Opening
In these chapters, Emma Palmer steps out of paralysis and into pursuit, determined to untangle the web that ties her husband Nathan Gates’s murder to the long-buried crimes of her family. With Gabriel Mahoney at her side, the past refuses to stay buried—especially once the evidence points back to the Palmers’ old secrets and forward to a ruthless present-day motive.
What Happens
Chapter 31: Now
Emma takes refuge at Gabriel’s house, where his grandmother Lorelei offers quiet comfort while Emma spirals, convinced her own “rot” has infected everything she loves. Gabriel steadies her with a practical detail: he has an alibi for the night Nathan died—he was working a camera-covered construction site. Emma opens up about feeling like a stranger to her sister Juliette "JJ" Palmer, about all the ways she tried to reinvent herself after the tragedy that destroyed their family.
Their conversation turns to that night. Gabriel confesses he drove to the Palmers’ intending to confront Randolph Palmer after seeing Emma with a black eye. He lost his nerve, left, and someone saw his truck—why the police zeroed in on him. They skirt their old feelings, then Emma asks about Gabriel’s estranged father, Kenneth. Gabriel says Kenneth, a drunk, claimed Randolph stole from their company before Kenneth was fired. Worse, Kenneth came back to Arden Hills right when the Palmers were killed—and then vanished. When Emma’s lawyer, Chris Best, arrives, he reports the State Police are taking over due to conflicts of interest in the local department, especially its history with Rick Hadley. Emma recounts the harassment and what Logan Ellis suggested about her father’s potential crimes. Chris warns her not to talk, but Emma insists on cooperating—and admits there’s one more thing he needs to know.
Chapter 32: Then
A flashback drops us into the murder night. A young Daphne Palmer kneels beside her mother, Irene Palmer, who struggles to breathe through a chest wound. Daphne remembers her father once “putting a poisoned rat out of its misery” with a shovel. Believing mercy is the only kindness left, Daphne covers Irene’s mouth and pinches her nose. Irene doesn’t fight. A floorboard creaks behind Daphne—someone else is in the room.
Chapter 33: Now
Daphne works as a dog walker to circle Emma’s house without suspicion. She’s deeply worried for her sister and angry with herself for not going straight to Emma upon arriving in town. When she spots cruisers and tape, she understands the carriage house—barely searched after their parents’ murders—will finally be torn apart by investigators.
Deciding to act, Daphne calls JJ, confirms Emma is with Gabriel, and orders JJ to meet her in an hour at a specific address. If she can’t undo the damage, she can at least control what comes next.
Chapter 34: Now
At the station, Detective Mehta interviews Emma, who carefully recounts finding Nathan’s body and tries to keep every detail straight. Mehta probes the state of Emma’s marriage and the household guns before landing the blow: “Were you aware that Nathan was having an affair?” Emma is. Months earlier, Nathan mistakenly put a rendezvous on their shared calendar; Emma confirmed it via his phone location and a hidden email account—then said nothing, clinging to the habit of burying pain that defines Secrets and Lies.
Calmly, Emma admits the truth. Mehta adds one more cut: the woman ended it two months ago. The interview ends with a warrant for Emma’s phone and computer. Outside, Chris tells her she’s the prime suspect and needs an alternative theory fast. Emma remembers the cameras Nathan installed. If anything can puncture the fog, it’s the footage.
Chapter 35: Now
Back at Gabriel’s, they comb the security video. Emma leaves after arguing with Nathan. Minutes later, JJ arrives with a bottle of wine, goes inside, and leaves 25 minutes later, slamming her hand on the steering wheel. Nathan watches JJ drive off, then heads toward the carriage house and vanishes from camera view. Later, Nathan jogs to the main house holding what looks like a flash drive, spends an hour inside, steps out on an agitated call, then returns to the carriage house with the drive—and is never seen again.
The footage also shows the “Good Samaritan” who helped Emma, but her face is obscured. Scrubbing the days before the murder, Gabriel spots the same woman strolling past the house with different dogs. Freeze-frame: it’s Daphne. The realization clicks for Emma—this must be the drive Irene hid, the one Emma found and dropped in the yard. Daphne likely repositioned it so Nathan would find it. Linking this to Gabriel’s story about Kenneth, they dig up a box of Kenneth’s belongings and discover a notebook stuffed with cryptic numbers and six dates. A quick search reveals each date matches a major regional cargo theft; the last ended with a truck driver’s death. Emma and Gabriel conclude Randolph was running a cargo-theft ring to prop up his business—and the flash drive holds the proof. The family’s original ruin is the engine behind Nathan’s murder, pulling the past straight into the present.
Character Development
The section pivots characters from static roles into volatile, evolving forces whose choices now actively shape the investigation.
- Emma Palmer: She shifts from self-blame and avoidance to focused inquiry, choosing visibility over silence at the station and pursuing the footage that reframes the timeline.
- Daphne Palmer: No longer a distant mystery. The flashback reveals her capacity for drastic action; her covert surveillance shows calculation, purpose, and a desire to control outcomes.
- Gabriel Mahoney: He deepens from old flame to steadfast ally, risking his father’s legacy by following evidence wherever it leads.
- Randolph Palmer: In death, he transforms from abusive patriarch to architect of a criminal enterprise whose ripple effects claim new victims.
- Juliette "JJ" Palmer: Her secret visit introduces a volatile new layer to sisterly trust and Sisterhood and Shifting Loyalties, and it complicates motive, opportunity, and allegiance.
Themes & Symbols
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Secrets and Lies: Concealment drives every crisis point—Emma’s silent knowledge of Nathan’s affair, Daphne’s hidden role in Irene’s death, JJ’s covert visit, and the buried evidence of Randolph’s crimes. Each secret corrodes intimacy and compounds danger until the truth surfaces with devastating force.
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The Past's Influence on the Present: Nathan’s murder isn’t random; it’s a consequence of excavating the Palmers’ history. Emma’s trauma makes her both vulnerable to suspicion and uniquely equipped to decode the patterns that repeat across time.
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Family Trauma and Dysfunction: Randolph’s violence and criminality seed a legacy of isolation, self-protection, and warped ideas of “mercy.” The sisters inherit not just grief but behavioral blueprints that shape how they love, lie, and protect.
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The Flash Drive: A compact vessel of buried truth. It holds the data that upends narratives, acts as the fuse for the present murder, and embodies how tangible artifacts can resurrect the past—and demand reckoning.
Key Quotes
“Were you aware that Nathan was having an affair?”
Mehta’s blunt question forces Emma to abandon evasion. Her calm admission reframes her not as oblivious but as someone who sustains relationships by absorbing pain in silence—a habit that now makes her look guilty.
Emma believes her past is a “rot” that infected Nathan.
This metaphor captures the novel’s moral ecology: shame and secrecy behave like contagions. Emma’s arc in these chapters is about deciding whether to cauterize or perpetuate that infection.
Daphne remembers her father “putting a poisoned rat out of its misery.”
The memory refracts her “mercy” killing of Irene. It’s a learned ethic—mercy as control—revealing how parental models distort moral decision-making long after the parent is gone.
Nathan returns to the carriage house with a flash drive—and never appears again.
The image functions like a thesis statement for the section. Truth in hand, Nathan walks into the off-camera past, and the line between cold case and current homicide disappears.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
This stretch of chapters forges a direct line between the Palmers’ original catastrophe and Nathan’s death, transforming the narrative from a haunted-woman story into a multi-generational crime saga. Daphne emerges as a central, morally ambiguous actor whose past “mercy” and present surveillance reposition her as potential protector, manipulator, or both.
By confirming Randolph’s cargo-theft ring and tying Kenneth Mahoney’s notes to a fatal robbery, the book supplies a unifying motive powerful enough to bind both timelines: Irene tries to expose the scheme; the evidence survives; Nathan uncovers it and pays the price. The question is no longer whether the cases connect, but how each player—Emma, JJ, Daphne, Gabriel, and the ghosts of their fathers—fits into the machinery of cause and consequence.