Chapter summaries The Divorce Freida McFadden

Chapter 64 Summary and Analysis – The Divorce by Freida McFadden

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Complete Chapter Summary

Naomi arrives at Jeremy’s apartment building carrying an infant—Teddy. Jeremy, dressed for work in a designer suit, is shocked. He cancels his morning meetings and brings her inside to talk privately. He insists they used condoms and that pregnancy shouldn’t have happened. Naomi counters that condoms are not one hundred percent effective. When Jeremy asks why she didn’t tell him sooner, she says she wasn’t sure she would keep the baby. Now she knows Teddy needs a father. She shows him the baby, noting that Teddy resembles Jeremy—a happy coincidence, she thinks, though Jeremy refuses to look.

Jeremy demands a paternity test. Naomi knows he will; she has prepared for it. Jeremy wants to handle the swabs himself, not trusting Naomi. A week later they meet at a coffee shop, and Jeremy gives her a swab and envelope. That same day, Naomi drives to Long Island to the house that will later become hers and Jeremy’s. At that time, Jeremy’s parents live there. Jeremy had mentioned his father’s Alzheimer’s disease.

Naomi parks down the road and waits until Mrs. Roth leaves for errands. She then approaches the house alone. Mr. Roth is confused, babbling, at one point mistaking her for a childhood friend of Jeremy’s. Naomi tells him she needs to swab his cheek for a test, and he agrees. She drives back to the city and hands the envelope to Jeremy, who mails both swabs—his own and the one supposedly from Teddy—to the lab. The results show near‑100% certainty of father‑child matching, exactly as Naomi planned.

Jeremy marries her. He wants Teddy to have two parents in one home, and he does not trust Naomi to raise the child alone. For a long time, Naomi is happy. Now, with Veronica in the picture, everything makes sense. The drug charge in Veronica’s records confirms she is the wife or girlfriend of the junkie who was passed out in the car while Teddy screamed. Veronica was a neglectful mother. Naomi believes Veronica does not deserve Teddy and will never get him back. Therefore, Naomi concludes, Veronica has to die—and Naomi must be smart about it.

Key Events

Naomi arrives unannounced at Jeremy’s apartment with baby Teddy.
Jeremy is panicked and reschedules his work meetings.
He insists condoms were always used and demands a paternity test.
Naomi agrees, but secretly plans to cheat the test.
She drives to Jeremy’s parents’ house on Long Island.
Mr. Roth, suffering from Alzheimer’s, allows her to swab his cheek.
Naomi substitutes Mr. Roth’s DNA for Teddy’s, fooling the lab.
The faked test results show Jeremy as the father.
Jeremy marries Naomi, wanting a two‑parent home.
Naomi reveals her current mindset: Veronica is a neglectful drug‑addict mother who must die.
Naomi resolves to be “smart” about the murder.

Character Development

Naomi – Her manipulative past is fully exposed. She carefully engineered a false paternity test using a vulnerable Alzheimer’s patient. Her earlier claim of being infertile is also a lie. The chapter shows she has always been calculating, and her love for Teddy is possessive and ruthless. Her determination to kill Veronica solidifies her as an unreliable, dangerous narrator.
Jeremy – Though largely absent from this flashback as a proactive character, his suspicion and eventual marriage reveal his desire for control. He wants paternity proof and a conventional family, but Naomi outmaneuvers him. His trust is misplaced.
Mr. Roth (Jeremy’s father) – A tragic figure; his Alzheimer’s is exploited without his knowledge. He represents collateral damage in Naomi’s scheme.
Veronica – Not present in the chapter but re‑defined. Naomi’s narrative paints her as a neglectful mother, though the reader must weigh Naomi’s bias. The drug charge becomes a justification for Naomi’s lethal intent.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Deception and False Identity – The entire paternity test is a performance. Swapping a cheek swab from a confused old man for a baby’s mirrors the theme of stolen identity and manufactured truth.
Control vs. Vulnerability – Naomi preys on Mr. Roth’s vulnerability (Alzheimer’s) to gain control over Jeremy, then over Teddy’s future. She seeks total control of her environment, and sees Veronica as a threat to that control.
The “Precious” Child as Possession – Teddy is treated as an object Naomi must keep at all costs. Her “happiness” in the marriage is contingent on owning Teddy; Veronica’s claim challenges that ownership.
Drugs and Moral Judgment – Naomi uses Veronica’s drug charge (and her implied association with a junkie) to strip her of maternal worth. The motif of addiction justifies murder in Naomi’s mind.

Why This Chapter Matters

Chapter 64 is the fulcrum of the novel’s backstory and its turning point. It provides the concrete evidence of Naomi’s premeditated dishonesty, revealing that her entire marriage was built on fraud. The chapter also explicitly announces her intention to kill Veronica, raising the stakes from a custody battle to a murder plot. Every previous suspicion the reader may have had about Naomi is confirmed, and the moral landscape shifts: Naomi is not a sympathetic victim but a dangerous antagonist. This chapter ensures the final act will be a confrontation between two women, one a biological mother and the other a calculated impostor.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why did Jeremy demand a paternity test, and how did Naomi subvert it?
Jeremy insisted on a test because he and Naomi had always used condoms and he doubted the baby was his. Naomi subverted it by swabbing Jeremy’s Alzheimer’s‑stricken father’s cheek instead of Teddy’s. She then handed the swab to Jeremy, who mailed both samples. The lab matched father and “child” because the true sample came from the biological grandfather.

2. How does the chapter portray Naomi’s view of motherhood and possession?
Naomi views Teddy as a possession she rightfully earned through deception. She describes her love for him in terms of his trust in her, but she also admits she was “happy” only as long as she had full control. When she learns Veronica is Teddy’s biological mother, she dismisses Veronica as a neglectful drug addict and concludes that killing her is the only way to keep Teddy. For Naomi, motherhood is about ownership, not nurturing.

3. What does Mr. Roth’s role in the scheme reveal about the theme of exploitation?
Mr. Roth is a person with Alzheimer’s who cannot consent or understand. Naomi intentionally seeks him out when he is alone and confused, telling him she needs a cheek swab for a test. He agrees without comprehension. This reveals that Naomi will exploit any vulnerability—illness, age, mental decline—to achieve her goals. The theme of exploitation runs throughout the novel, showing how those with power (Naomi) prey on the powerless.