

On her birthday, Lowen is briefly left alone with Verity whom she confronts. Verity becomes convinced Harper played a role in the death of her sister. She reads that Chastin died at a sleepover because of an allergic reaction. Lowen decides to finish the autobiography and then determine whether to tell Jeremy the truth about Verity. Lowen sees Verity watching them from the top of the stairs. On the eve of her 32nd birthday, Lowen unwinds with Jeremy. Verity gets pregnant with Crew as a means of appeasing an agitated Jeremy who believes Verity is not treating Harper fairly. Jeremy stops her before she is successful. This leads Verity to attempt to kill Harper by forcing her to swallow her own vomit. Lowen reads about Verity’s dream of Harper killing Chastin. To ease Lowen’s mind, Jeremy places a lock on the outside of Lowen’s bedroom. She confides in Jeremy about a traumatic experience at the age of 10 that resulted in her mother’s neglect of her and a two-week psychiatric evaluation. Lowen sleepwalks and wakes up in Verity’s bed. Lowen reads about Verity giving birth to the twins Harper and Chastin and how she neglects them during the day while Jeremy is at work. Lowen and Jeremy’s relationship grows more intimate and they almost kiss. As Lowen reads, she catches Verity staring at her and grows increasingly more threatened by her presence.ĭisturbed by the content of the manuscript, Lowen suspects that Verity played a role in the deaths of her daughters. The autobiography begins by detailing Verity and Jeremy’s first meeting and their active sex life. She soon discovers a manuscript titled So Be It which she takes to be Verity’s autobiography but is in fact a writing exercise in which Verity explores violent impulses to develop her understanding of characters. Uneasy, Lowen attempts to settle in and begin her work.

She meets the one surviving Crawford child named Crew, a five-year-old boy. Before leaving, Lowen’s literary agent and former lover Corey warns her to be careful given the suspicious nature of Verity’s car accident, which has left her immobilized.

Facing eviction, Lowen takes the deal and agrees to travel to Vermont to gather notes from Verity’s office.

The deal presented to Lowen asks her to complete the books for a substantial payment. Jeremy is the husband of Verity Crawford, an esteemed writer who is unable to finish the three remaining books in her popular series The Noble Virtues. They separate but soon discover that they are both headed to the same meeting at Pantem Press. Jeremy lost both his twin daughters within six months of each other. Verity has recently lost her mother to cancer. They bond immediately and share their recent personal experiences with grief. She is aided by a handsome stranger named Jeremy Crawford. Writer Lowen Ashleigh sees a man die on the way to a meeting with her publisher.
