Mercy

Allie MacDonald née Gordon is Cam’s wife. She owns and runs a flower shop in Wheelock, located right next to the police station. Allie was not particularly well-known or popular when she was younger. By her own admission, she was only able to marry someone as handsome and well liked as Cam because they were the only two to eventually return to Wheelock as adults. Allie is completely and totally in love with Cam, to the point where her life revolves around him. She reflects on how she does a hundred things on a daily basis with Cam in mind and is constantly seeking his validation and affection. Allie’s love for Cam is damaging to herself, as, on multiple occasions, she is seen repressing her own emotions and responses in order to pacify or please Cam.

Jamie’s arrival is a shake-up for Allie, but in a positive way. She is drawn to her husband’s cousin because of the deep love he displays for Maggie, possibly because she empathizes with such a dynamic. However, Jamie’s self-awareness also helps Allie see and acknowledge the unequal relationship she shares with Cam. Allie’s involvement with Jamie’s case begins with a curiosity and empathy for Jamie, but it is eventually fueled at least partly by a sense of defiance toward Cam. For the first time, she is able to stand up to her husband and call him out on his continued selfishness in their marriage. Despite this, Allie still loves Cam and feels worried by the growing distance between them. However, she trusts him deeply because he is not just her husband but also the figurehead of moral responsibility in town because of his position as clan and police chief. Thus, she never suspects him of infidelity, even when she finds Mia’s clothes in his drawer.

Accordingly, when she is finally presented with irrevocable proof of the affair, her anger and grief are intense; these emotions liberate her from the insecurity she has felt within her marriage all this while and shifts the balance of power in the relationship for the first time. By the end of the book, while Allie still deeply loves Cam, she is more confident of what she deserves and aware that her trust in Cam has been irrevocably damaged. The book ends with the ball entirely in Allie’s court, with her potentially being able to single-handedly decide the fate of their marriage.

Mia Townsend is a young woman who comes to town on the same day that Jamie arrives at the police station. Not much is known about her past except that she is an only child, has traveled extensively, and is skilled in the art of bonsai. The latter allows her to secure a job as an assistant at Allie’s flower shop.

Despite having traveled the world and accrued different experiences, there is a sense of emptiness or longing in Mia that is a mirror image of Cam’s. Whereas Cam has been tied to one town and one home most of his life because of family, Mia has never experienced a connection to a single place because of her family. Her parents were so deeply in love with each other that Mia often felt excluded and forgotten as a child. This is possibly what fueled her desire to travel—a sense of uprootedness, coupled with the search for a people and place to feel connected to. Mia briefly finds this in Cam, as she is drawn to a man whose entire life has been dictated by duty and responsibility owing to a family that stretches back generations.

Mia and Cam begin an affair not long after she arrives in town, and unlike the guilt Cam feels for the infidelity, Mis doesn’t appear to feel the same. She does not experience any conflict or discomfort at interacting with Allie or working alongside her even as Cam and her continue meeting in secret. This indicates a selfish streak possibly born out of a need for self-preservation, as she has never had anyone to look out for her. Even when Mia finally decides to leave Cam, it is less about guilt and wanting to do the right thing and more about the fact that she knows what she wants is impossible—it is not Cam, the person, that Mia wants, but Allie’s life of being married to a consummate family man and living in the same place for the rest of one’s life.

Mia’s character arc in the story helps flesh out the theme of Power Dynamics in Romantic Relationships, as her presence is what allows Cam to feel an all-consuming love for the first time. Mia’s involvement with Cam is also what eventually causes the dynamics to shift between Cam and Allie. Mia’s situation with Cam also presents yet another moral dilemma that is explored within the book: infidelity and whether there are any circumstances in which it can be justified or, at the very least, judged less harshly.