66 pages • 2 hours read
Liane MoriartyThe Husband's Secret
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 49-54Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 49 Summary
Tess’s response to Felicity’s arrival is complicated. She instinctually smiles and is happy to see her, but she quickly remembers their situation and feels “the shock and betrayal” anew and fights “a desire to fly at Felicity, to knock her to the ground and scratch and pummel and bite” (361). Liam asks if Will is also here. Felicity says that he’ll be along a little later but that she herself will be leaving soon for England to do a coast-to-coast walk. She then plans to travel to Spain and America.
Tess and Felicity retire to Tess’s bedroom to talk. Felicity announces that the affair is over between her and Will. Rather, she says, it never got started. They sit on the rug together like they used to as children. Tess thinks “of the little fat girl who had sat in that exact position so many times throughout their childhood. […] Tess always knew there was a fairy princess trapped within there. Perhaps Tess had liked the fact that she was trapped” (303). She tells Felicity that she looks beautiful, but Felicity just says, “Don’t” (304). Felicity says that Will isn’t in love with her and that she doesn’t think he ever was—his feelings were just a crush. She knew immediately after Tess left that nothing was going to happen.
Tess is embarrassed. The last week “all seemed so stupid” (304). Felicity confesses that for her, it wasn’t just a crush; she’s loved Will since the first moment they met. Tess reflects on this, thinking it’s not really a surprise and that some part of her maybe “even liked the fact that she sensed Felicity was in love with Will, because it made Will seem all the more desirable, and because it was perfectly safe. There was no way that Will could be sexually attracted to Felicity” (364). She wonders if she’d “ever really seen her cousin at all? Had she been just like everyone else who didn’t see past Felicity’s weight?” (364).
Felicity says she should have moved on and started her own life, “instead of just being your faithful fat sidekick” (365). When she lost the weight, men began to look at her as a sexual object, a change she knows she was supposed to dislike and resent but that actually felt very good after so many years of being invisible to men. She aimed that desirability at Will intentionally. She says she thinks Will felt so bad about his new physical attraction that he convinced himself he was in love. Once Tess and Liam were gone, however, everything was different.
Tess resists this narrative. She thinks that Will isn’t “that shallow or stupid” and that “his feelings for Felicity had been real enough for him to begin the process of dismantling his whole life” (366). Instead, she thinks, Liam is the real issue; if there was no Liam, Will would have wanted to stay with Felicity: “He loved Tess—presumably he did—but right now he was in love with Felicity, and everyone knew which was the more powerful feeling. It wasn’t a fair fight” (367).
Felicity says she’s not asking for Tess’s forgiveness; Tess thinks that she is, but that she’s not going to get it. Felicity tells Tess that it’s important to her that Tess know that Felicity would and could have gone through with it; she could have lived with herself. She thinks the best thing now is for her to leave the country so Tess and Will can work things out. Felicity says that Will will be along soon. Tess asks if they flew up together and, if they did, if they held hands: “She could just imagine it. The agony. The star-crossed lovers clinging to each other, wondering if they should keep on running—fly to Paris!—or do the right thing, the boring thing. Tess was the boring thing” (368). Tess tells Felicity that she doesn’t want Will and she’s been sleeping with Connor Whitby. Felicity is indignant or maybe outraged by this: Within three days, Tess went from insisting that she would not put Liam through a divorce to having an affair with an ex-boyfriend.
Felicity says that Will wants to work things out, so she’s leaving the country. Tess should do what she wants. Angrily, Tess thanks her—but then she feels the anger drain from her body. Felicity says that Will wants another baby. Tess says she supposed Felicity would have liked to have given him that baby. Felicity agrees, apologizing. She says that Tess and Will should have another baby, but Tess dismisses the idea, asking if Felicity really thinks they can have another child and “live happily ever after” (310). She confesses to Felicity that the reason she doesn’t want another child is all of the socializing that comes with motherhood in a nice community. She tells Felicity that she has social anxiety, but Felicity is dismissive. She says Tess doesn’t know the anxiety of walking into an aerobics class full of thin women when you are “at least double the size of every person in the room” (372).
Felicity says she has to leave to catch her flight. Tess asks if she’s really leaving and Felicity, says it’s what she should have done years ago. Her father isn’t talking to her, but her mother will take her to the airport. Tess wonders what will happen with their business. They share a strange hug, and Felicity tells Tess that she should not tell Will about Connor.
Chapter 50 Summary
The Fitzpatrick family has hot cross buns with breakfast. They’re out of butter, and the girls squabble as usual. John-Paul is in “a tremulous, tender mood” (375). Cecilia announces that after breakfast, they will walk or ride bikes up to the oval and play soccer as a family.
As Rachel leaves Rob and Lauren’s, Jacob identifies “Auntie Janie” in a photo. Everyone is touched, but Lauren is particularly emotional. She says that she wishes she could do something for Rachel and wishes that she had known Janie. Rachel notes the moment of vulnerability but cannot extend the same. She perfunctorily says that she’s sure Janie would have loved Lauren, and the moment is gone.
Tess and Lucy watch Felicity’s taxi leave. They briefly discuss Will, and Lucy asks if Tess is going to forgive him. Tess isn’t sure what she’ll do, neither in the larger scheme nor when Will arrives. Lucy asks if Tess plans to change out of her pajamas and brush her hair, but Tess says that Will is her husband and shouldn’t be that superficial. Lucy says, “Gosh, Felicity was looking particularly lovely today, wasn’t she?” (379). Tess laughingly agrees to go change. She tells Lucy that Tess and Will didn’t sleep together, and Lucy comments that “in my day infidelity was a much raunchier affair” (379). As they head back into the house, Liam comes out, reminding Tess that she’s agreed to meet Connor on the oval to fly kites.
As Rachel leaves Rob and Lauren’s, Detective-Sergeant Strout of the homicide squad calls. She tells Rachel that they’ve watched the video but that they don’t think the video justifies questioning Connor again. Rachel angrily throws the phone onto the seat and continues driving.
As the Fitzpatrick family walks to the oval, Polly spots a man with a fish kite walking ahead of them. John-Paul is pushing her on her bike because she complained that her legs were tired. Cecilia starts to enjoy the beautiful day. When the man with the kite stops to answer a phone call, Polly realizes that he’s Connor Whitby.
As Rachel drives home, angry and sad, she thinks about the same day 28 years ago. She remembers being seven minutes late to pick up Janie and wonders if it would have made a difference if she was on time. Furious at the detective’s dismissal, she screams in her car. She sees a man out walking carrying a fish kite and thinks that Jacob would love it.
Tess calls Connor to tell him that they can’t meet on the oval after all. She asks where he is, and he responds, “Standing on a footpath, carrying a fish kite” (385). Tess feels regret and disappointment. She’d rather sleep with him again than “sit in her mother’s chilly house having a complicated, painful conversation with her husband” (385). She apologizes and tells Connor that Will is on his way over and that the affair with Felicity is over before it began. Connor says, “So I guess we are too” (385). She apologizes again, and he tells her to remember him if things don’t work out with Will. They hang up.
When Polly realizes the man with the kite is Mr. Whitby, she calls his name, embarrassing Isabel. Isabel and Esther tell Polly to leave Mr. Whitby alone, but Polly regains control of her bike from her father and pedals after him. Polly turns down a steep driveway and pedals toward the road. Cecilia and John-Paul both call out for her to stop.
Chapter 51 Summary
Rachel realizes the man with the kite is Connor. He steps onto the road, either not seeing Rachel’s car or expecting her to stop. Rachel considers hitting the brakes but instead slams her foot down on the accelerator. Cecilia sees a small blue car appear on the road, and she sees Connor Whitby run to avoid being hit. Polly rides her bike directly into the path of the car and vanishes under it. Cecilia freezes for a moment while John-Paul runs and Esther screams. Rachel, in the car and having slammed on the brakes, tries to understand what’s happened. She hopes that the little girl is all right but knows it’s not likely. She sees Cecilia running in her rearview mirror and recognizes the little girl she’d hit as Polly Fitzpatrick.
Chapter 52 Summary
At the hospital on Saturday morning, Cecilia and John-Paul talk to Polly’s doctor. Polly has been seriously injured but is alive. Polly’s spleen has been removed, and her right arm must be amputated just above the elbow. Rachel has come to wait at the hospital. Because Will saw Polly ride out in front of Rachel’s car, she’s not been charged, and everyone is imploring her not to blame herself for the accident. Rachel is wracked with guilt and grief, because she knows that if she had braked for Connor instead of accelerating to hit him, she would not have run over Polly.
Cecilia exits the Intensive Care Unit and runs into Rachel, who apologizes profusely. Rachel collapses upon hearing the news that Polly will lose her arm. Cecilia tries to console her, but Rachel insists that it is her fault, confessing that she was trying to kill Connor Whitby, her daughter’s murderer. Cecilia realizes that her and John-Paul’s silence cost their daughter her arm and nearly her life. She tells Rachel that John-Paul killed Janie.
Chapter 53 Summary
Cecilia shares what she knows about the murder with Rachel. John-Paul comes out of the ICU looking for her, and Cecilia tells him that she’s told Rachel the truth. Rachel asks John-Paul why he did it. He says that it was an accident and that he loved Janie and never meant to hurt her. He says that she laughed at him, and it sent him over the edge. Cecilia says she has to return to Polly. John-Paul pleads with Rachel to allow him more time before she turns him in, but she says she’s not going to take him away from his daughter.
Chapter 54 Summary
Tess and Will hide Easter eggs in the backyard and discuss their marriage. Tess is angry and hurt and can’t stick to a linear conversation. Will says that he’d been feeling insecure and old and “flat” recently, ever since his 40th birthday and a haircut that revealed to him the extent of his bald spot. Flirting with Felicity and starting a secret, unconsummated relationship had made him feel alive and young again. Tess thinks that if it weren’t for Liam, she and Will would both have called it quits and moved on to the exciting new relationships in their lives. She says they’ll give it until Christmas, and then, if Will still wants Felicity, he should go and get her.
Chapters 49-54 Analysis
The characters’ individual trajectories intersect tragically in these chapters. The chain of events involves all of them: Connor, heading to the oval to meet Tess, is disappointed and returning home after their plans are canceled. Rachel, angry at Connor and believing him to have killed her daughter, accidentally hits and possibly kills the daughter of the man who believes himself to be her own child’s actual killer, John-Paul. Will, returning to Tess to work out their marriage—and thus the cause of Tess’s cancellation on Connor—is stuck in a taxi, having seen (but not understood) the chain of events. Moriarty’s work heavily features the interconnectedness of people, and this one moment in the novel is a prime example of the profound influence each person has over the lives of the others.
The reader also sees the dangerous cycle of grief and anger in action. John-Paul’s anger led to Janie’s death and Rachel’s grief; Rachel’s grief led to her anger at Connor, her acceleration to hit him, and the grief that follows after she hits Polly with her car. These chapters, unlike most of the others, are told in small, alternating snippets of perspectives as the accident unfolds. This keeps the movement of the chapter quickly paced and feeds the reader only small pieces of the picture until it culminates in the accident. The post-accident chapters reveal Will’s motivations for his emotional affair with Felicity. In his motivation, Moriarty reflects some of the issues of pride that led to John-Paul’s assault on Janie.
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