Verity

In the manuscript, Verity recalls the morning of Harper’s death six months after the death of Chastin. Verity takes Crew and Harper outside to play at Jeremy’s request. She contemplates how happy life would be without Harper. Verity takes the children out on the lake in a canoe. Before capsizing the boat intentionally, Verity instructs Crew to hold his breath. She swims to shore with Crew and initially ignores Crew’s cries to save Harper. She finally returns to the water and pretends to look for Harper. She commands Crew to call Jeremy from her phone. The police and Jeremy arrive and begin the search for Harper. They discover her dead body tangled in a fishing net half an hour later.

Disturbed by what she has just read, Lowen takes a Xanax and falls asleep. She wakes up to Jeremy, who explains that he believes her bedroom door was locked accidentally. He also shares that he has found a nursing facility for Verity to stay in during the week. Seeing how happy this makes Jeremy, Lowen decides not to tell Jeremy about the manuscript. Jeremy asks Lowen to stay for another week. After hearing that Verity will move to a facility on Monday, Lowen agrees. They make love and do not use any method of birth control. When Jeremy leaves, Lowen places her body in a position to maximize the possibility of conception.

Lowen dreams about Crew growing evil and doubts her decision to stay silent about the manuscript. Alone with Crew later in the kitchen, Lowen asks Crew questions about Harper’s death. Crew tells Lowen that his mother told him not to talk to her. Crew licks a knife as they talk and cuts himself. Lowen calls for Jeremy, who takes Crew to get stitches. He tells Lowen she must stay with Verity because she cannot be left alone.

Terrified, Lowen rushes upstairs and locks Verity’s door. She takes a baby monitor from the basement and notices that the boxes in the basement have been moved. She quickly places the baby monitor in Verity’s room and locks the door again. In Verity’s office, Lowen watches the monitor and records in hopes of catching Verity moving. Lowen decides to read the last chapter of the manuscript as she waits.

In this chapter, Verity answers questions from the police in the days following Harper’s death. Jeremy questions Verity about why she told Crew to hold his breath. Realizing that Jeremy no longer trusts her, a distraught Verity begins writing her manuscript and considers death by suicide.

Jeremy returns to the house. Lowen questions why Jeremy cares for Verity despite his knowledge of her dangerous actions. As Jeremy puts Crew to bed, Lowen returns to the office and sees Verity on the floor of her bedroom. Before Lowen can get Jeremy’s attention, Verity returns to her bed. Lowen grabs a knife and runs upstairs to confront Verity. Jeremy tears her off Verity and demands she leave immediately. In desperation, Lowen gives Jeremy Verity’s manuscript and begs him to read it.

Lowen waits in her bedroom for Jeremy to finish reading Verity’s manuscript. Lowen hears noises upstairs and finds Jeremy confronting Verity. Jeremy gives Verity an ultimatum to open her eyes or “‘I’m taking your manuscript straight to the police. They’ll put you away and you’ll never see me or Crew again’” (286). Verity opens her eyes. Jeremy and Verity grapple. Jeremy begins to choke Verity until Lowen pulls him off her.

Jeremy pleads for Lowen to help him find a way to kill Verity and make it look like an accident. Lowen agrees and suggests the same method Verity used when she attempted to kill Harper at six months old. Lowen instructs Jeremy to “make her vomit. Cover her nose and mouth until she stops breathing. It’ll look like she aspirated in her sleep” (289). Jeremy immediately moves into action and kills Verity. Jeremy vows to Lowen that they will never speak of what happened.

Seven months have passed since Verity’s death. Lowen is pregnant with her and Jeremy’s daughter. Jeremy and Lowen moved to North Carolina three months ago for a fresh start. They return to Jeremy and Verity’s old house in Vermont to empty it in preparation for its sale. As they prepare to leave, Crew mentions that Verity hid things in the floor of her bedroom. Lowen returns to Verity’s bedroom and finds in the floor the missing knife, a picture of the girls, and a letter to Jeremy. She begins to read it.

In the letter, Verity reveals her plan to run away with Crew in the middle of the night. She blames her career for ultimately destroying their relationship and recounts an evening out with her editor. After she expresses concerns over how to approach her next novel, Verity’s editor suggests she try antagonistic journaling, a method of journaling about her real life while recording an inner dialogue that is “the opposite from what I was actually thinking at the time” and “more sinister than it actually was” (298). Verity begins practicing this method and documents milestone moments in their relationship. She credits this for “why I was able to create such realistic, terrifying characters in my novels” (300).

Verity goes on to explain how Harper’s death was truly an accident and how, in the days following, she combined the journal entries into a complete manuscript with foreshadowing as a method of escaping from her grief. Verity details how Jeremy discovered this manuscript and choked Verity into unconsciousness. She recounts how she woke up in her car with Jeremy driving as part of his plan to stage her car accident. Upon returning home from the facility, Verity hides her improved health and begins slowly planning to gather some money to escape with Crew. She reveals that she writes this letter as Jeremy and Lowen have sex and that she locked the door to give her time to hide the letter. Her plan is to alert Jeremy of the letter after she and Crew have successfully escaped.

Lowen returns everything to the hiding spot and destroys Verity’s letter in the bathroom by “ripping each page into tiny shreds” (312). Jeremy, Lowen, and Crew depart. Knowing that the truth will destroy him, Lowen vows never to reveal the truth to Jeremy.