Chapter 31 Summary: Selena & Jaden
⚠️ 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 chapter opens with Selena scrambling to her feet and finding her husband Jaden lying face down on the floor of their Real World flat, blood seeping from a wound to the back of his head. She cannot tell whether he is alive or dead. Standing over him is the woman who attacked him, still holding the cricket bat, her face streaked with blood.
The woman repeats what she said during their earlier confrontation at the cafe: that Jaden took her son. Selena recalls that the woman had shouted something similar before, claiming the boy was hers and that she wanted him back, but Selena had dismissed it at the time.
Selena pleads with the woman, insisting that Malachi is not real and only exists in the Metaverse. She reminds the woman that she held Malachi when she won a competition to visit their house. But the woman advances, still brandishing the bat.
Selena asks the woman to explain, and the woman tells her story: she paid Jaden a deposit to father her child, they kept trying, and eventually she became pregnant. She was overjoyed, but at her first scan the doctor could find no trace of the baby. The pregnancy had vanished. Then Jaden disappeared — he stopped answering calls and messages, and eventually ghosted her. The woman has concluded that Jaden took the baby and gave it to Selena.
Selena struggles to respond. Some of what the woman says seems plausible, but much of it is a mixture of fact and fiction. In the chaos of the room, however, she knows she cannot antagonize the woman by contradicting her.
Selena suddenly agrees, telling the woman that of course Malachi is hers, and apologizing for what Jaden did. She says she has just left Malachi in the Metaverse and suggests the woman go and introduce herself to him. She points to her headset, still logged in, and tells the woman she can slip it on and be with him.
The woman hesitates, suspicious. Selena then claims her watch vibrated with a Push notification saying Malachi is crying. She says she left him alone in the woods, that he is only two and must be terrified. She urges the woman to go to him, calling her his real mother, and echoing the woman's own earlier claim that a mother never forgets.
The woman drops the bat, puts on the headset, and a huge smile crosses her face as she whispers to Malachi that she is there. Those are the last words Selena hears before she runs from the room, out of the apartment, and down into the street screaming for help.
Key Events
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The woman attacks Jaden with a cricket bat, leaving him bleeding and possibly dead on the floor of the flat.
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The woman confronts Selena, repeating her claim that Jaden took her son.
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The woman reveals her backstory: she paid Jaden a deposit to father her child, became pregnant, but the first scan found no trace of the baby, and Jaden then ghosted her.
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Selena de-escalates the situation by agreeing the boy is hers and directing the woman to the Metaverse headset.
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Selena fabricates a notification about Malachi crying alone in the woods to manipulate the woman into entering the Metaverse.
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The woman puts on the headset and speaks to Malachi, allowing Selena to escape and run into the street screaming for help.
Character Development
Selena — In this chapter, Selena moves from terror to quick-witted survival. Faced with a violent intruder and an incapacitated husband, she abandons any attempt to reason with the woman and instead uses deception as her only tool. Her lie about the notification and her willingness to send the woman into the Metaverse show a pragmatic, even ruthless, instinct for self-preservation. The chapter also reveals how far she has come from the earlier cafe confrontation, where she dismissed the woman's claims.
The woman — The attacker is presented as both menacing and pitiable. Her violence is real — she has beaten Jaden with a cricket bat — but her belief that she is Malachi's mother is sincere. Her story of the deposit, the pregnancy, and the vanished scan suggests either a phantom pregnancy or a cruel deception by Jaden. Her rage dissolves the moment she believes she can reach Malachi, and she becomes tender and hopeful as she puts on the headset.
Jaden — Though unconscious for most of the chapter, Jaden's actions are the root cause of the violence. The woman's account reveals a pattern of manipulation: taking deposits, fathering children, and then disappearing when complications arise. His ghosting of the woman after her failed pregnancy is a betrayal that has now come back to haunt him — and Selena.
Malachi — Malachi remains a virtual presence, existing only in the Metaverse, yet he is the emotional center of the conflict. Both women claim him, and his supposed crying in the woods becomes the lever Selena uses to escape.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
Deception and manipulation — The chapter is built on layers of lies. Jaden deceived the woman about fathering her child. The woman deceives herself about Malachi being her real son. And Selena lies to the woman about the notification and about Malachi's whereabouts to engineer her escape. Deception becomes a survival tool.
Motherhood and parental rights — The woman's claim to Malachi raises questions about who has the right to call a child their own. She insists a mother never forgets, and Selena uses that belief against her. The chapter explores motherhood as both a biological claim and a delusion.
Virtual vs. real — The Metaverse is where Malachi exists, and the woman is willing to enter it to be with him. The headset becomes a portal that blurs the line between the real and the virtual, and the woman's willingness to accept the virtual child as her own underscores how the Metaverse has come to substitute for reality.
Obsession and delusion — The woman's fixation on Malachi, her belief that the baby was taken from her, and her willingness to commit violence all point to an obsession that has crossed into delusion.
Phantom pregnancy — The scan that found no trace of the baby is a key detail. It suggests either a phantom pregnancy or a deception by Jaden, and it fuels the woman's belief that the child was taken from her.
Survival — Selena's flight from the flat, screaming for help, is the chapter's final image. Her survival instinct overrides everything else, including concern for Jaden.
Why This Chapter Matters
This chapter is a turning point in the novel. It escalates the violence from psychological tension to physical assault, and it forces Selena to confront the consequences of Jaden's actions. The woman's story reveals a pattern of manipulation that casts Jaden in a darker light, and it raises uncomfortable questions about the ethics of the arrangements people make in this world. The chapter also dramatizes the central tension of the novel: the Metaverse is not just an escape but a place where real emotional bonds — and real delusions — take root. Selena's escape leaves Jaden's fate uncertain and the woman alone in the Metaverse with a child who is not hers, setting up the next chapter's questions about what happens when the virtual and the real collide.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does Selena choose to direct the woman to the Metaverse rather than continue to argue with her?
Selena realizes that arguing is futile and dangerous. The woman is armed, violent, and convinced of her version of events. Selena understands that some of what the woman says is plausible but that the overall story makes no sense, and she knows she cannot antagonize her. By agreeing that Malachi is the woman's son and directing her to the headset, Selena gives the woman what she wants — access to the child — and creates an opportunity to escape. It is a calculated act of deception driven by survival instinct.
2. How does the woman's account of her pregnancy and the missing scan complicate the question of what is real in this story?
The woman's story — the deposit, the pregnancy, the scan that found no trace of the baby, and Jaden's subsequent ghosting — is presented as plausible but unverifiable. It could be a phantom pregnancy, a deception by Jaden, or a delusion on the woman's part. The chapter deliberately leaves this ambiguous, and the ambiguity mirrors the novel's broader theme: in a world where the Metaverse blurs the line between real and virtual, even the most basic facts — whether a pregnancy existed, whether a child is real — become uncertain.
3. What does the chapter suggest about the ethics of Jaden's arrangement with the woman, and how does it connect to the novel's broader themes?
Jaden's arrangement — taking a deposit to father a child, then disappearing when the pregnancy fails — is presented as a betrayal with violent consequences. The woman's rage is directed at Jaden, but it is Selena who must pay the price. The chapter suggests that the commodification of parenthood, and the willingness to treat children as transactions, has real-world costs. It connects to the novel's themes of parental rights, loss, and the way technology enables people to make and break promises without facing the consequences.
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