbols
- The Lipstick Smudge: A blunt emblem of infidelity that triggers her retaliatory affair and defines the marriage as a site of mutual deceit.
- The Night: A cloak for secrecy and a conduit for danger; it grants anonymity and breeds menace, mirroring the moral murk of their suburban life.
Key Quotes
“When people do dumb shit like this, they always wind up dead.”
Part warning, part menace, the line doubles as foreshadowing and character reveal. Its ambiguity—does he mean running at night or cheating?—keeps suspicion fixed on him and primes the reader to expect violence.
“Escapism, release, revenge.”
This triad distills her motive: not romance, but relief and retaliation. It frames the affair as a deliberate counterstrike against humiliation, while exposing the emotional damage driving her choices.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
The prologue lights the fuse of the novel’s central mystery: a woman steps into the dark and a car bears down. It establishes the tone—claustrophobic, psychological, and morally gray—and sets up a web of secrets the present-day plot must untangle. The husband’s chilling line casts a long shadow over him, while the narrative’s intimate point of view and ratcheting pace carry us from domestic unease to imminent violence. This is the inciting fracture the rest of the story attempts to understand and solve.