PLOT
Fourteen years earlier, Chloe Taylor was only an assistant for the magazine City Woman trying to follow the steps of her boss Catherine Lancaster, a successful editor in chief. She got a phone call from her brother-in-law, Adam Macintosh, about an incident with her sister, Nichole Taylor, who put their son, Ethan, in danger by almost drowning him in a pool.
Fourteen years later, Chloe is married to Adam and is Ethan's stepmother. She is a very successful woman, running the magazine Eve as editor in chief. Adam is a prestigious lawyer in a very important law firm. Things are going to well. After one of her many social compromises, Chloe comes back home to find Adam dead.
It appears Adam was alone at the house when the incident took place. Chloe explains to the police she was at a party, and she still has to look for Ethan who was staying at a friend's house and explain to him his father has died. She goes for him and tells him the truth, but the police have a particular interest to talk to him alone, she agrees, not knowing it will mean trouble.
After the detectives in charge talk to Ethan, they continue interviewing Ethan's friend and his mother to discover if he was truly with him the night of Adam's death. Chloe does not suspect Ethan for an instant and it's completely normal to her the detectives are interested in Ethan. She believes in authority and she believes this is just for the best. Chloe explains to the detectives in charge Adam acted strangely around his work activities, and he was apparently with members of the Gentry Group, 2 days before his death but he has not logged this activity in his law firm which she finds odd and worthy of attention. Beside that, Adam has no more enemies. Chloe vaguely suspects her sister but it seems her phone was located in Cleveland, far away from the events.
Nicky shows up and Chloe has a hard time adjusting her to her everyday life. Ethan also seems a bit reluctant to get too close to his biological mother. Nicky's backstory indicates she has abused of substances and is not to be trusted, especially after she almost drowned her son during one of her intoxications. Chloe has always undermined Nicky for not being responsible for her actions and for being basically a loser while Chloe has taken advantage of everything at her disposal to be successful. However, Nicky quickly realizes the detectives aren't questioning Ethan just to get an idea of what happened that night but because they think he committed the crime.
Chloe contacts a lawyer, Olivia Randall, just as the detectives are asked to leave but they have collected enough evidence to get a search warrant. They think Adam's death was staged as a burglary and it was most likely Ethan who killed him since his alibi is too weak and he has also lied about his whereabouts since he was very close to the house when his father died.
It is odd to think Ethan could have killed his own father, but as the trial begins, different clues are provided: Ethan had issues at school for misbehaving and his father wanted to send him to military school, to make matters worse he also spoke ill of his stepmother in the internet calling her a hypocrite and a victim. Chloe would have never suspected her nephew/ stepson could be one of her worst detractors in the internet. Then comes the great reveal, the motive that could have driven Ethan to try to kill his own father: he was abusing him and Chloe all along.
Being a feminist icon and a very famous advocate for women's rights and empowerment, Chloe reveals what Ethan has said is the truth and she didn't leave Ethan because it would set a terrible precedent for her career but also this would mean she would lose Ethan since she was not Ethan's biological mother and he would remain with Adam. She then stayed and put up with the abuse not to leave Ethan to the hands of an abusive man. Nicky explains this is one of the reasons why she left Adam and she resorted to vices to feel better since Adam always humiliated her for being beneath him. Chloe can't believe she never saw this because she always blamed her sister for her crappy life when it was Adam who was also contributing to her own undoing. Chloe also reveals she felt guilty for Adam's rage and blamed herself because she had gotten him the job that made him so miserable. There's also the fact she was earning much more money than herself.
Many weeks go by and the trial gets more complicated than we would expect. More revelations are made. Chloe was having an affair before Adam's death and she uses this to finally free Ethan. She is sure her lover didn't have anything to do with this, but Ethan is about to be convicted despite the lack of evidence. However, they need a different suspect since the murder can only be pinned to Ethan for now, he had reason enough to try to murder him and his confessions about his whereabouts are certainly not helping the case.
As Ethan's trial is about to conclude, Chloe discover new evidence that could target a new suspect: The Gentry Group. It seems Adam was indeed investigating them despite the fact they were his clients. He was willing to turn them down to the authorities for a number of irregularities, but Chloe decides not to reveal this since then Ethan's trial will be prolonged and in case they lose, then she will use this information for the best.
Ethan is released. Chloe is still unsure of who could have murdered her husband, then an envelope comes about the report of the incident Adam claimed put Ethan into lethal danger because of Nicky. The report indicates Nicky wasn't just intoxicated but had been drugged and most likely it was Adam who staged this to retain Ethan's custody and keep Nicky away from them.
STRUCTURE
The novel is narrated in past, divided in four parts entitled Adam, Nicky, Ethan and Chloe. It doesn't precisely follow a chronological order since many events of the past are mentioned to provide context for the characters such as Chloe and Nicky's parents, how Adam and Nicky met, how Adam and Chloe ended up together and so on.
It has a lot of jargon related to judicial processes, but I consider it is quite understandable.
THEMES
Women empowerment, domestic violence, the influence of the media are some of the topics surrounding this story about appearances and misunderstandings.
Even though it appears hypocritical Chloe talks about women empowerment despite her being powerless at her own house, this speaks volumes about the priorities in today's society and the culture of blaming the victim which was what would have happened to Chloe if she had come clean before about Adam's abuse.
ABOUT THE ENDING:
The revelation about Nicky killing Adam wasn't particularly shocking, but it was brilliantly executed. For a moment, I believed it had been Chloe especially because the last part was named after her and I expected an outcome similar to The Wife.
ABOUT THE ENDING:
The revelation about Nicky killing Adam wasn't particularly shocking, but it was brilliantly executed. For a moment, I believed it had been Chloe especially because the last part was named after her and I expected an outcome similar to The Wife.
I don't usually like happy endings but this one felt right for the occasion.
CHARACTER: 9/10
PLOT DEVELOPMENT: 9/10
THEMES: 9/10
GRADE: Good
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