What Lies Between Us Summary By Chapter | John Marrs

Key Moment: The revelation that Maggie intentionally drugged Nina to cause the miscarriage and lied about her fertility.

Chapter 12: NINA

Nina listens to Madonna on the bus, missing her father’s voice which has faded from her memory. She receives a news alert that Jon Hunter, a convicted killer, has died of leukaemia in prison. The news triggers fragmented, developing images of Maggie and her youth.

Nina traces her “Lolita” tattoo, a physical link to the man who just died.

Key Moment: The death of Jon Hunter, which begins to stir Nina’s repressed memories.

Chapter 13: NINA (Twenty-Four Years Earlier)

Nina attends a concert by The Hunters, obsessed with the lead singer, Jon Hunter. She believes Jon is singing specifically for her and ignores her friend Saffron’s screams. After the show, Nina leaps onto the stage and follows Jon backstage.

Jon invites her into a room, gives her a cigarette, and asks her to take off her sweaty T-shirt.

Key Moment: Nina meeting Jon Hunter for the first time.

Chapter 14: MAGGIE

Maggie is left alone in the dining room with an open window, wondering if it is a test. She reflects on the “vascular dementia” story Nina told everyone to explain Maggie’s disappearance. During dinner, Nina plays a CD by The Hunters and tells Maggie that Jon Hunter has died in prison.

Nina mentions “repressed memories” and tells Maggie she is considering therapy to unlock hers.

Key Moment: Nina’s threat to use therapy to uncover what Maggie has hidden.

Chapter 15: NINA

Nina examines her “Lolita” tattoo, recalling the night she got it at a party while high on Jon’s pills. She reads the news article about Jon Hunter, which labels him the killer of his “girlfriend.” Nina is furious because the papers identify another girl, Sally Ann Mitchell, as his girlfriend, even though Nina believed she was the one.

Nina reveals she had a second pregnancy with Jon Hunter.

Key Moment: The reveal that Nina had a second child with Jon.

Chapter 16: MAGGIE

Maggie reflects on her secret history of following Jon Hunter’s trial two decades ago. She watched his family protest his innocence while the victim’s family wept. Maggie looks at Hunter’s picture in the memory box, confirming he was the “parasite” she feared.

She worries that Nina’s interest in therapy will reveal the lengths Maggie went to to “protect” her.

Key Moment: Maggie’s admission that she has spent twenty-three years feeling guilty about how she “snatched” Nina back from Jon.

Chapter 17: MAGGIE (Twenty-Four Years Earlier)

Maggie struggles with finances and works extra jobs to keep their home. She encounters Saffron’s mother, who reveals Nina hasn’t stayed at their house in weeks despite Nina’s claims. Maggie follows Nina to a rock pub and watches her “canoodling” with a much older man.

She learns from a doorman that the man is Jon Hunter.

Key Moment: Maggie discovering Nina is lying and dating a famous local musician.

Chapter 18: NINA

Nina receives new garden furniture and is willed a phone number by a delivery man. She recalls her “highly premature menopause” at age nineteen, which she assumed was related to her condition. Nina mentions a secret boyfriend she has had for two years, claiming he is a bigger secret than Maggie.

She looks at a secluded flower bed in the garden, identifying it as a “perfect for a grave.”

Key Moment: Nina revealing she has a secret significant other and hints at a burial site in the garden.

Chapter 19: MAGGIE

Maggie watches a man in a white car surveying the house, wondering if he is a detective or burglar. She goes through the memory box, finding items from before Nina was thirteen. Maggie realizes the box is a tool Nina uses to make her feel guilty for what was taken away.

She rips up Alistair’s and Jon’s photographs in defiance.

Key Moment: Maggie destroying the photos of the men she believes ruined their lives.

Chapter 20: MAGGIE (Twenty-Four Years Earlier)

Maggie visits a record shop to find out more about Jon Hunter. She confronts Jon outside a music venue, demanding he leave her fifteen-year-old daughter alone. Jon mocks her, calling his relationship with Nina “not serious” and laughing at Maggie’s threats.

He blackmails Maggie, saying if she goes to the police, he will tell Social Services she allowed Nina to sleep at his flat.

Key Moment: Jon Hunter blackmailing Maggie and revealing Nina is “terrified” he will leave her.

Chapter 21: MAGGIE

Maggie finds an old hairpin in the dining room and hides it in her bra. She reflects on her two years of imprisonment and her past failed escape attempts. Maggie tries to pick the padlock on her ankle but the tip of the hairpin snaps off inside the cylinder.

She panics, knowing she has only two days to fix it before Nina notices.

Key Moment: The hairpin snapping inside the lock, seemingly ruining Maggie’s escape plan.

Chapter 22: NINA

Nina immediately senses Maggie is hiding something when she goes to get her for dinner. She discovers the broken hairpin and realizes Maggie tried to pick the lock. Nina uses bolt cutters to free Maggie, but Maggie kicks her in the face and tries to run.

A violent struggle ensues in the bathroom where Maggie hits her head on the taps and Nina breaks a tooth. Nina hallucinates Maggie covered in blood holding a knife before snapping out of it.

Key Moment: The brutal physical fight that leaves both women physically and psychologically scarred.

Chapter 23: MAGGIE

Maggie is in shock and fears she has a concussion from hitting her head. She reflects on how she has seen Nina’s “dark side” twice before and had to mop up the aftermath. Maggie blames herself for driving Nina to this latest outburst.

She curls into a ball, dreading the dinner she must still have with Nina.

Key Moment: Maggie’s realization that she has “monsterized” her daughter.

Chapter 24: NINA

Nina is frightened by her own extreme reaction and the “darkness” she felt. She believes Maggie owes her “another nineteen years” of her life to repay what was taken. Nina hallucinates blood on the towels and floor, feeling guilt for the first time.

She cancels a date with her secret boyfriend because of her facial bruising and broken tooth.

Key Moment: Nina’s first experience of guilt and her hallucination of a crime scene.

Chapter 25: MAGGIE

Nina leaves a “peace offering” of sandwiches and wine outside Maggie’s door. Maggie watches Nina leave the house on a Saturday, wondering if she has a boyfriend or a secret life. She reflects that being a mother is “no guarantee of anything.”

Key Moment: Maggie witnessing Nina’s secret departure, wondering if she has finally found love.

Chapter 26: MAGGIE (Twenty-Three Years Earlier)

At the surgery, Maggie meets Sally Ann Mitchell, a pregnant eighteen-year-old. Sally Ann reveals her boyfriend is Jon Hunter and that they have been together since she was fourteen. Maggie is horrified to realize Jon is dating Nina and Sally Ann simultaneously.

When Maggie returns home, she hears moaning from Nina’s room and discovers Nina is in active labour.

Key Moment: Maggie discovering Nina is about to give birth alone.

Chapter 27: NINA (Twenty-Three Years Earlier)

Nina recalls hiding her pregnancy from Jon until he saw her stomach while she was sleeping. To her surprise, Jon was thrilled and promised to be a dad. However, Nina remained terrified because of Maggie’s lies about her “faulty chromosomes.”

Jon later admits his flat is a “shithole” and tells Nina to live with her mum or a council flat.

Key Moment: Jon Hunter’s lukewarm reaction to the practicalities of being a father.

Chapter 28: MAGGIE (Twenty-Three Years Earlier)

Maggie refuses to call an ambulance, fearing Social Services will take Nina away. She decides to deliver the baby herself using her past midwife training. Nina is terrified the baby will be disfigured, but Maggie promises to be with her.

Maggie delivers a healthy baby girl, then tells Nina the baby didn’t make a sound and whisks it away. Nina names the baby Dylan after Bob Dylan.

Key Moment: Maggie successfully delivering the baby and immediately lying to Nina about its status.

Chapter 29: MAGGIE (Twenty-Three Years Earlier, Two Days Later)

Maggie finds Jon Hunter’s address and enters his basement flat. She finds Jon unconscious among drug paraphernalia and a needle in his arm. In the bathroom, she finds Sally Ann Mitchell, who has been brutally stabbed and is bleeding out.

Sally Ann begs Maggie to “save my baby,” but Maggie realizes she has a vegetable knife in her own pocket.

Key Moment: Maggie finding a dying Sally Ann Mitchell and an unconscious Jon Hunter.

Chapter 30: NINA (Twenty-Three Years Earlier, One Week Later)

Nina is in a drug-induced fog, unable to process her grief. Maggie tells her that Dr. King visited and prescribed antidepressants for her “major depression.” Maggie takes Nina to the garden and shows her a flower bed where she claims “Dylan” is buried.

Nina believes she is broken and that Maggie is the only one who will never let her down.

Key Moment: Nina visiting the fake grave of her child.

Chapter 31: NINA

Nina bakes a chocolate cake for Dylan’s twenty-third birthday, a ritual she performs every year. She recalls learning from a college friend that Jon Hunter was jailed for killing his pregnant girlfriend, Sally Ann Mitchell. Nina was confused because she (Nina) was the one who was pregnant and alive.

She reveals she regularly lies to her Aunty Jennifer about Maggie’s “condition.”

Key Moment: Nina baking a birthday cake for a child she believes has been dead for twenty-three years.

Chapter 32: MAGGIE

The man in the white car returns and peers through the lounge window. Maggie tries to attract his attention with a lamp, but the bulb blows. She watches a neighbor across the street smacking her daughter and locking her in a room.

Maggie eventually manages to communicate with the child by flashing her light.

Key Moment: Maggie’s first interaction with another human being in two years via the light signals.

Chapter 33: NINA

Maggie shows Nina the neighbor’s window and claims the child is being abused. Nina is skeptical but agrees to eat dinner with Maggie in her room to watch the neighbors. They share a rare moment of nostalgia about Maggie’s cooking and Nina’s childhood.

Nina realizes Maggie is using the girl’s abuse to highlight Nina’s “stolen opportunities” like fostering.

Key Moment: The shifting power dynamic as Nina and Maggie bond over a shared moral concern.

Chapter 34: NINA (Two and a Half Years Earlier)

Nina attends an adoption open evening, desperate to fulfill her maternal instinct. She meets Briony and a couple who adopted twins, feeling encouraged that she could be a mother. Nina decides she wants adoption, not fostering, because she cannot handle more loss.

She leaves the meeting buoyed by a new sense of purpose.

Key Moment: Nina’s official start of the adoption process.

Chapter 35: NINA (Two and a Half Years Earlier)

A social worker, Claire, visits Nina’s home and performs a thorough inspection. Nina lies about her past relationships, creating fantasy ex-boyfriends to avoid red flags. She also finds an envelope of old birthday cards from her “Dad” which always say “love, Dad.”

Claire informs Nina she will need references from ex-partners and her mother.

Key Moment: Nina realizing she has to get Maggie “on board” for the adoption to succeed.

Chapter 36: MAGGIE (Two and a Half Years Earlier)

Maggie receives a letter from Social Services about Nina’s adoption application and is horrified. Nina admits she wants to move out and start a life away from Maggie. Maggie realizes she cannot let anyone inside Nina’s head during psychological evaluations.

She determines to sabotage the application to keep her secrets contained.

Key Moment: Maggie’s decision to block Nina’s chance at motherhood to protect her own lies.

Chapter 37: MAGGIE (Two and a Half Years Earlier)

Nina returns home furious, learning that Maggie gave her a negative reference that resulted in rejection. Maggie tells the social worker about Nina’s “breakdown,” her “murderer” ex, and her miscarriage. Nina accuses Maggie of being bitter and wanting to keep her dependent.

Maggie insists she did the “right thing” because Nina cannot be trusted.

Key Moment: The complete breakdown of trust between mother and daughter over the adoption sabotage.

Chapter 38: NINA

Nina and Maggie prepare a letter for the “girl at Number 2,” encouraging her to call Childline. Nina follows the neighbor and her children to school, planning to slip the letter into the girl’s bag. She waits for an opportunity outside a newsagent.

Key Moment: Nina preparing to intervene in a child’s life to satisfy Maggie’s request.

Chapter 39: MAGGIE

Maggie waits all night for the police to arrive at the neighbor’s house, but nothing happens. She finds the white envelope on her landing, realizing Nina never gave the letter to the girl. Nina installs a new television in Maggie’s room and allows her to keep the longer chain.

Maggie uses the bathroom for the first time in two years and cries with relief.

Key Moment: Maggie’s small victory of using a real toilet instead of a bucket.

Chapter 40: NINA

Nina reflects on her role as a “dictator” and her decision not to give the letter to the neighbor. She believes Maggie’s imagination is playing tricks on her regarding the abuse. Nina takes her regular medication with a swig of wine, fearing what would happen if she stopped.

Key Moment: Nina’s choice to ignore Maggie’s pleas for the neighbor’s child.

Chapter 41: NINA (Two Years Earlier)

Nina sees a new GP, Dr. Kelly, and admits she has been feeling “flat” for months. Dr. Kelly checks her medical records and finds no mention of the antidepressants she took as a teenager. He notes she hasn’t seen a doctor for three years during that period.

Nina begins to suspect Maggie lied to her about the “Dr. King” home visits.

Key Moment: Nina discovering a massive gap in her official medical history.

Chapter 42: NINA (Two Years Earlier)

Nina receives a persistent Facebook friend request from a man named Bobby Hopkinson. They begin messaging, sharing similar tastes in gritty dramas and thrillers. Nina enjoys the conversation but remains suspicious of how he found her.

Key Moment: The start of Nina’s relationship with Bobby.

Chapter 43: NINA (Two Years Earlier)

Bobby admits he hasn’t been telling Nina the whole truth and asks to meet in person. Nina threatens to block him if he doesn’t reveal his game. Bobby replies with four words: “Because you’re my sister.”

Key Moment: Bobby’s shocking claim of a biological connection to Nina.

Chapter 44: MAGGIE

Maggie recalls her own mother’s deathbed confession about lacking the capacity for love. Her mother warned her that Alistair would “never let her down.” Maggie discovers a lump in her left breast, the same disease that killed her mother and grandmother.

She realizes the lump could be her “blessing in disguise” to escape Nina.

Key Moment: Maggie discovering the lump in her breast.

Chapter 45: NINA

Nina notices Maggie has aged rapidly and is acting distant during dinner. Maggie reveals she has found a lump in her breast. Nina insists on seeing it and feels the pea-sized mass for herself.

Nina worries that her treatment of Maggie caused the cancer but resolves not to tell her secret boyfriend, Bobby.

Key Moment: Nina confirming the existence of Maggie’s lump.

Chapter 46: NINA (Two Years Earlier)

Nina meets Bobby in a pub, convinced he must be her father’s son from an affair. Bobby reveals he was adopted and shows Nina his birth certificate. The certificate lists the mother as Margaret Simmonds and the name as “Dylan Simmonds.”

Nina realizes Bobby is not her brother, but the son she thought was dead.

Key Moment: Nina discovering her “dead” son is actually the man sitting across from her.

Chapter 47: NINA (Two Years Earlier)

Nina returns home in a state of shock, looking at Maggie with “fresh eyes.” She orders a copy of her medical records and confirms she was never tested for “estroprosencephaly.” She realizes the condition is not genetic and she had a less than one-in-a-billion chance of having it.

Nina discovers Maggie has been drugging her for years and lied about everything.

Key Moment: Nina realizing Maggie is a pathological liar who stole her child.

Chapter 48: NINA (Two Years Earlier)

Nina searches the basement while Maggie is asleep. She finds suitcases containing scores of empty “Moxydogrel” boxes—a sedative that causes memory loss and early menopause. She finds Alistair’s passport, wallet, and golf clubs, realizing he never actually left them.

Key Moment: Nina finding Alistair’s personal belongings, indicating he never left the house alive.

Chapter 49: NINA (Two Years Earlier)

Nina digs up the flower bed at the end of the garden in the middle of the night. She finds a buried duvet containing a human ribcage and Alistair’s house keys. Nina realizes she is standing over her father’s murdered body.

Key Moment: Nina exhuming her father’s skeleton.

Chapter 50: NINA

Nina presents Maggie with a bag of alternative treatments and vitamins for cancer. She refuses to take Maggie to a doctor, insisting that “naturopathy” is the answer. Maggie argues that her family history makes the lump likely malignant and she needs a diagnosis.

Nina remains stubborn, leaving Maggie to eat a “cancer-fighting” meal.

Key Moment: Nina’s refusal to seek professional medical help for Maggie.

Chapter 51: MAGGIE

Maggie begins taking secret baths during the day when Nina is at work. She tears down the photograph of Alistair that Nina glued to her ceiling. Maggie realizes she is a prisoner of both Nina and her own potentially terminal illness.

Key Moment: Maggie flushing Alistair’s photo down the toilet in an act of final rejection.

Chapter 52: MAGGIE (Two Years Earlier)

Maggie wakes up in a drug-induced fog, disorientated and weak. Nina feeds her water and a tablet, later identified as Moxydogrel. Maggie realizes Nina knows her secrets and sees the chain attached to her ankle for the first time.

Key Moment: Maggie waking up to find herself Nina’s prisoner.

Chapter 53: NINA (Two Years Earlier)

Nina describes the weeks of preparation spent soundproofing the house and installing the chains. She reveals she drugged Maggie and kept her in the basement while the workmen were there. Nina admits she considered killing Maggie but chose a “long and drawn out” punishment instead.

Key Moment: Nina’s cold calculation in turning the house into a custom-made prison.

Chapter 54: MAGGIE (Two Years Earlier)

Maggie tries to justify her actions, claiming she “did it for Nina” to protect her from Jon Hunter. Nina lists Maggie’s crimes: the forced miscarriage, the stolen son, the infertility, and the murder of Alistair. Maggie refuses to explain why she killed Alistair.

Nina loses control and lunges at her mother.

Key Moment: The first direct confrontation where all secrets are aired.

Chapter 55: NINA (Two Years Earlier)

Nina strangles Maggie, almost killing her before snapping out of the rage. She drags Maggie to the dining room window and forces her to look at the garden where Alistair is buried. Nina declares that Maggie will now spend twenty years in a prison of Nina’s making.

Key Moment: Nina’s declaration of Maggie’s twenty-year sentence.

Chapter 56: NINA

Nina is distracted at work by the “bloody lump” in Maggie’s breast. She makes a “pros and cons” list about helping her mother, realizing she cannot trust Maggie to stay quiet if she leaves the house. Nina decides the only option is to “do nothing.”

Key Moment: The decision to let Maggie’s cancer go untreated.

Chapter 57: MAGGIE

Maggie sees the man in the white car return and witness him hugging Nina. She discovers a sharp screw in the mechanism of her bathtub plug. Maggie decides to use the screw as a tool for her escape.

Key Moment: Maggie finding a potential tool for her freedom.

Chapter 58: NINA (Two Years Earlier)

Nina meets Bobby (Dylan) again and reveals that she is his biological mother, not his sister. She tells him the “stillborn” story but leaves out the fate of his grandparents. She lies and says Maggie died of breast cancer years ago.

Dylan asks about his father, and Nina tells him Jon Hunter is in prison for murder.

Key Moment: Nina lying to her son about Maggie being dead.

Chapter 59: NINA (Eighteen Months Earlier)

Nina and Dylan (who she now calls “son”) go for a country walk, and Nina feels an “inappropriate” level of elation. They take a DNA test that confirms their relationship. Dylan admits he is gay, which Nina finds comforting because she won’t have to share him with other women.

Nina is devastated when Dylan tells her he is not looking for “another mum.”

Key Moment: Dylan setting boundaries that Nina is unwilling to respect.

Chapter 60: MAGGIE

Maggie notes that Nina is wearing new, colorful clothes, indicating a secret social life. During dinner, Maggie demands a professional diagnosis, but Nina refuses. Maggie considers stabbing Nina with the bathtub screw but realizes she cannot kill her own daughter.

Key Moment: Maggie’s moral decision to spare Nina’s life despite her own imprisonment.

Chapter 61: MAGGIE (Twenty-Five Years Earlier)

Maggie wakes up and finds Alistair missing from their bed. She finds him outside Nina’s room, acting guilty and terrified. Suddenly, a shadow appears behind Alistair and hits him over the head with a golf club.

Key Moment: The night of Alistair’s murder revealed.

Chapter 62: MAGGIE (Twenty-Five Years Earlier)

Maggie discovers Nina standing over Alistair’s dead body with a golf club. Nina is in a catatonic state, and Maggie washes the blood off her and puts her to bed. Maggie rolls Alistair’s body into a duvet and drags it to the shed.

She spends the morning cleaning the house with bleach and later buries Alistair in the garden.

Key Moment: Maggie successfully covering up the murder Nina committed.

Chapter 63: MAGGIE (Twenty-Five Years Earlier)

Maggie lies to Nina and the neighbors, saying Alistair walked out on them. She questions whether Alistair had been abusing Nina, which would explain the “deadened rage” in Nina’s eyes. Maggie resolves to “rewrite their history” and be a team with Nina.

Key Moment: Maggie’s realization that Nina might have been a victim of abuse.

Chapter 64: MAGGIE (Twenty-Five Years Earlier)

Maggie researches Nina’s condition in medical journals and identifies it as “psychogenic fugue.” She decides not to seek professional help for Nina to avoid unlocking the memories of the murder.

Key Moment: The decision to keep Nina in the dark about her own actions.

Chapter 65: NINA

Dylan visits Nina’s house for the first time, and Nina gives him a tour. Dylan is distant and reveals he visited Jon Hunter’s grave. Nina suggests Dylan move in with her, which he rejects as “overbearing.”

Dylan abruptly leaves after an argument about his adoptive parents.

Key Moment: Dylan’s rejection of Nina’s attempt to “reclaim” him.

Chapter 66: MAGGIE

Maggie has been using the screw to chip away a hole in the soundproofed partition wall. She discovers a second lump under her armpit. Her goal is to create a gap large enough to shout for help when Nina’s friend arrives.

Key Moment: Maggie discovering the cancer has spread.

Chapter 67: NINA

Nina gatecrashes a birthday party for Dylan’s adoptive mother, Jane. She sneaks into Dylan’s room, smells his clothes, and steals a Burberry scarf and a childhood photo. She is confronted by Dylan and Jane on the stairs.

Key Moment: Nina’s stalker-like behavior reaching its peak at the party.

Chapter 68: NINA

Nina reveals her identity to Jane, calling herself “Dylan’s mum.” Dylan is horrified and demands Nina leave. Nina almost attacks Jane with a glass paperweight in a fit of rage. Dylan chooses Jane over Nina, and Nina realizes she has lost him forever.

Key Moment: Dylan’s final rejection of Nina in favor of his adoptive mother.

Chapter 69: NINA

Nina is desperate as Dylan has ignored her messages for eight days. She blames Maggie for the estrangement, calling her the “architect of my misery.” Nina resolves to take a “very nasty turn” with her mother.

Key Moment: Nina’s decision to resume her cruelty toward Maggie.

Chapter 70: MAGGIE

Nina arrives for dinner in a foul mood and refuses to let Maggie have bread. Maggie tells Nina about the second lump, but Nina dismisses it as a “plan” to escape. They have a screaming match where Maggie admits she is glad she gave the baby away to protect him from Nina.

Nina lunges at Maggie with a bread knife.

Key Moment: Nina’s attempt to murder Maggie during dinner.

Chapter 71: MAGGIE

Dylan arrives unexpectedly, interrupting Nina’s attack. Maggie reveals Nina has been keeping her prisoner and that she is his grandmother. Dylan takes the key from Nina and frees Maggie from her chain.

Nina attacks Dylan with the heavy ankle cuff, striking him in the head twice.

Key Moment: Nina brutally attacking her own son with a chain.

Chapter 71 (Continued): MAGGIE

Dylan falls down the stairs and stops blinking. Nina reattaches the chain to Maggie and breaks her nose with a kick. Maggie realizes Nina was “present in the moment” during the attack, not in a fugue state.

Maggie is locked back in her room.

Key Moment: Maggie’s realization that Nina is a conscious killer.

Chapter 72: MAGGIE (Twenty-Three Years Earlier)

Maggie confesses everything to Elsie, who helps her plan to give the baby away. Maggie returns home to find Nina with a bloody knife. Nina admits she went to see Jon Hunter.

Key Moment: The reveal of Nina’s first violent act against Sally Ann Mitchell.

Chapter 73: MAGGIE (Twenty-Three Years Earlier)

Maggie finds Sally Ann Mitchell dying in Jon’s flat and chooses to let her die to protect Nina. She frames an unconscious Jon for the murder and injects the rest of the heroin into his arm to kill him.

Key Moment: Maggie committing murder and framing Jon Hunter to save Nina.

Chapter 74: MAGGIE (Twenty-Three Years Earlier)

Maggie hands Dylan over to Jane and her husband in the middle of the night. She vows to make Nina’s mental well-being her only priority for the rest of her life.

Key Moment: The final parting of Maggie and her grandson.

Chapter 75: MAGGIE

Maggie remains in her room, hearing nothing of Dylan’s body. She realizes Nina is a monster who carries “death around with the casualness of a handbag.” Maggie prays for her cancer to kill her quickly.

Key Moment: Maggie’s complete abandonment of her love for Nina.

Part III

Chapter 76: MAGGIE (Ten Months Later)

Maggie is terminal and in constant pain, welcoming her impending death. Nina acts as if Dylan never existed, having “erased” him from her memory. Nina lights a single candle on a cupcake for their three-year “anniversary.”

Key Moment: Maggie making a silent wish to die as she blows out the anniversary candle.

Chapter 77: NINA

Nina reveals she is keeping Dylan chained in the basement; he is alive but brain-damaged and broken. She treats him like a child, feeding him pizza and beer while he is handcuffed. Nina believes she is “very, very lucky” to have her whole family under one roof.

Key Moment: The reveal that Dylan is alive and being held captive in the basement.

Epilogue

Nina receives a call at work from Elsie’s daughter, Barbara, informing her that the house is on fire. Maggie uses stolen matches to set fire to the soundproofing cardboard, destroying Nina’s memory box and the house. She chooses to die by smoke inhalation to finally be free.

Nina arrives to find the house a “charcoal shell.” A fire officer informs her they found two bodies inside, both chained by their ankles. Nina is arrested as she finally slips into her own mental darkness.

Key Moment: The complete destruction of the family and Nina’s arrest.

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