Opening
A coma traps Amber Reynolds between hallucination and memory as the truth about the crash starts to surface. Across three timelines, she inches toward clarity: a surreal hospital visit, a harrowing Christmas Eve with her sister, and a childhood diary that rewrites everything we think we know about Jo.
What Happens
Chapter 41: Now (New Year’s Eve 2016)
Amber opens her eyes to a bright, almost impossibly cheerful hospital room. At the foot of her bed sits Jo, teasing her about using a coma to skip work. Their banter flickers into uncertainty when Jo confirms the crash isn’t an accident and that Paul Reynolds isn’t to blame—facts Amber suddenly recognizes as true.
Amber asks why “she” did it, but Jo dodges, pressing Amber about resigning from her radio job. Amber insists she’s only Madeline Frost’s PA and that the presenter story is something they “made up for fun.” Jo seems genuinely confused, admitting details get muddled in her own head. The scene deteriorates: light drains, the weather turns, and the hospital room breaks apart like a jigsaw. A little girl in a pink dressing gown appears, takes Jo’s hand, and leads her away while Amber pleads to be found. The boundary between dream and memory tears.
Chapter 42: Then (Christmas Eve 2016—Morning)
It’s Christmas Eve morning. Amber shops with her sister, Claire, and the twins, honoring their grim tradition after their parents’ deaths. Secretly, Amber has taken a pregnancy test—it’s positive—and she decides tonight she’ll tell Paul. It feels like a sign to finally start their life.
While browsing the stalls, Claire mentions Edward Clarke, Amber’s ex. Then she drops a bomb: years ago, when Edward harassed Amber after their breakup, Claire forged letters from multiple women accusing him of misconduct and mailed them to his medical school. She also called him anonymously to blackmail him into leaving Amber alone. In a final twist, she thinks she told him the letters came from Amber. The revelation hands Edward a powerful motive to come after Amber.
Chapter 43: Then (Christmas Eve 2016—Lunchtime)
They sit for mulled wine, tension crackling. Amber tells Claire she’s kept her side of their bargain: she forced Madeline to quit. Claire smiles, hungry for details, offering no empathy. Amber pushes back—now Claire must leave Paul alone. She threatens to vanish from Claire’s life if she doesn’t.
Claire pivots, probing whether Paul—or someone else—has hurt Amber. Amber almost confesses she woke up in Edward’s bed, then deflects. She makes a raw promise: “If anything ever happens to him, I’ll kill myself.” Claire’s face doesn’t change. “No you won’t,” she says, almost amused, before advising Amber to “be careful.” The imbalance of power between them turns chillingly clear.
Chapter 44: Before (Saturday, December 19, 1992)
In a diary entry, a young Amber writes about having to move again. She meets her best friend Taylor at the park; Taylor has cut her hair so they won’t look alike anymore. Rumors swirl that Amber’s father was fired for stealing. Taylor quietly shows Amber two cigarette burns on her arm but refuses to say who did it.
On the roundabout, Taylor perks up and talks about her imaginary friend, Jo—someone who listens and keeps secrets. Knowing Amber will be lonely after the move, Taylor insists Amber “borrow” Jo, pointing to an empty swing where Jo supposedly sits. Amber, uneasy and jealous, finally says Jo can come home “for the night.” The entry ends with Amber writing that Jo is in her room, whispering to her. The origin of Jo snaps the narrative into a new shape.
Chapter 45: Now (New Year’s Eve 2016)
Back in the hospital, Claire mocks Amber for “still making up stories about your imaginary friend,” revealing she’s always known Jo isn’t real. Edward walks in. When Claire asks who he is, he introduces himself as “Doctor Clarke,” contradicting his earlier claim to Paul that he’s a porter. Claire grows wary as their voices fade from Amber’s hearing.
Amber’s mind plunges into a reversed reel of the crash night. She watches herself at Claire’s house with blood on her legs—Claire is expecting her. The memory winds backward to Amber’s driveway: rain, an argument with Paul, Amber hiding the car key beneath the car. Paul’s face is not angry; it’s afraid. Time freezes as Amber knows she is pregnant—and the baby is alive inside her. The little girl in the pink dressing gown appears. Amber recognizes her as her younger self, the part of her that once “chose silence.” Now Amber must live inside that silence, trapped and waiting.
Character Development
These chapters reshape loyalties and identities while pushing Amber toward painful clarity.
- Amber Reynolds: Her psyche fractures and refocuses at once. Learning Jo isn’t hers but “borrowed” destabilizes her sense of self. She begins to access repressed memories of the crash, recognizes her younger self as the source of her silence, and discovers she’s pregnant—raising the stakes of every choice.
- Claire: Calculating and cold. Her forged-letter confession shows a history of orchestration and harm. Her flat response to Amber’s suicidal threat exposes her cruelty and the depth of her control over Amber.
- Edward Clarke: Gains a plausible revenge motive after his reputation—and possibly career—are sabotaged. His “Doctor Clarke” reveal deepens suspicion about his intentions and his presence at the hospital.
- Paul Reynolds: Reframed through the reversed memory; his fear for Amber undercuts earlier narratives of his guilt and points to protection, not violence.
- Jo: Recontextualized from confidante to inherited construct—a coping mechanism Amber adopts from Taylor. Her flickering, surreal presence mirrors Amber’s fractured consciousness.
Themes & Symbols
These chapters foreground the slipperiness of truth and the cost of survival. The narrative actively warps perception, signaling Deception and Unreliable Narration as Amber’s mind edits itself for self-protection. The collapsing hospital scene and reversed memory sequence dramatize Memory and Reality as indistinguishable layers. Jo’s origin detonates Amber’s Identity and Self-Perception, revealing a self pieced together from borrowed parts and buried pain. Claire’s confession and emotional coercion exemplify Manipulation and Control, especially within a corrosive Sisterhood and Toxic Relationships dynamic.
The Christmas tradition and the diary entry tether the present to past wounds, highlighting Trauma and its Lasting Effects and the guilt and avoidance that follow, captured in Amber’s desperate bargains and threats—an echo of Guilt and Blame. Claire’s setup of Edward plants a seed of Justice and Revenge that now endangers Amber. In the coma, the younger self’s imposed quiet becomes a prison, embodying Confinement and Powerlessness as Amber waits for truth—and rescue—to break through.
Symbol spotlight:
- The little girl in the pink dressing gown: Amber’s traumatized younger self, the keeper of silence and the key to unlocking the crash.
- The reversed reel: A visual grammar for memory’s distortions—and for seeing what linear time hides, like the fear on Paul’s face.
- The forged letters: A physical manifestation of fabricated reality with real-world consequences.
Key Quotes
“made up for fun.” Amber’s insistence that the presenter persona is a game points to her unreliable narrative and the fluidity of her identity. It foreshadows the exposure of deeper fabrications, including Jo’s true origin.
“If anything ever happens to him, I’ll kill myself.” This vow collapses Amber’s boundaries between love, fear, and self-punishment. It reveals her dependence on Paul and the hopelessness manufactured by Claire’s control.
“No you won’t.” Claire’s calm dismissal strips Amber’s threat of power. The line crystallizes Claire’s dominance and her chilling confidence that Amber will remain trapped.
“Doctor Clarke.” Edward’s introduction contradicts earlier claims and signals calculated deceit. The title forces the reader to reassess his role—from bystander to potentially strategic antagonist.
“She chose silence.” Amber’s recognition of her younger self’s decision reframes the coma as a psychological echo. Silence is no longer absence but an active defense that must be understood—and undone.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These chapters pivot the novel from guesswork to revelation. Jo’s origin blasts open the scaffolding of Amber’s mind, recasting a supposed ally as a symptom of survival. Claire’s confession supplies Edward with a clear motive, tightening the net around Amber’s present danger. Most crucially, Amber’s reversed memory gives the first unfiltered glimpse of the crash night: Paul’s fear, Claire’s expectation, the hidden key—details that relocate blame and point toward the truth.
This is the hinge of the story: the mysteries don’t vanish; they reassemble. Amber identifies the child within who kept her safe by going quiet, even as that silence now imprisons her. With the pregnancy heightening urgency, the narrative readies itself for the final confrontation between buried memory and lived reality—and the cost of bringing the truth to light.