Opening
Chapters 21–25 snap the story into high tension: a shaky phone call lays bare what Anna lost, an unexpected figure in her kitchen rattles her fragile calm, and a scream across the park turns watching into intervention. The Russells’ polished surface fractures, pulling Anna toward a mystery that feels both dangerous and personal.
What Happens
Chapter 21: The Id Talking
Anna Fox phones her estranged husband, Ed Fox, sounding ill and contrite. She admits she drank while medicated. Ed stays gentle but concerned, worrying that the new neighbors—the Russells—are becoming her distraction and warning her about overexposure. The restraint breaks when Anna blurts out that she misses him.
When he asks what she misses, Anna unleashes a cascade of vivid domestic details—his bowling, terrible puns, razor burn, and the bedtime stories he told their daughter, Olivia Fox. Overcome, she tells him she loves him and Olivia and begins to cry. Ed starts to respond softly—then a cough and grunt downstairs cuts through the moment.
Convinced someone is in her kitchen, Anna hangs up and descends with her phone ready, thumb over 911. She glimpses the back of a man at the dishwasher. As he turns, she hits “Dial.”
Chapter 22: X-Acto-ly
The “intruder” is her tenant, David Winters, who apologizes—he rang the bell, got no answer, and let himself in via the basement. Anna lies that she was showering as he asks for an X-Acto knife to help a neighbor. She leads him to a utility closet and fishes a box cutter from Ed’s old toolbox.
In the dark, breath-held moment inside the closet, Anna thinks: he could kiss her—or kill her—capturing the charge and ambiguity David carries. He mentions the requester: Alistair Russell, who needs help unpacking. Anna feigns ignorance. Across the park, they catch Alistair moving in his window. David thanks her and heads out, promising to return the knife.
Chapter 23: The Waggle Dance
Bina, Anna’s physical therapist, arrives and pushes her through exercises, urging a short walk outdoors. Anna refuses, citing a hangover, and during lunch lies about taking her meds. A toilet flush below betrays David’s presence; Anna covers, saying he has a friend over.
After the small lies, Anna opens up: the humiliations of being a patient after once being a therapist, the relentless work of recovery, and the ache of missing Ed and Livvy. Bina meets her honesty with warmth and steady empathy, revealing a real friendship despite Anna’s evasions. The scene spotlights how grief and fear keep Anna housebound even as she longs to move.
Chapter 24: Criss-Cross
Online, Anna chats with GrannyLizzie from her agoraphobia group; Lizzie celebrates stepping outside, and Anna glows with secondhand pride. Choosing a Hitchcock for the evening, she’s shattered by a “raw and horrorstruck” scream from the Russell house. She calls and a shaky Ethan Russell answers, saying his father “lost his temper” but insisting everything is fine before hanging up.
Anna calls back. Alistair answers in a calm, courteous tone and denies any scream—says only he and his son are home—and dismisses her concern. As the call ends, Anna watches through the window as Jane Russell leaves the house, her head rimmed in sunset light.
Chapter 25: He Talks Big
David returns; Anna asks if he heard the scream. He claims he was at a coffee shop, earbuds blasting Springsteen, and heard nothing—odd, given Alistair hadn’t mentioned him being around. A knock at Anna’s door: Ethan, eyes red, apologizing. He says he had to escape because his father was yelling and he doesn’t know where his mother is.
Anna comforts him, the embrace stinging with memories of holding Olivia. Ethan insists he isn’t afraid—“He talks big. That’s all”—but implies his mother is. He adds that his father forbids him a phone or email. Anna presses her number into his hand and tells him to call anytime—and to give it to his mother. She watches him steel himself before reentering the house across the park.
Key Events
- Anna’s raw call with Ed exposes the intimate texture of her lost family life and the depth of her grief.
- David reveals a working link to the Russells, connecting Anna’s tenant to the household she watches.
- A terrified scream erupts from the Russell house, igniting the central mystery.
- Alistair’s smooth denial contradicts what Anna hears, casting doubt and asserting control.
- Ethan seeks refuge with Anna, confirming his father’s temper and hinting at fear within his home.
Character Development
Anna pivots from passive watcher to wary participant. Fear still governs her, but her protective instinct jolts her toward involvement, especially when a vulnerable teenager seeks her out.
- Anna Fox: Emotional honesty with Ed cracks her numbness; the scream and Ethan’s visit galvanize her into action, reframing voyeurism as a moral obligation.
- Alistair Russell: His charm masks a manipulative, controlling presence; his denial suggests practiced gaslighting and latent menace.
- Ethan Russell: No longer just a figure through glass; he becomes a frightened but brave ally, revealing fissures inside his family.
- David Winters: Helpful yet opaque; his intimacy in the closet scene and convenient absence during the scream keep him suspect and unsettling.
Themes & Symbols
Perception vs. Reality sharpens when Alistair’s calm denial collides with what Anna hears. The tension no longer lives only in her medicated, alcohol-blurred mind; an external authority contradicts her senses, forcing readers to weigh credibility moment by moment. Ethan’s tears bolster Anna’s version of events, but Alistair’s poise maintains uncertainty.
The section teems with Deception and Secrets: Anna’s small lies to cover drinking and David’s presence; Alistair’s larger lie that erases a scream; and the Russells’ closed-circuit home life. Voyeurism and Observation shifts from pastime to purpose—binoculars, camera, and phone become tools of inquiry and protection. Underneath, Grief and Trauma and Isolation and Agoraphobia dictate Anna’s choices: her pain binds her to the window, but it also primes her to recognize fear in a child’s face. Even objects carry charge—the box cutter and the dark closet distill desire and danger into a single breath-held image.
Key Quotes
“I miss you.” Anna’s confession punctures the careful distance between her and Ed, letting the novel’s emotional core surface. It grounds the thriller stakes in the loss that shapes her every decision.
“He could kiss me. He could kill me.” This thought in the closet with David fuses attraction and threat, encapsulating the book’s unstable atmosphere and foreshadowing the risk in every new connection.
“He lost his temper.” Ethan’s wording is minimized and practiced, hinting at a household where eruptions are normalized and language softens what feels frightening.
“He talks big. That’s all.” Ethan tries to manage fear with bravado. The line exposes coping mechanisms in a controlling home and pushes Anna toward the role of protector.
A “raw and horrorstruck” scream. The scream is the narrative hinge—pure, unambiguous distress that clashes with Alistair’s composure and forces the story into motion.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These chapters flip the novel from introspective suspense to active peril. The scream binds Anna to the Russells’ fate, and Alistair’s denial sets up a central contest: Anna’s fractured certainty versus a polished, controlling narrative. Ethan becomes her fragile conduit to the truth, David remains a charged unknown, and Anna’s grief-fueled empathy turns watching into responsibility. Everything that follows grows from this rupture—the moment when what she sees refuses to match what she’s told.