Opening
The storm breaks and with it the lies. A terrified Wendy Garrick begs for her life in a dark cabin—only to discover the wrong face behind the knife. By morning, Millie Calloway walks free, the true villains exposed, and a new ally steps forward to back her mission.
What Happens
Chapter 71: The Wrong Face
In the pitch-black kitchen of the remote cabin, Wendy cowers against the stove, convinced Millie Calloway stalks closer with the knife that killed Russell Simonds. She bargains frantically—money, school, a future—then offers to recant her story to the police, praying Millie doesn’t know the cops already have video that will clear her. Silence presses in as the figure advances.
A lightning flash cracks the darkness and reveals the truth. The bloody knife glints—and Wendy realizes the person looming over her isn’t Millie at all.
Chapter 72: A Confession and a Promise
The attacker steps into view: Marybeth Simonds, Russell’s wife and Douglas Garrick’s longtime secretary. In a bloodstained trench coat with glacial eyes, Marybeth pins Wendy in a chair and interrogates her about the ten-month affair. She describes twenty happy years with Russell, then the ruin Wendy brought, and forces Wendy to admit she and Russell murdered Douglas—the man Marybeth loved like a brother.
Marybeth’s plan locks into place. She slides paper and pen across the table and dictates a confession. Wendy, shaking, writes that she and Russell killed Douglas. Marybeth supplies the final lines and makes Wendy sign. Then comes the method: not a stabbing, which looks suspicious, but poison. She asks whether Wendy has heard of digoxin—Douglas’s heart medication—and smiles as she explains it’s already in the pinot noir Wendy drank. As the poison seizes Wendy’s body—vomiting, convulsions—Marybeth promises a slow death to match the “mercy” Wendy showed Douglas.
Chapter 73: Facing the Music
The narrative shifts to Millie, who has spent the night hiding in Enzo’s car. Done running, she turns herself in. Back at her apartment, she finds only one patrol car. An officer asks her to come in for questioning and makes clear she isn’t under arrest. Millie agrees.
In the back of the cruiser, she switches on her phone. Missed calls flood in alongside frantic texts from Enzo Accardi—worry, anger about the car, and a plain, urgent declaration of love. Millie replies that she’s safe and not arrested. His answer lands like a shock: Wendy is dead. The news reports it as suicide.
Chapter 74: A Hero's Reputation
At the station, Detective Rodriguez breaks the case open. Even before Wendy’s death, new security footage from the building’s back entrance cleared Millie: the timestamps prove she and Douglas were never inside at the same time. The video exposes Wendy’s frame-up, a clean example of Deception and Manipulation. With Wendy’s signed note confessing to Douglas’s murder, the case officially closes.
Rodriguez then tells Millie she now has a “reputation”—as a hero who helps abused women. He admits the police often arrive too late, presses his personal card into her hand, and promises to believe her if she calls about another woman in danger. He adds that Enzo has been at the station fiercely defending her. Exonerated and newly supported, Millie walks out ready to reunite with Enzo.
Character Development
These chapters flip power dynamics and reframe allegiances, closing arcs while lighting the path ahead.
- Wendy Garrick: The master manipulator becomes the cornered victim. Her bravado collapses into panic, revealing a core of fear and the hollowness of her schemes.
- Marybeth Simonds: She steps from the margins to mastermind, revealing disciplined rage and methodical intelligence. Her vengeance is chillingly intimate and absolute.
- Millie Calloway: She emerges vindicated—legally and morally—and gains institutional support for her work protecting women, transforming her lone-wolf tactics into a networked mission.
- Enzo Accardi: His loyalty solidifies. Through texts and actions at the station, he proves steadfast love and public advocacy when Millie needs it most.
Themes & Symbols
Justice and Revenge: Marybeth’s retribution delivers a brutal, personal verdict. She kills for betrayal and kills for murder, insisting on symmetry: Douglas dies “mercifully,” Wendy dies slowly; Wendy pens a false narrative to frame Millie, then signs the false narrative that seals her own fate. In contrast, Millie’s justice centers on protection—saving victims rather than punishing perpetrators—drawing a sharp moral line between vengeance and rescue.
Appearance vs. Reality: The quiet secretary is the hidden architect of violence; the tearful widow is a murderer; the suspected maid is the rescuer. Misreadings drive the plot until the stormlight exposes the true roles each character plays.
Symbols:
- The Confession Note: A weaponized story. Marybeth bends the narrative the way Wendy once did, proving how words can construct legal realities and bury the truth.
- Digoxin: Douglas’s heart medicine becomes poetic justice—his vulnerability transformed into a precise instrument of payback. What once kept a heart beating now stills the heart of his killer.
Key Quotes
“I can no longer live with the guilt. So tonight, I have decided to take both our lives.” This dictated line in Wendy’s “confession” crystallizes Marybeth’s design: a controlled narrative that delivers closure for the police while concealing the true murderer. It mirrors Wendy’s earlier deceptions and seals the symmetry of the ending.
“Have you ever heard of digoxin?” Marybeth’s clinical question reframes the murder weapon as knowledge. The choice of poison, sourced from Douglas’s own medication, demonstrates forethought and underscores the theme of justice turned inward—using the victim’s world to end the victimizer.
Rodriguez says Millie has a “reputation” as a hero. By naming her work and offering institutional backing, he shifts Millie from suspect to trusted partner. The phrase publicly reassigns identity and power, promising a future where her vigilance aligns with the system rather than clashes with it.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
This sequence delivers the novel’s final turn: Marybeth, not Millie, holds the knife and the plan. The reveal recontextualizes the entire plot—who engineers the frame-ups, who writes the stories, who pays for the crimes—and ties every deception to a precise reckoning.
Crucially, Millie’s exoneration rests not only on a villain’s downfall but on evidence. The hidden camera, the signed note, and the detective’s acknowledgment lift her from survival mode into purpose with support. The ending preserves catharsis—villains punished, the innocent freed—while opening a forward path: Millie’s mission continues, now with a badge on her side.