Opening
The narrative pivots into Wendy Garrick’s point of view, charting the implosion of her marriage to Douglas Garrick and the cold logic that guides her next moves. Across these chapters, a petty marital spat widens into an affair, a financial trap snaps shut, and Wendy’s motive for murder crystallizes.
What Happens
Chapter 51: Step 4: Realize You and Your Husband are Completely Wrong For Each Other
At their Long Island dining table, Wendy serves Douglas a bare salad and watches his face sour. He calls it grass, wonders where the real food is, and frets about her health—she fainted after a run yesterday. She catalogues his double chin with contempt, while he counters that her extreme thinness might be why they aren’t conceiving.
The word “pregnant” detonates the fragile peace. Wendy accuses him of blaming her; Douglas throws up his hands and decides to drive to KFC. He invites her along, reminding her of their early dating nights over fast food. She is appalled—she’s a millionaire’s wife now—and refuses. As the door shuts, Wendy decides respect is gone, and with it, fidelity. In her mind, the marriage ends in that quiet, decisive moment.
Chapter 52: In the face of my marriage falling apart...
Wendy prescribes herself “retail therapy”—antique shopping to cleanse Douglas’s “dreadful” furniture from their city penthouse. In the lobby, she collides with Marybeth Simonds, the cheerful receptionist from Douglas’s company. Wendy’s inner monologue tears Marybeth down—her bland face, tacky skirts, doormat energy—yet Marybeth only smiles and mentions her husband runs a furniture store, offering a card.
Wendy accepts with frosty reluctance. As Marybeth turns to go, Wendy corrects her: “It’s Mrs. Garrick.” The exchange exposes Wendy’s fixation on status and the gulf between appearance and reality—how polish masks cruelty, and how a “nobody” can be the most perceptive person in the room. The encounter underlines Appearance vs. Reality and foreshadows the tangled loyalties ahead.
Chapter 53: Just to prove that I am not the most horrible woman...
Wendy steps into the store expecting junk and finds gleaming wood and elegant lines. A “rich deep voice” greets her. She turns to meet the owner: Russell Simonds. He isn’t the schlubby middle-aged man she pictured; he is poised, handsome—“Douglas 2.0,” the upgraded model she wishes she’d married.
Electric chemistry lights up their banter. Wendy flirts without camouflage—“When I want something, I’ll do whatever it takes to get it.” Russell plays along, and Wendy buys nearly half the store. At checkout, he slides her his personal number, scrawled on a card. As she leaves, she thinks there’s one more thing she wants to take home: Russell.
Chapter 54: Step 5: Try to Find Happiness Elsewhere
Six months into their affair, Wendy and Russell linger over an expensive dinner she plans to put on her card, as usual; Russell’s finances lag behind his taste. She savors the secrecy—her penthouse is their haven now that Douglas rarely stays there—and skewers Douglas and Marybeth in her thoughts.
Then the waitress returns: card declined. Wendy blames the machine, tries another, and stares down the same result as nearby diners gawk. Russell pays, awkward and tight-jawed. Wendy seethes—her credit limit should be limitless—and promises to ask Douglas what’s wrong. The glossy surface of her life cracks, revealing the machinery of Deception and Manipulation grinding underneath.
Chapter 55: I have called Douglas multiple times...
Wendy drives to Long Island and storms in. Douglas only says, “I was wondering what it would take to get you over here.” Then he lays out the trap: hidden cameras in the penthouse, video proof of the affair. He’s disgusted she chose Marybeth’s husband—Marybeth is practically family.
Cornered, Wendy counters with her own truth: she has been infertile since twenty-two, never wanted children, and let Douglas believe otherwise for their entire marriage. He reels. She demands a divorce and the $10 million promised in the prenup. Douglas’s final card lands: an infidelity clause. With proof of cheating, she gets nothing—credit lines canceled, funding cut off, future severed. As the reality settles, Wendy sees the calculus: in divorce, she gets nothing; if Douglas dies, she inherits everything. The murder plan takes shape.
Character Development
These chapters strip away illusions. Wendy narrates with acid clarity, revealing both her entitlement and the meticulous logic behind her worst choices. Douglas emerges as more than a hapless spouse; he is strategic, wounded, and prepared. Russell shines as seductive escape—and a financial liability. Marybeth appears meek through Wendy’s eyes, heightening the story’s dramatic irony.
- Wendy Garrick: Moves from contempt to calculated betrayal, recasting adultery as justified and identifying murder as her path to security.
- Douglas Garrick: Shifts from “sloppy tech guy” to shrewd protector of his assets, wielding surveillance and a prenup to counter Wendy’s lies.
- Russell Simonds: Becomes the polished fantasy Wendy uses to replace Douglas—magnetic, stylish, and cash-poor, making him a risky partner.
- Marybeth Simonds: Reads as gentle and harmless in Wendy’s narration, setting up a deeper complexity the main plot already hints at.
Themes & Symbols
Wendy’s POV collapses the distance between image and truth. Appearance vs. reality governs everything: the spotless salad and the rotting marriage; the chic penthouse and covert cameras; the glamorous lover and his empty wallet. What looks refined often hides rot, and what looks crude can be calculated and sharp.
Deception and manipulation structure the power struggle. Wendy lies about her body, her desires, and her fidelity; Douglas anticipates betrayal with a targeted prenup and surveillance; the credit-card humiliation exposes who actually controls the money. Justice and revenge blur—Douglas seeks order through legal terms, while Wendy reaches for annihilation when legal routes fail.
Key Quotes
“It’s at that moment I know that I can no longer be faithful to my husband, because I no longer respect him.”
Wendy converts disgust into moral license, equating a fast-food run with grounds for infidelity. The line marks the psychological pivot from resentment to action.
“When I want something, I’ll do whatever it takes to get it.”
A credo masquerading as flirtation. In the furniture showroom it sounds playful; applied to marriage and money, it becomes the engine of her affair and her willingness to kill.
“I was wondering what it would take to get you over here.”
Douglas’s greeting reframes him as a planner, not a patsy. He has baited the confrontation and controls the agenda, signaling the reversal of power.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These chapters supply the story’s missing motive. Wendy’s decision to kill isn’t impulsive; it grows from a series of pragmatic steps once her financial lifeline is cut. The shift to her voice forces a re-read of earlier events: Douglas is not merely victim but strategist; Marybeth is not the doormat Wendy imagines; Russell is both temptation and liability. The affair’s origin, the surveillance, and the prenup all click into place, revealing the lethal stakes that draw the main plot toward its showdown.