Chapter 43
Contains spoilersOverview
Blake meets Whitney's mother, Jeannette Cross, hoping to learn why Whitney is targeting him. Jeannette describes Whitney's lifelong cruelty and implies Whitney may have killed or driven others to death, warning that Whitney never lets go of perceived slights. As Blake absorbs this, he notices a family photo and realizes the girl identified as Whitney is actually Krista, revealing that the woman living with him under the name Whitney Cross is someone else. The chapter ends with Blake stunned by the revelation.
Summary
Blake enters Jeannette Cross’s home warily and sits with her in the living room. Jeannette confirms he is living with Whitney and coolly admits she had feared Whitney might be dead, but says she should have known better. Blake asks for help, explaining that Whitney is ruining his life for reasons he does not understand.
Jeannette recounts a childhood incident where seven-year-old Whitney retaliated against her four-year-old brother Joey for breaking a toy by pushing him off a jungle gym, breaking his arm. When confronted, Whitney said, “That’s what happens to you if you’re not careful.” Jeannette describes Whitney ending therapy by escalating theft and destruction of treasured items to force Jeannette’s compliance, and says this was not the worst of Whitney’s behavior.
Blake brings up Jordan Gallo. Jeannette says only Whitney and Jordan know the truth of his death, but she believes Whitney may have pushed him off the roof and notes Whitney has a way of making people so miserable that suicide can seem viable. Jeannette adds that her husband died of a heart attack a month after Whitney disappeared, which she attributes to Whitney’s impact on the family.
Jeannette explains that after Whitney vanished, the police considered her a runaway. She later received a postcard from Whitney sent from Braga, Portugal, indicating Whitney had left the country. Jeannette says she knew Whitney had returned to the United States because six years later the girl Jordan left Whitney for was found murdered. She warns Blake that if he has done something to Whitney, Whitney will never let it go, regardless of the time that passes.
Overwhelmed, Blake asks for water. While Jeannette is in the kitchen, he studies family photos on the mantel. A family portrait shows Jeannette, her husband, their son, and a teenage daughter. The sight fills Blake with dread.
When Jeannette returns, Blake points to the portrait and asks who the girl is. Jeannette identifies the girl as Whitney, her daughter. Blake looks closer, recognizes a resemblance, and realizes the teenager in the photo is not the woman living in his house who calls herself Whitney Cross. The teenage girl in the photo is Krista, Blake’s fiancée. Blake is left in shock at this revelation.
Who Appears
- Blake Porter
narrator; visits Jeannette Cross seeking answers about Whitney; realizes the girl identified as Whitney in a family photo is Krista.
- Jeannette Cross (Mrs. Cross)
Whitney’s mother; recounts Whitney’s history of cruelty, suggests Whitney may have killed Jordan Gallo and that another girl was murdered years later; provides details about Whitney’s disappearance and a postcard from Portugal.
- Whitney Cross
subject of discussion; depicted as manipulative and dangerous from childhood; allegedly may have caused or committed deaths; identity confusion revealed as the family photo labeled as Whitney shows Krista instead of the woman living with Blake.
- Joey Cross
Jeannette’s son; as a child, was pushed off a jungle gym by Whitney, breaking his arm.
- Jordan Gallo
discussed; Whitney’s former boyfriend who died after a rooftop fall; Jeannette suspects Whitney pushed him.
- Jordan’s later girlfriend
discussed; the girl Jordan left Whitney for; found murdered six years after Whitney’s disappearance.
- Krista
Blake’s fiancée; identified by Blake as the teenage girl in the Cross family photo that Jeannette calls Whitney, implying a shocking identity link.