Mom (Beth)

Quick Facts

Beth is Emilie’s mother: a high-achieving divorcée whose career-first mindset has hardened into an exacting parenting style. Her divorce from Dad (Thomas) and her blended home with a new husband, Todd, frame Emilie’s teenage world. First seen early in the story as a polished, perpetually busy parent, she exerts pressure for perfection on Emilie Hornby while remaining emotionally guarded. Appearance snapshot: tartan Ralph Lauren pajamas, a tight ponytail, and the faint scent of moisturizer—proof that she keeps control even in chaos.

• Role: Emilie’s mother; ambitious professional; divorced co-parent
• Key relationships: Emilie; Thomas; Todd
• Core conflict: The cost of ambition and control on family intimacy and trust
• Thematic lane: Her arc is central to Grief and Healing in a fractured household

Who They Are

Beth is the embodiment of structure: schedules, goals, outcomes. But beneath the sleek surface is a mother who confuses achievement with love. Her insistence on self-sufficiency served her during a volatile marriage and its aftermath; it also left her daughter feeling like a project to manage rather than a person to know. Beth’s presence teaches Emilie what unchecked control looks like at home—and why it’s both seductive and isolating. She becomes a living counterexample in Emilie’s education about love: passion without compatibility burns hot and breaks fast, while control without vulnerability freezes everything over.

Personality & Traits

Beth’s defining quality is her drive—admirable in the world of work, abrasive in the world of parenting. The more threatened she feels, the more she doubles down on rules, image, and “results,” translating love into metrics. Yet the novel reveals that her rigidity masks fear: fear of repeating an explosive marriage, of losing credibility, of failing as a mother.

• Driven and ambitious: “Driven with a capital D. She was all work, all the time,” with “a shiny new career that was more time-consuming than an actual human child.” Beth’s professional success becomes the standard she imposes at home, equating effort with worth.
• Demanding: She believes a parent’s job is to make their child “behave the exact same way.” Her perfectionism narrows Emilie’s emotional bandwidth—there’s no safe space to fail or feel.
• Combative: A history of “shouting matches” with Thomas primes her to fight first, listen later. After Emilie’s Day of No Consequences, she arrives at Thomas’s house ready for battle, reenacting old patterns that ignore Emilie’s needs.
• Strict and punitive: She grounds Emilie from phone, friends, car—even reading. When stressed, Beth mistakes control for care, escalating consequences instead of asking questions.
• Emotionally distant: Emilie feels like a “leftover” from Beth’s previous marriage. The polished pajamas and moisturizer detail underscore how Beth keeps up appearances, but not connection.

Character Journey

At first, Beth is the novel’s pressure system: she storms into scenes with judgments ready and empathy on delay. The time loop’s end forces her into a real-time reckoning. When Emilie breaks down at dinner, Beth’s managerial script fails—no rule can contain raw grief. That moment cracks her armor and reframes her role from enforcer to listener. She chooses dialogue over discipline, meeting Thomas to collaborate (not combat) and extending Emilie genuine agency over where to live. This shift doesn’t erase her ambition; it redirects it, turning her drive toward repairing trust. In doing so, Beth helps move the family from blame to Grief and Healing, and nudges Emilie away from the illusion of absolute control toward a more humane balance of choice and chance—core to the novel’s meditation on Fate vs. Control and Coming of Age and Self-Discovery.

Key Relationships

• Emilie Hornby: Beth loves her daughter but translates care into expectations, leaving Emilie feeling invisible unless she’s excelling. After witnessing Emilie’s collapse, Beth shifts from performance-based parenting to presence-based parenting, modeling apology, flexibility, and trust—exactly what Emilie has needed but never received.

• Dad (Thomas): Their history is combustible, and Beth reflexively treats co-parenting like litigation. The late-night confrontation shows how easily old wounds guide new choices. Lunch with Thomas marks growth: collaboration replaces point-scoring, proving Beth can prioritize Emilie over past grievances.

• Todd: Todd’s gentleness is a counterweight to Beth’s intensity. He notices Emilie’s sadness first and reframes the household from punitive to compassionate, prompting Beth to see what her focus on order has missed. His practical suggestion—that Emilie choose where to live—helps Beth practice trust.

Defining Moments

Beth’s turning points reveal how control loosens into care—and why that matters.

• The post-DONC confrontation at Thomas’s house

  • What happens: She arrives in the middle of the night, angry and ready to amend custody.
  • Why it matters: It spotlights her default mode—fight, don’t feel—and how Emilie gets collateralized in parental conflict.

• Emilie’s breakdown at dinner

  • What happens: Emilie sobs uncontrollably; Beth is stunned, then softens.
  • Why it matters: The shock interrupts Beth’s script. She recognizes the person behind the “behavior,” reorienting from punishment to support.

• The custody compromise

  • What happens: Beth meets Thomas for lunch; together, they give Emilie choice—Hazelwood with friends or a fresh start in Texas—contingent on grades and behavior.
  • Why it matters: Beth trades control for trust, proving love can look like autonomy, not oversight.

Essential Quotes

“My post-divorce mom had a new house, a new husband, a puggle that she treated like a baby, and a shiny new career that was more time-consuming than an actual human child.”

This catalog of “new” underscores how Beth rebuilt her life through acquisition and achievement. The irony is cutting: she can nurture a pet like a baby but struggles to slow down for her actual child. The line frames the emotional deficit Emilie feels in a house full of upgrades.

“I will be at my lawyer’s the second his office opens, Tom. I’m filing to amend our custody arrangement because there’s no way in hell I’m letting her visit you in Texas after this.”

Legal language becomes emotional armor. By invoking lawyers, Beth transforms a family crisis into a winnable case, revealing her instinct to control outcomes when she feels powerless. It’s a quintessential “old Beth” moment the arc must move beyond.

“Emilie.” My mom sounded truly bewildered by the sight of my tears. “Honey?”

The bewilderment is key: Beth isn’t cruel so much as unpracticed at emotional care. This single, softened “Honey?” is a pivot—a mother reaching for intimacy in a vocabulary she rarely uses.

“Your dad and I had lunch today,” my mom said, steepling her fingers together like she was in a boardroom, not a living room. “To discuss our situation... After much discussion, we’ve decided that as long as your grades stay up and you stay out of trouble, you can make the call on whether you want to finish with your friends at Hazelwood, or start over with your dad in Texas.”

The boardroom posture persists, but the content is transformational. Beth reframes power as permission, tethering expectations (grades, behavior) to genuine choice. It’s her learning to love without micromanaging—respecting Emilie as a partner in her own life.