The Only One Left
by Riley Sager
Contents
Chapter Ten
Overview
After a nightmare, Lenora makes a decisive change in her relationship with Kit by saying she trusts Kit and wants to reveal the truth about the night her family died. That offer raises the central mystery from rumor to possible confession, while Kit's discovery of Mary Milton's abandoned belongings suggests the previous nurse fled Hope's End in fear or haste.
Lenora's retrospective account deepens suspicion around her father by showing his sexual exploitation of a servant and his coercion of Lenora into silence. The chapter shifts the story toward buried family corruption, missing truths, and Lenora's long-delayed version of events.
Summary
Late at night, Lenora summons Kit with the call button after a nightmare. Kit comforts her in bed, and the moment makes Kit reconsider the old certainty that Lenora was a teenage killer; she wonders whether Lenora might instead have been trapped for decades by suspicion and disability. Wanting clarity before she continues caring for Lenora, Kit directly asks whether Lenora really murdered her family.
Rather than answer with taps, Lenora insists on using the typewriter. Propped up by Kit, Lenora types that she will not hurt Kit, acknowledges the cruel rhyme about herself, and says Kit can learn whether it is true because Lenora wants to tell her everything about the night of the murders. When Kit asks why, Lenora answers that she trusts Kit. Kit is shaken by the offer and tells Lenora she will think about it before leaving Lenora asleep.
Back in her room, Kit weighs the value of knowing the truth against the possibility of losing the last hopeful uncertainty about Lenora's innocence. As she begins to unpack, Kit discovers that the room is still full of Mary Milton's belongings: books, clothes, uniforms, a coat, boots, and even a stocked medical bag. The abandoned possessions convince Kit that Mary did not leave in an orderly way for a routine family emergency; she left suddenly, and Kit ends the night wondering what drove her away.
The chapter then shifts into Lenora's account of the past. On her birthday night, after failing to find leftover cake, young Lenora notices the billiard room door open and catches her father having sex with a female servant on the pool table. Horrified, Lenora runs to the ballroom, where her father follows her instead of confessing or apologizing.
Lenora's father calms her physically, refuses to identify the servant, and manipulates Lenora into silence by saying that telling Lenora's mother would kill her. He frames secrecy as obedience and calls Lenora his "good girl," even though Lenora inwardly thinks he is the parent who deserves to die. The memory ends with Lenora warning that she was not good at all, setting up darker revelations to come.
Who Appears
- Kit McDeereLenora's caregiver; comforts her, is invited into the murder secret, and discovers Mary left in a rush.
- Lenora HopeAfter a nightmare, she tells Kit she trusts her and begins revealing painful memories about her family.
- Lenora's fatherCaught having sex with a servant; pressures young Lenora to keep his betrayal from her mother.
- Mary MiltonPrevious nurse whose books, clothes, and medical bag suggest she abandoned Hope's End abruptly.
- Berniece MayhewServant Lenora sees in the kitchen just before discovering her father's sexual encounter.
- Lenora's motherHer fragile condition is used by Lenora's father to guilt Lenora into silence.