I Had So Many Theories (My Husbands Wife)

This week I'm talking about My Husband's Wife by Alice Feeney, and this book had me making theories every few chapters.

From mysterious identities and missing women to family secrets and unreliable characters, I spent the entire book trying to figure out what was really happening... and while I guessed a few twists, plenty still caught me by surprise.

In this episode, I'm walking through my predictions as I read, what I got right, what completely fooled me, and whether the ending actually worked for me.

Did we read the same book?

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello everyone, and welcome to Did We Read the Same Book? All right. I am reading My Husband's Wife by Alice Feeney. This is my second book by her. My first book was Daisy Darker a little while ago. I don't think I did a review of that book, but it was pretty good. So, anyways, this book was actually recommended by one of my friends. So I don't know if you're listening, Portia, but thank you for recommending it because I actually really like it. Okay, so let's get into it, guys. This is it says it's a psychological thriller, but it feels more like a just a mystery to me. Um, I don't know. And it's not super thrilling, maybe a little bit, but it is good. I'm I was hooked from like the very, very beginning. I have been binge reading this one. Okay, so I'm already pretty far into the book. I actually am gonna finish it today, probably. So this is like a two-day read for me. Um, it's not very long, and it is binge worthy. So the book starts off with this woman named Eden Fox, and she goes for a morning run, which is crazy. She's one of those people I hate running, so I can't relate. But anyway, she goes for her morning run that she does every Thursday, I think. And so you know, she gets her trainers on, her clothes, she leaves her phone and her keys at home because you know she lives in this cute little manor that she just got, and it's overseeing like the ocean, and it's beautiful, it's called spygloss, and they just her and her husband just relocated there. They used to live in the hustle and bustle of London, and they decided to move into like a quieter little place, right by the ocean. So that is that's a setting and everything like that. So she here she goes for her run. Um, so she comes back from her run and her door is locked, and she's like, Oh, I don't remember locking my door. So, you know, she tries to get in, and then this lady comes to the door who looks like her, but older, like a little older. So this lady answers the door and she's just kind of like, Hey, can I help you? And Eden's standing there, like, yeah, this is my house. Like, who are you? And the lady's like, Um no, this is my house. So, anyways, it's confusing right off from the start because now Eden's like, What the hell? Like, who are you in my house? And the lady answering the door is like, Who are you? Like, this is my home, and I'm Eden Fox. So then her husband comes down and she's like, Okay, good, my husband's here. Like, he obviously knows me, so you know, he's like, I don't know who you are, lady. Like, leave me and my wife alone, like, we don't know you. So she is rightfully confused because she literally just left the house not too long ago. She went for a run, she comes home, and her husband and this random lady are acting like they have no idea who she is, and so, anyways, uh, she ends up feeling a little crazy. We're trying, I'm trying to figure out like who is she? So, from the start, I'm thinking, like, maybe this is a paran like a paranormal kind of like twist, you know, like maybe she isn't who she thinks she is, or she died, or you know, I don't know. I'm not sure. I don't I don't know exactly where the book is going. Like in the very beginning, but then you know, the more I thought about it, I was like, well, it's probably not paranormal or supernatural in any way, because I think that the author wants the readers to feel that way, like to question if it's reality or not, and I think that that's a little bit too obvious. Do you know what I mean? Uh moving forward, we hear from another character, so Bertie, and I really like Bertie. She is she's not like super bubbly and happy, she's actually a very cynical person, but she's pretty cool, in my opinion. She's one of my favorite characters, so she is. We learn early on that she is sick, she has terminal cancer, and they don't know, like we don't as readers don't know how long she has left. Um, but what we do know is that's not a lot of time left. So she has like a mysterious job for some reason, and I honestly don't know why, because I do know now what her job is, but in the beginning, it's very cryptic, like she it's she's not saying what she does for a living, and she's like holding it really close to her, you know, like, oh, I don't want people to know what I do for a living, which is weird, and even when the reveal is, you know, out there and we know what she does, I still think it's weird. Like, why was that a secret? I don't know, it didn't make sense to me to keep it uh on the down low and to keep the readers wondering what her job is, but whatever. So she has a a job she doesn't want to talk about in the beginning, and all we know about her is that she is sick and she doesn't have any family. Her mom committed suicide when she was a kid, and she's not in touch with anybody else, right? So that's Bertie. She's very lonely, she has a dog, which we love the dog, named Sunday. So Bertie inherits spyglass um a few months earlier than you know, Eden and all that stuff. So Eden already bought it, and her husband Harrison. So they bought it and they live in there now in the present day. But in the past, a few months before, we hear from Bertie, and she's living her lonely life, and she gets her diagnosis, and then a solicitor comes and is like, Hey, so I'm sorry to let you know, but your grandma died, and you're the only living relative, so you inherited her house and her things, right? Bertie's like, Well, that doesn't sound right. I don't have any living relatives, I don't have a grandma, and he's like, Well, everybody has a grandma, you know. So Bertie's like, Well, duh, yeah, I know, but I don't have a grandma that I know of, and he's like, Well, apparently you do. And she just passed away, sadly, and you inherited her house called Spyglass. So Bertie goes to the house and she's looking around, and she actually does have some vague memories of the home once she steps foot in it. She's like, Oh, okay. Um, I must have blocked these memories or forgotten about it, but this house is familiar, and I do I do remember the house, you know. She's like, how odd. So she's looking around and she comes across this like letter on the counter, and so she reads it, and it's it's a weird letter basically saying, Do you uh would you like to know like your death day, you know? So we can predict your death day so that way you can live the rest of your life knowing when your last day will be, and you can, you know, live your life to the fullest, or whatever you want to do. And her name is on it. Olivia Bird is her name. So her name is on it, and she's like, What the heck? But turns out her grandma's name is also Olivia Bird, so cool winky dink. But now she's interested in this because she's like, Well, this obviously can't be true. Nobody can predict the day you die. But when she's reading it, she does see the date that they gave her. So her grandma did do it, right? She went through and she did it, and the date that they predicted was the date that she actually did die. So now Bertie is curious about it, and she eventually contacts the company. Um Thanos, I think it's called. I don't remember what it's called. Than, I don't know, something like that. But she calls the company, and you know, she books a session or her time, and she ends up doing it. We don't know her death date. Again, it's a mystery, so we have no idea as the readers when they predicted it, but she has that prediction. It's a lot happening. Okay, so that I cover the two characters in the first half of the book. So Eden and Bertie. So back to Eden. So she is like losing her mind because she's trying to figure out what is happening in her house, and she's an artist, and she has like this big gallery. Um what is it called? Oh, I don't remember, but you know, when they come and they look at your artwork and stuff. So she has she has uh her very first gallery opening or whatever that night, and she's so excited about it, and she has her black velvet dress picked out, and now she's concerned because obviously, you know, something weird is happening, and nobody or they're pretending like they don't know who she is. She goes, she ends up um the police are called on her and everything because she goes back to the house, they call the police, and she ends up going to the police station later, where she talks to Sergeant Carter, and Sergeant Carter's there, and she's like trying to explain like I am Eden Fox. There's a woman in my house trying, like pretending to be me. I know what's happening, and he's just like, but you're not Eden Fox. Eden Fox is the one that lives in the house. We don't know who you are, so you know why don't you tell us who you are? And we can get you some help, basically. And she's like, No, I'm who I say I am. I'm Eden Fox. That lady in the house is an imposter. I don't know what is happening, I don't know what's happening. And so, anyways, so here is Sergeant Carter, and he's trying, trying to help. Not much goes on in this sleepy town, so you know, he's just like, uh, I don't know, like lady, basically, he's thinking that she's just crazy, you know, she's crazy and she's and that she's trying to impersonate Eden Fox, or that she truly thinks she is Eden Fox, but that she's not okay, guys. So then now in this point of the book, I'm kind of questioning like what's happen- I mean, I'm questioning what's happening the whole time, but I think that Eden Fox, the one that went for the run, is the real Eden Fox. Okay, so this is my train of thought that I think that she's actually Eden Fox. I I do feel like the author is trying to kind of persuade the readers that she might not be, and that there's something weird happening, like maybe she is a little bit crazy, or that she is somebody who maybe believes she's Eden Fox because she's pretending for such a long time that she's Eden Fox, but I think she is the real Eden Fox, and I think that the imposter is a mistress, maybe is that's what I'm thinking right now. Like, I I don't know, and I you know, I don't really know why there would be such an elaborate, weird scheme, but everybody's saying, like, no, the Eden Fox that like Harrison is living with her husband, you know, we've all seen her, you know, she makes an effort to support local stores and to come down to the town and actually talk with everybody. She's you know, she's made an appearance, she has a social media account, um, with her picture for her art or something, and it's been established, you know, like it's not a new account. So I don't I just don't know, and that might be a plot hole, actually. I'm thinking about it because I don't think it's ever mentioned again in the book, her social media being established for a while, or maybe it is, but anyway, so there's there's that stuff happening, and I'm just trying to think like why would somebody go through all that much like through that much effort, you know? I don't know, but okay, so moving on. Let's jump back to Birdie. So Birdie decides you know, I think I know what I'm gonna do with the rest of my life. I'm gonna go back to my little seaside village that I used to live in and I don't remember much about anymore, but I'm gonna go back there and then okay, I'm skipping. Okay, so now before she moves back there, she she meets Sergeant Carter. Okay, so we just talked about him. So Sergeant Carter comes to uh the house, he comes to spyglass while she's there, and he's like suspicious because the house has been vacant for a while because you know her grandma just died, and so nobody lives there. So he comes and he's just like doing a check because you know he's he's like, Well, I know that there's nobody that lives here, and the lights are on. So he does a check and she explains who she is. Like, oh no, no, I'm the granddaughter, I inherited the house. Like, I have the key, I have the paperwork, this is my house now. I'm just I'm just checking it out, you know, and he's like, Oh, okay. So they get to chit-chatting, and he tells her some lore about her grandma. He tells her that, you know, did you know that you know she died twice? Um, yeah, like, you know, a long time ago, she she died in the house, and then they, you know, the family buried her, and they all have and they have money, so they buried her on, like, you know, this plot that's really expensive, and they paid a lot for her funeral and her casket and everything. And they buried her with a bunch of jewelry on because she wore a lot of jewelry, and so there were grave robbers that came later that night to take all her jewelry, and they went to go cut off her finger with her wedding ring on because they couldn't get the ring off, and she woke up, and she, you know, she started screaming, and then the robbers left, and they were super scared, and nobody ever found out who they were, but they left, and the next morning her family found her in her bed, like sleeping, all dirty and bloody, but she lived, you know, and then she lived the rest of her life out. Um, and then she died, of course, from old age later. Uh, so anyways, so that's the lore around the grandma. Nobody really knows her or knew of her besides that story because she stayed to herself, and so, anyways, so they talk a little bit and then they end up having a spicy scene. Now, Bertie is like kind of she's like a little wary of it because she is 10 years older than this kid, but she's like in her 40s, right? And she thinks he's like early 30s. We later find out he's 28, so yeah, 12 years older, I guess. But yeah, so they end up having a little like not fling, I wouldn't say fling because it was a one-night stand. So they have a one-night stand, and both of them are like, Wow, that was the best ever I've ever had. Um, but they go separate ways because she's like, All right, bye. You know, I don't want this to be anything but what it was, and she really just does it because she wants to feel alive because she is dying. So yeah, okay. That is I'm a little further than that right now because Bertie, like I said, she moves, she decides once she finds out how much longer she has left, and we don't know, um, she moves back to the sea side village. She and then her her career is finally revealed. She is a detective. I don't know why it was a secret. I really don't. Um, the reveal was not that shocking. I don't know if it was supposed to be, like, we were supposed to go, oh, guess. Oh my gosh, a detective? Oh, that's amazing. I never would have guessed that, but like, yeah, I did not have that reaction. Bertie is a detective, she comes back to the Seaside Village, Hope Falls, and she decides she wants to work there before she dies for some reason. So she becomes Sergeant Carter's boss, right? And she takes over the case of this missing woman, Eden Fox, because Eden Fox does indeed go missing that same night that she, you know, was confused on what was happening. So she goes the whole day pretty much, and the whole night trying to figure out like who she is. She ends up getting at the police station, but then she leaves and she's thinking, I know how to prove who I am. I just have I just have to you know have somebody that knows me like say that they know me. So she's like, obviously, my husband is acting like he doesn't know me for some reason, so that's a no-go. I'm gonna go visit my daughter. The daughter, you guys. Now, this is where I have a little bit of a different um what is it? I don't know. Like I think I kind of know what's happening after we are introduced to the daughter. So let me tell you. So her daughter and her, Eden and her daughter do not have a good relationship, like at all. Like her daughter doesn't want to talk to her, doesn't want to see her, nothing like that. Because when she when her daughter was eight years old, we learn that she was in a terrible accident, and Eden takes a lot of the blame for that accident. Okay, so what happened is that um she the little girl just got I forgot her name. Let me let me Gabriela. Okay, so Gabriella is her daughter, and she just got like a bike for her past birthday when she turned eight, and so she's been riding that bike all the time through the neighborhood, and she knows you know what route she's allowed on, and she doesn't leave the neighborhood. But this one day, uh Eden decides that she wants to get frisky with her husband, so she sends Gabriella outside and she's like, Go play on your bike, you know, go out there and have fun. So she leaves this eight year old unattended and lets her go ride her. Bike. But at this point, like Harrison is home. Okay, so he's home and he knows that Gabriella is outside riding her bike. So okay, so follow along, guys. So she so they are both the parents like aware that their daughter is outside playing so that they can go upstairs and get intimate. Okay, so they do they do that, and then he has to go to work right after. So he gets ready and he goes to work. Eden's at home, she takes a shower or whatever, and she's like kind of relaxing, and he leaves and he goes to work already. So at this point, I'm just kind of thinking like the blame here is really on Eden a lot, like the accident that happens, but like Harrison's also kind of like why isn't he at fault? That's what I don't understand. Why isn't he to blame at all? Because he was home, he knew the daughter was outside playing, he left to go to work, and at this point, you would think, why wouldn't you check on your kid or be like, hey, why don't you go inside? Do you know what I mean? But like none of that happens, he just leaves. So then now Eden realizes, like, oh crap, Gabriela's been outside for a long time. Let me go check on her. So he she goes and checks, and Gabriela's not out there, so she's freaking out. She's like, Where is she? She's supposed to be out here where I can see her. Um, so then anyway, she starts looking everywhere for her and then realizes pretty quickly that she is gone, like, gone, gone. Okay, sorry, I had to pause really quick. My daughter was looking for me, so I didn't want to interrupt the episode. Um, okay, so, anyways, like I was saying, the little girl Gabriella that goes missing, she yeah, so her mom realizes that she's gone and she starts freaking out, and so she calls her husband finally. She's like, I can't find her. Then they call the police, and then the police are on the scene and they're looking for her too. So now everybody's out and they're looking for this little kid, and the husband rushes back, and and you know, he's really upset. So they find her finally. Um, a police officer finds her. Now, here's the kicker is that the police officer like hit her because it was dark, and I'm assuming she couldn't they couldn't see like something, right? So the little girl gets hit by one of the police officers that is out patrolling, and then that's the accident, pretty much. They um rush to the hospital, and then it is announced like that she's never gonna be the same again. She has a little bit of I mean, she's like broken bones and all that, but I think she has a little bit of brain damage and she's put into like a coma, and then they're not sure she's gonna make it at all, but she does make it, and um, but she's never the same again. She doesn't talk anymore, like ever. She stops talking, and she's like stuck in the mind of an eight-year-old, like where she she's just stuck at the age where she had her accident, you know. So then they decide um that they're gonna put Gabriella in a home, um, like an assistant home to like help take care of her because it becomes a full-time job and is a lot to deal with. So that idea comes from the mother because I think she's feeling a little bit overwhelmed, anyways. And by the way, the home is like not really a home, it's like um a manor that is turned into a facility, and it's like super uppy and privileged and fancy, and it's really, really expensive. Um, so they're putting her in there because they can afford it and they want like security and a good life for her and all those things, but now like the mom doesn't visit her because Carla doesn't like her. I'm assuming it's because of the accident, and you know, like the dad and maybe the daughter kind of blame the mom for that, so for like not watching her closely or keeping an eye on her or whatever. So, anyways, yeah, so that's that is I think that's really the background story for that. Okay, so back to like the present day, I guess. Um, so Eden decides, you know, she's at the she leaves the police station and she's like, I need to find somebody that can prove who I am or who recognizes me because I'm starting to lose my mind. Like people are saying they don't know who I am. So she goes to go visit her daughter finally after years of not talking to her or seeing her, she goes to the home and she's like, I need to see my daughter. And they're like, It's midnight. She's like, I don't care what time it is, like I want to see her right now. And so they like, okay, and they let her in. Um, so she goes in and she checks on her, and Eden is sitting. So the first thing that she notices is that Gabriella has like painted masterpieces, you know, and she's like, What the heck? When does she start painting like this? But whatever. So she notices the masterpieces and she's like, whoa. Then when she goes in there, Gabriella's already sitting, like she's in there and she's awake still, which it's midnight. You think she'd be sleeping, but whatever, she's not. So she's awake, and then her mom comes in and she's expecting some recognition. There's recognition or there's no recognition. She basically just like scared, kind of, and then she's like, You're not my mom, you know, and she whispers it. She's like, she whispers, you're not my mom, and then she is so surprised because Eden's never heard her speak before. So she's like, What did you say? She's also terrified because now it kind of confirms that, like, she isn't who she says she is, right? So now she is more confused. She ends up leaving and she's hysterical and she's crying and just so upset because she's just like, What is going on? Then she gets a text message from an unknown number, and it's like, you know, meet me on, I don't remember what it says, but basically like, meet me on the cliff side, and then it says something like that her keychain says to something that her husband has given her and said to her. So then she's like, Oh my god, okay, it's gonna be okay. Let me go meet with him and talk to him and figure this out. So she goes up there, and then that's where her story ends because Eden is pushed off the cliff and she dies, right? At least that's what we think. Um, but I think she does die. So, anyways, so Eden Fox dies. I think it's the real Eden Fox, not a pretend one or not a uh like ghost or anything like that. I think it's the real Eden Fox, so she is no more. So then that brings us to Birdie again. Birdie moved back, like I said earlier, and now she and Sergeant Carter are trying to figure out this mystery together. Here's what I think before I tell you guys what they think or what they're looking into. I think that my theory is that the first lady that's going through identity crisis that is now dead is the real Eden Fox. However, I think that the husband and his mistress and maybe even the daughter are all in on making it seem like she's crazy so that way she either kills herself, or if somebody else kills her because she did get pushed off the cliff, that it like nobody suspects that she died because they already replaced her with the mistress. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, that's my theory. So I'm my theory is that the mistress is replacing Eden and gonna pass as Eden as she has been already, especially because they're in a new town and nobody actually knows, and they look similar. So I'm thinking that like that's what's happening, and I don't think that Gabriella is as uh I guess as disabled as she is pretending to be. And that's my theory because she did speak, she whispered, right? And she's painting, and she's painting the the house too, guys. Like, how did and she hasn't lived there, so how would she know? Anyways, oh, oh, oh, and I'm also thinking, too, a big piece of this, and I don't know where where Bertie fits in quite yet in the story, but I am thinking that Bertie is the one that hit Gabriella like 10 years ago, because they did mention that it was a cop like she was hit by a cop. I think that the cop was Bertie, and then she left and moved to London after that, and is now coming back to kind of like set things right, maybe, or I don't know. I don't know why she would come back, but I think she's the one that hit the girl. It's just weird because I'm like, how does it all link together really? Like, I feel like Bertie's gonna be a significant piece because we are hearing from her point of view a lot, and um Alice Feeney likes to have characters that are um unreliable sometimes. So I don't know, maybe Bertie's a bad guy in this story. Let's find out. Uh okay, so what else? Where am I at? I'm about to finish it. I have about I think a quarter of the book left. If that I'm almost done. Um, so I'm gonna power through and finish it today. But a lot more has happened that I think I need to cover. Uh, those are my theories, though. I will see if I'm right because I'm almost to the part where it's like revealing things now. Do you know? So I'm excited to see what the big reveals are and how close and how off I am on my predictions. But actually, I think that might be it for now. I I'm gonna finish the book and then I will hop back on. Okay. Hello, I finished I finished the book. Like I logged off, I knocked out the rest of it, and I'm I'm back on now. Okay. So the ending was a little, it's a little bit different than what I predicted. Um, kind I kind of guessed some things. Um, so yay for me for that, but there were some things I just was like not gonna predict, I think. Um, so it's a doozy. I can't say I love the ending, it is not a bad ending, it does tie it together and it makes kind of sense. I feel like it's stretching a little bit here, but that's okay. It's a book and it's not real. However, I don't know, it just seems like a lot of stuff is happening. Uh, that's not very realistic, but still fun. So let's see. What let's let me tell you first the things I got right. So Bertie, the detective, was the one that hit Gabriella. Okay, well, first of all, that was right. I was correct about that. Or she thinks she hits her because there's more to the story than just what we were given, right? There was is so Bertie was, you know, she is the woman that was a part of the accident, and she felt immense guilt, and she did leave because of that. She left London and all that stuff. Oh, oh, and something else. Um, I don't know if it's super important, but I guess for the ending ending, like the epilogue, it's kind of important. So the um, oh, I forgot his name. Sergeant Carter. So Sergeant Carter, he it turns out he's married. So this whole time he's having like one night stands and flings and stuff like that. Like he's a married dude, but he's like, Oh man, my life is so sad because I don't love my wife. Um, we got married because I got her pregnant, and it was like a one-night thing. I wasn't even attracted to her, we weren't even dating or talking, it just happened at a party. She got knocked up, and then we got married because it's the right thing to do. But he's like, But I love my daughter like very much, I would do anything for her. So that's revealed, and Bertie's like, huh. So she she finds out before he he doesn't tell her, so Bertie finds out she even goes to his house to look for him because he's not answering his um phone. Oh, because he goes to interview Gabriella, so he goes to the home, and that's where he finds out another big secret, guys. So the girl that was pretending to be Eden, yes, pretending the other Eden was the real Eden. I was right about that too. So she was the real Eden, but the girl that was pretending to be her worked at the manor at the place where Gabriella was, you know, staying and being taken care of. So she worked there as like a healthcare provider or whatever, or you know, uh somebody to help her, like a nurse. Um and it turns out she's been helping Gabriella talk more, and she's been like really involved with the family, but she's been really involved with the family because she also worked at the manor before the grandma died, before Bertie's grandma died. She was an in-home like caretaker, and so she took care of Bertie's grandma, and she thought that you know, since she's been working there for like 20 years, that she would inherit the house. She did not inherit the house. As we know, Bertie inherited the house who sold it to Eden and Harrison. So then now this is where the phone plot gets crazy, I think. So Harrison finds this out, not not all the information, he just finds out that the fake Eden is actually not Eden. So he's like, What? Oh my gosh, I feel horrible. The real Eden was telling the truth. Um, and now she's dead. So what happened? So he's trying to question the fake Eden, whose real name is Mary. He's trying to question Mary, but she flees. Then she goes to Spy House and or Spyglass. Sorry, she goes to Spyglass, and Harrison is waiting for her, and now they're planning on like escaping and leaving together, pretty much. It's just so much happening, guys. Like the end was a it was a whirlwind, it was a lot going on, and I was trying to keep up, but anyhow, so Harrison is not inherently evil. I kind of felt like maybe he's really bad, he is still bad, but anyways, he's had multiple affairs, we know that, and which with each one he kind of like replaces the old wife, and what do I mean by that, guys? I mean that Eden Fox is the stepmom of Gabriela, she is not the real mom, she was the mistress. Who is the real mom then? You might be asking. Guess who? It was Bertie. Bertie is Gabriella's biological mother. Bertie and Harrison were married 10 years ago, and um he was cheating on her with Mary at the time, who is taking care, who was trying to get close to the family by taking care of their daughter. She she got employed at the manor, she was taking care of the daughter. She's trying to get in good graces and get back into the house that she was been working at for 20 years. But what had happened is that oh, oh my god, I'm skipping. No, no, no, no. Mary is later. Mary is later. Um, Eden. I'm talking about Eden. Okay, so Bertie and Harrison, okay. Sorry, let me backtrack. Bertie and Harrison married, had Gabriella. Bertie was pursuing her career in law enforcement, and she was dedicated to her career, so she was not home during the accident. She was working. Harrison was having an affair with Eden Fox, who was at the time um a house like housekeeper and kind of like a nanny, too. So she was there working with the family, and she was also having an affair with Harrison. So then they came up, or no, they didn't come up with any plan. Eden came up with a plan to like take to like just be there and like be the wife, you know. So they're having an affair, they fall in love, and then the little girl Gabriella finds out what's happening. She catches them, you know. I don't know, doing whatever they're doing. So she catches them because she's hiding in the room, and then she confronts Eden and is like, I'm gonna tell my mom. Eden gets mad and throws Gabriella out the window over the balcony where she splats. So then she's like panics, doesn't know what to do, and she drags her into the street, stages the bike, and like then calls the family and is like, she's missing, I don't know where she is. So then Bertie is on duty and she gets a phone call from her husband that the little girl is missing and she's panicking, so she starts driving home and she hits the bike. She does not hit Gabriella, but she thinks she hits Gabriella because she hits the bike, and when she gets out, Gabriella is a little ways away, and she's already like injured, you know, because she fell off a balcony. Anyways, this all comes to light later because we learn that Bertie came back to that little seaside place, not so she can work there, but because she wanted to see her daughter before she died. So she's like, I haven't seen Gabriella in 10 years. And also, I I do wonder this part. I think that this is a big plot hole for me at least. Like it doesn't make sense. Why would you, if you're like a loving mom and you, you know, you have immense guilt for you know, you think you you caused an accident and you caused your daughter to be impaired. Like, why would you never visit or speak to your child again? Like that to me is super weird. That does not say love to me, that says abandonment. Like you caused her in her mind, you know, she's thinking she caused her like severe pain and like a life, lifelong um complications. And so instead of being there for her daughter and you know, being like, Oh my gosh, what can I do? She decides to just flee and like leave her family behind. So she does. She gets a divorce and she moves to London and she pursues her career there, and she gets a dog, and then she lives that lonely life, you know. She's and then I know she's saying like she wanted to do it because she felt guilty and she felt like she needed to live in that guilt, but it's still kind of like, what about your baby? Like you're not gonna check up on her ever again. So after 10 years, now that her daughter's 18 years old, she finally decides like I'm gonna go visit her because I have cancer and I'm gonna die. So let me at least say goodbye, even though I haven't said hello in 10 years. So she visits her, and then that's when the little girl starts talking for the first time. And the first thing she says is like mom or mommy or something, and it's very sad if you think about it. Like if that was real, um, that's awful. That's a lot of trauma. But anyway, so that is what we learn. So this whole time, Bertie is Gabriela's mom. She learns that she was not the one who injured her kid, and then she's very mad about that, and that's where this or that's where this plan comes in for revenge. So Bertie and Mary and Harrison all decide that they are gonna get rid of Eden because Eden is the one who swept in there, had an affair, stole the husband away, like almost killed the little girl, their daughter, and then staged it all to look like an accident, and staged it to make it look like Bertie was the one who hurt her. So they're like, oh my god, she is such an evil person. How can we ruin her life and get rid of her? Harrison, like, well, I can't get a divorce because you know I have a really well like well-off business now. Oh, and he's the um CEO or founder or whatever of that weird Thananos. I don't know. I keep messing it up, I don't remember what it's called, but that company that predicts you know your death date. So Bernie didn't actually know that because she hasn't been involved in his life in forever, but she finds that out and she's like, Oh, weird. Anyway, so he's like, Well, I I'm I have my money tied up in my company. If I get a divorce, I'll have to split everything with Eden, and I really want that financial stability for like me and Gabriella, and not Eden. So instead of just getting a divorce and doing all that legal stuff, they decide to just get rid of her. So the plan was that Mary would act like Eden, um, and then start like you know, introducing herself and getting to know all the townspeople and basically take over, take over Eden's life. So Mary does that, and she's been doing it for a few weeks before that she the whole lock out happens. And then while they're doing that, guess what? They fall in love. Harrison and Eden actually like have feelings, and they start it like an affair, and they fall in love somewhere along the lines, so it becomes like real, and their whole plan was just to like you know to fake it and then get get the real Eden to either kill herself or to lure her up where they did, and then someone pushes her off the cliff. However, none of those three people pushed her off the cliff. Um, yeah, we get to hear from like their point of views, and they're like, We they don't know who actually did push her off. Um, so that's weird. Anyhow, yeah, it's super crazy. I think that's I think that's it. That was like pretty much the whole book. I mean, Sergeant Carter, okay, so he he eventually puts everything kind of together, and then he is totally throwing a monkey monkey wrench through the plans because Birdie has to intervene. So she comes in there and is like, I'm gonna pretend to be his boss, and she's not even assigned there, not not at all, not for real, because she already retired. She put her retirement in when she found out she had cancer, and then she just went over there to the little village and was like, Oh, hey, I'm your boss. And Harrison just believed her, or not Harrison, uh, Sergeant Carter just believed her, and he didn't follow up on anything. So he finds all this out and is like, What this whole time I've been lied to, and then Bertie tells him the truth. Um, and then she thinks she's gonna die that day because her death day is like on the day that I don't know that I'm telling you. So she's like, uh, well, might as well tell you the truth because I'm gonna die. Spoiler alert, she does not die, she goes into remission, and everybody kind of like lives happily ever after. Um, Harrison and Mary leave the country with Gabriella. Gabriella leaves on her own accord and hides in Mary's car um because she wants to go home. And she doesn't know that all this stuff is happening, I don't think. But she hides in the car and then she like scares her dad because he's on his way to go pick her up, actually. But she's already in the car. So then he's like, Whoo, well, good thing you I guess you snuck in here because like we're gonna play a good game of hide and seek now, like we're out of here. So they leave. Um, they live out of out of country, and later on, like a year later, Bertie is on her mission, she moves into spyglass, um, and then her daughter Gabriella comes and visits her. And so that's the end of the actual book. Um, then the epilogue is equally as crazy, if not more. So the epilogue has Sergeant Carter's wife, she reveals that she is not a sweet, simple, dim-witted girl, and that she's been paying close attention to what is happening in her marriage. And so she reveals to us, the readers, that she's the one that pushed the real Eden Fox off the cliff because she caught her husband, um, Sergeant Carter and Eden kissing one time, and so she was infuriated about that. When she saw her standing on top of the cliff, which by the way, it wasn't the real Eden Fox that kissed that was kissing um Sergeant Carter, it was actually Mary. So Mary, yeah, like kissed him or whatever, or he kissed her, but you know, the wife didn't know that that there were two, that there's like a doppelganger out there, so she ended up killing the real Eden Fox, thinking that it was, you know, the woman that kissed her husband, but it wasn't. So that mystery where everybody's like, we don't actually know how she died, like something weird happened in the plan here. It's because Sergeant Carter's wife pushed her off the cliff, huh? And then she reveals that she is very aware of Birdie and her husband's affair as well, and so she's like, you know, she's like, I know that my husband says that they're not talking anymore, but I don't I don't care, and I don't believe him. And she's like, so I'm gonna be keeping an eye on Birdie, and maybe her time will come sooner than she thinks too, and then that's like the end, that's the book. The end. I feel like that epilogue was not necessary. That's just me. I didn't go, oh ooh, I went, what? That's silly, that's too much, too much. You could have just stopped where you stopped, you know. You didn't need to add on more mystery and nonsense. Um, but yeah, it doesn't matter. It was still a good book. I did enjoy it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was fun, it was entertaining, a little outlandish, but all in all, I do recommend it. So if you haven't read it, um well, you spoil alerts like crazy. So hopefully you have read it. But anyways, thanks you guys for listening to my messy thoughts on this. And please let me know if we read the same book, what like what you predicted, um, if you were right, if you were wrong. I I love conversation. I like to know other people's thoughts on the books. So, yep, I will see you guys next time.