Opening
Necklace, memory, and lies collide. A birthday gift exposes a decade-old deception, a waitress vanishes, and the past roars back as the farmhouse attack finally plays out on the page. At the same time, a prison visit rips open the story’s emotional core: a father learns he has a son.
What Happens
Chapter 36: The Snowflake Necklace
Driving home from her birthday dinner, Brooke Sullivan tells Tim Reese the night is only “top ten,” silently blaming his gift—a snowflake necklace—for souring it. He tries to fix things with a job lead, pushing her to quit the prison and insisting she shouldn’t work near Shane Nelson. Brooke finally says what she’s never dared to: “What if I got it wrong? What if Shane wasn’t the one who tried to strangle me that night?”
Tim slams on the brakes, furious. He insists he saw Shane stab him and heard, “you were next,” shutting down her doubt with absolute conviction. They drive home in silence; Tim leaves. Alone in the kitchen, Brooke examines the necklace and spots a flaw: a missing diamond in the same place as her original. It’s not a replica—it’s the exact same necklace. Tim’s story about a flea market evaporates. Shane’s earlier warning to “stay away from Tim Reese” rings in her head.
Chapter 37: The Missing Waitress
A few days later, Tim returns with roses and earrings. They dance around the necklace issue; he tells her he loves her, and she says it back, remembering she once said those same words to Shane hours before the attack. Their domestic calm breaks when her son, Josh Sullivan, gets caught gaming instead of studying.
The TV blares a local report: Kelli Underwood is missing. Brooke recognizes her as the Shamrock waitress who confronted her at the grocery store and warned her about Tim. Tim’s knuckles whiten on the sofa. When Brooke asks, he lies—saying they only had one drink—then bolts for the door. Brooke searches online and finds Kelli’s summer post: “Fact: Assistant Principals are GOOD KISSERS!!!!!” Tim is lying. Brooke connects Kelli to Tracy Gifford, another of Tim’s girlfriends who vanished years ago.
Chapter 38: A New Suspect
Flashback, eleven years earlier. In Shane’s farmhouse during the storm, Chelsea Cho tears through Shane’s bedroom for a weapon, convinced Tim killed Brandon and Kayla. Brooke initially defends Tim, but then the logic shifts: Chelsea has motive (Brandon’s cheating) and opportunity. Brooke accuses her. Chelsea bursts into frantic denial.
Then Chelsea slips. She says if she were the killer, she’d have a “knife stashed away somewhere.” Only Brooke and Tim knew the murder weapon was a hidden knife. The knowledge gives her away. Brooke bolts for the door; Chelsea blocks her. Remembering cheerleading practice, Brooke drives a kick into Chelsea’s weak shin, squeezes past, and races downstairs. The house is eerily silent. She trips over a body; her palms splash into blood. Another body thumps down on her, fingers claw at her necklace, and the chain jerks tight around her throat.
Chapter 39: A Father’s Discovery
Back in the present, Brooke treats Shane in the prison infirmary after a savage beating. Officer Marcus Hunt keeps him in restraints. Seeing Shane wrecked, Brooke abandons the lie. Josh isn’t in kindergarten. He’s ten. “He’s yours.”
Shane breaks. He begs to see a photo, then studies image after image, tracing his son’s face through a phone screen. He mourns the lost years and the life stolen by a conviction he insists was wrongful. He refuses an X-ray for a possible broken rib, saying he isn’t lucky enough to die of a complication. The despair scares Brooke; it feels like goodbye.
Chapter 40: The Attack
Flashback, again. The necklace crushes Brooke’s throat. She smells sandalwood—Shane’s aftershave. In panic, she concludes the body she tripped over is Tim and the attacker is Shane. She believes he’s killed them all.
The chain snaps. Air floods in. Brooke drives her elbow hard into a vulnerable spot; the attacker grunts and loosens his grip. She scrambles free, sprints into the storm, hears someone shout her name, and runs harder. Headlights flare. A pickup stops; the driver stares at her blood-soaked figure. Brooke collapses. The terror seals a memory that feels true—but isn’t.
Character Development
These chapters strip away facades. Brooke moves from passive doubt to active investigation. Tim’s charm curdles into menace. Shane’s hardened shell fractures into grief. Chelsea’s friendliness drops to reveal a killer.
- Brooke: The necklace revelation detonates her trust in Tim and forces her to reinterrogate her testimony. Conflicted but resolute, she tells Shane about Josh, choosing truth over protection-by-lie.
- Tim: Explosive anger, transparent lies about Kelli, and the impossible necklace expose control and manipulation under the “good guy” veneer.
- Shane: The revelation of fatherhood shatters his stoicism; his vulnerability reframes him as a tragic figure rather than a threat.
- Chelsea: Her careless mention of the knife unmasks her as the farmhouse murderer beneath a polished exterior.
Themes & Symbols
Memory and identity buckle under pressure. The chapters dramatize the The Unreliability of Memory and Perception: Brooke’s identification of her attacker hinges on scent during strangulation, an intense yet unstable sensory cue. Her mind stitches panic into certainty, showing how trauma can cement a false narrative that still feels incontrovertibly real.
They also escalate Deception and Betrayal. Tim’s lies multiply—from the necklace to Kelli—while Chelsea’s betrayal moves from social manipulation to murder. Past harm refuses to stay buried, embodying The Past Haunting the Present: the necklace resurfaces, the diner waitress disappears, and an old disappearance echoes forward. Finally, Maternal Instinct and Protection evolves: Brooke stops protecting Josh from a presumed killer and starts honoring her son’s right to a father, even if it means facing devastating truths.
Symbol: The snowflake necklace shifts from romance to weapon to proof. It’s the object that nearly kills Brooke, the lie that unmasks Tim, and the relic that forces the past into the present.
Key Quotes
“What if I got it wrong? What if Shane wasn’t the one who tried to strangle me that night?”
Brooke voices forbidden doubt, cracking open the central mystery. The line marks her pivot from fear-driven certainty to inquiry—and triggers Tim’s rage.
“you were next.”
Tim’s reported threat from Shane is the cornerstone of his certainty. The menace of the words—and Tim’s aggressive delivery—reads less like witness testimony and more like intimidation meant to fix Brooke’s memory in place.
“Fact: Assistant Principals are GOOD KISSERS!!!!!”
Kelli’s post exposes Tim’s lie and links him to another missing woman. The flirty bravado becomes chilling evidence of a pattern, shifting suspicion squarely onto Tim.
“knife stashed away somewhere.”
Chelsea’s fatal slip reveals secret knowledge only the killer would have. In one casual phrase, she flips from frightened friend to prime suspect.
“He’s yours.”
Brooke’s confession detonates Shane’s life. The simple sentence reframes the entire story from a puzzle about guilt to a tragedy about time, truth, and parenthood stolen.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These chapters are the novel’s hinge. The impossible necklace and Kelli’s disappearance recenter the present-day threat on Tim, while the farmhouse flashback explains how Brooke’s terrified misidentification took root. Most importantly, Shane learning he’s Josh’s father infuses the thriller with profound human stakes. The past isn’t just prologue—it is the engine driving every choice, every danger, and every heartbreaking loss still to come.