Chapter 35: Lucy’s Lie and the Unspoken Truth
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
The morning after Ben releases Julia’s podcast episode detailing Matt’s abuse, Lucy listens while running on the treadmill and returns to a flood of missed calls and texts. Her grandmother, parents, ex-boyfriend Nathan, and Emmett all reach out, each assuming that Matt hit Lucy too. The sudden attention angers her; she resents being cast as a victim when Savvy remains the perfect, polished victim of the murder.
Lucy deliberates fiercely. She acknowledges that admitting the truth—that Matt did hit her and that she eventually fought back—would only give Matt ammunition to paint her as a violent monster, further cementing the theory that she killed Savvy. She considers that lying might leave Julia “out to dry,” but she reasons that people will believe Julia, a “likable” victim, while no one expects truth from Lucy.
Savvy’s voice whispers a violent suggestion about stabbing Matt. Lucy texts Julia a terse thanks, keeping her distance. Later, she faces her parents and grandmother at home, delivering a carefully rehearsed line: “He did have a temper when he drank, but my experience with Matt was not exactly the same as Julia’s.” Her mother latches onto the denial, insisting they would have known if Matt had hit her. Lucy’s small rebellion—“I don’t think that anyone knows what’s going on inside someone else’s marriage”—freezes everyone. Her father wields a spatula as if needing to fend off an uncomfortable truth. When Grandma bluntly asks if they’re going to discuss that Matt probably killed Savvy, Dad spills the gnocchi all over the floor, and the moment dissolves into forced cheerfulness.
Key Events
- Lucy listens to Julia’s podcast and is bombarded by texts and calls from family and friends who assume Matt abused her.
- She internally weighs confessing the truth (she was abused and fought back) against lying to protect her image.
- Savvy’s hallucinated voice suggests stabbing Matt, reinforcing Lucy’s violent inner world.
- Lucy sends Julia a minimal, dismissive text, refusing to become a supportive figure.
- She returns home and tells her parents and grandmother a selective version of the past: Matt had a temper but her experience was “not exactly the same.”
- Her mother eagerly accepts the lie; her father hovers anxiously; Grandma forces the possibility that Matt killed Savvy into the open.
- The chapter ends with the gnocchi incident, shattering the fragile mood.
Character Development
Lucy solidifies her core conflict: she understands that the world demands an irreproachable victim, and she has never been that. Her decision to lie is not just self-protection; it is an act of cynical performance. She knows her violent retaliation will be used to condemn her, so she chooses silence over solidarity with Julia. The return of Savvy’s voice—now urging a quick knife to the throat—illustrates that Lucy’s instinct for violence coexists with her performative calm. She has become adept at compartmentalizing brutality and poise.
Her family’s reactions reveal longstanding dynamics. Mom instantly rebuts any possibility that abuse happened under her nose, using proximity as proof of knowledge and showing how the family system relies on denial. Dad embodies passive avoidance, clutching a spatula as if physically repelling an unwanted truth. Grandma is the only one who names the reality that Matt may have killed Savvy, yet her demand is immediately buried under a mess of spilled gnocchi. Through them, the chapter demonstrates how Lucy’s silence is learned and reinforced by a family that cannot bear to examine its own blindness.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- Victim Blaming and the Perfect Victim – Lucy explicitly contrasts herself with Savvy, who was “buffed and polished” into a flawless victim. Because Lucy fought back, she knows society will label her evil, not abused. The chapter exposes how narrow the acceptable victim narrative remains.
- Performance and the Unreliable Self – Lucy rehearses her statement to Ben and to her family, carefully straddling a non-denial denial. Her identity is a strategic construction, and she wields ambiguity as a weapon.
- Savvy’s Voice as Inner Violent Impulse – Savvy’s whispered suggestion to stab Matt represents the part of Lucy that fantasises about lethal retaliation. The voice blurs the line between Lucy’s real capacity for violence and her traumatic guilt.
- Family Complicity and Silence – The parents’ eagerness to accept the sanitized story, Grandma’s frustrated outburst, and the collective pivot to dinner epitomize how family systems can conspire to ignore abuse. The gnocchi on the floor becomes a physical symbol of the mess no one wants to clean up.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter 35 marks a decisive pivot. Lucy chooses to protect her own brittle public image over standing with Julia, a choice that moralizes her earlier passive role in Savvy’s murder investigation. It makes explicit the transactional nature of victimhood in the novel’s world: if you cannot perform innocence flawlessly, you forfeit the right to be believed. The chapter also introduces the direct accusation—via Grandma—that Matt might be Savvy’s killer, planting a critical suspicion that will shadow future events. Lucy’s blend of cold calculation, trauma, and violent fantasy crystallizes the novel’s central tension: can a woman who has been brutalized ever be seen as innocent?
Study Questions and Answers
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Why does Lucy choose to lie about Matt’s abuse, and how does this decision connect to her fears about being blamed for Savvy’s death?
Lucy believes that if she admits Matt hit her, everyone will focus on the fact that she hit him back. In the court of public opinion, that retaliation erases her victimhood and paints her as inherently violent. Since she is already suspected of murdering Savvy, any admission of physical aggression would be seen as further evidence of a “violent heart.” Lying becomes a survival tactic, trading solidarity with Julia for a fragile shield against renewed suspicion. -
How does the return of Savvy’s voice function in this chapter, and what does it reveal about Lucy’s state of mind?
Savvy’s voice surfaces when Lucy looks at Julia’s texts, whispering “If you stab him in the neck, it’ll be quick.” This hallucination acts as an externalized fragment of Lucy’s rage and trauma. It shows that beneath her controlled performance, violent revenge fantasies are alive, and they blur the boundary between protective anger and the actual violence of Savvy’s murder. The voice reminds readers that Lucy’s interior world is saturated with the murder, making her secrecy all the more volatile. -
What does the family dinner scene reveal about the dynamics between Lucy, her parents, and her grandmother?
Each family member models a different coping strategy. Mom denies any abuse could have occurred close to home, asserting omniscience; Dad wields a spatula as though expecting a battle he dreads fighting; Grandma cuts through the politeness with a blunt question about Matt’s guilt. Together, they illustrate why Lucy learned to craft careful lies: the truth is disruptive and unwelcome. Their collective relief when Lucy backpedals shows that the family prefers a comfortable fiction over the messy reality of domestic violence.