Chapter 10 Summary and Analysis

⚠️ 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

After burying Nathan, Evelyn and Martine return to Martine's house, where the air is thick with the smell of bleach. As they remove their shoes, both women reflexively pull their damp hair off their necks in the same gesture. Evelyn experiences a moment of vertigo at seeing her mirror image in Martine's movements and is disturbed by how easily they fall into identical patterns.

Martine, acting on her programmed instinct to be a perfect hostess, offers Evelyn the larger hall bathroom and takes the master bath herself. Evelyn accepts without argument, acknowledging that Nathan used to call her selfish and that she wants the bigger shower, the vanilla soap, the sage-green towel. She tells herself that Nathan's opinion no longer matters now that he's dead, repeating the word