The Husbands: A Novel

Nora enjoys life with the new Hayden. He packs snacks, makes playdates, grocery shops, and solves problems. At her next doctor’s appointment, her blood pressure is normal. Nora can spend more time on her partnership campaign. She takes Penny the insurance papers, finding Penny at work on her laptop. Penny expresses irritation with Trevor, but she doesn’t want Nora to tell the others because they’re hoping she falls in love with him. Nora thinks they mean well. Penny goes to get her glasses and Nora glances at her screen, noting the content of the writing.

Nora stops to greet Cornelia outside, and Nora feels like “[s]he’s on the inside now” (292). Nora tells Cornelia that Penny is writing again, apparently trying her hand at fiction, a murder mystery, based on the paragraph she saw. Cornelia’s face goes blank though she says she wants what’s best for Penny. Later, Nora wonders about the implications of Cornelia’s word choice—“what’s best” versus “what’s the best” (293)—because it sounds as though Cornelia thinks she knows better than Penny.

Penny calls Nora at work, saying she booked a flight to see her brother and asks Nora to drive her to the airport. She doesn’t want anyone to know she’s leaving. Nora considers telling Cornelia, but Penny invokes attorney-client privilege. Penny wants to give Nora some papers, just in case of emergency. They plan to meet at the neighborhood entrance the next evening.

Nora puts Liv to bed and finds a clean kitchen downstairs. When Liv crawls into their bed at 1:00 am, Hayden offers to take her back to her room, but Nora is up. She keeps thinking about Penny. An hour later, Nora goes in search of Ambien, but the bottle is missing.

In the morning, Hayden and Nora go to Isla’s office to sign papers. Hayden dives in, but Nora’s hands are sweating. She stalls, recalling what Penny said. She thinks of her baby and signs, promising not to let history repeat itself. Isla invites Hayden to meet up with the husbands tonight and hands Nora a goodie bag containing stationery, a gold pen, and a candle. Hayden hugs her, and he smells like lemony pine. He used Max’s favorite stain remover, Lestoil, and “Something [tries] to wriggle free from the back of [Nora’s] mind” (303).

This chapter is followed by a link to and summary of an article on social media about a group of mothers than went on “strike” for three weeks, refusing to prepare food, do laundry, and the like. The female commenters note how tempting this is or how they tried it, but nothing got done.

Penny is late, and Nora glances at the lab reports she brought. After nearly an hour, she drives to Cornelia’s house and finds the pool house unlocked. It’s dark, and Nora finds Penny’s bag with an envelope addressed to Nora inside. She tucks it into her own bag and walks toward Cornelia’s house. There, she finds Penny at the bottom of the stairs, still breathing when Cornelia enters. Nora wants to call the police, but Cornelia tells her not to worry, that Penny feels no pain. Alexis and Thea enter, and Thea remarks that she expected this to be over more quickly; Cornelia claims they made Penny’s death as “humane” as they could. Nora’s suspicions click together, and Cornelia admits that Richard’s death was “unfortunate” because they were forced to get creative. Nora moves to call the police, and Cornelia tells her that this would not be best for her. Cornelia tosses Nora the empty Ambien bottle and explains that she grew up in a religious cult that brainwashed members to believe the church could restore them to their ideal, unfallen state. The woman who became Cornelia’s mentor, Dr. Neha Vita, was her Sunday school teacher, and after Vita left the church, Cornelia sought to harness their practices to repair society’s conditioning of men and women to accept their unequal roles: “Society has performed the indoctrination and we are doing the hard work of deprogramming” (314). There are three other similar communities, but Dynasty Ranch is unique because Thea is learning to make the effects of hypnosis a biological reality. Thea says that she is excited to end gender inequality.

Nora accuses Cornelia of using Lestoil to start the housefire, hoping to shock Alexis and Thea, but they already know. Nora guesses that Richard began to figure things out, but, Cornelia explains, Penny loved him, so they tried to make it work.

Cornelia has an alibi for the night of Richard’s death. Nora remembers that it was Max who raved about Lestoil and Alexis who went home early. Alexis says Richard set the fire, but Nora knows they made him. Cornelia reminds her that everyone consents to treatment, including Nora and Hayden. Nora realizes that Ed is the one losing his free will, not Lucy. Penny was writing her account of all that happened when Nora brought her the insurance papers. Because of what Nora told Cornelia, they confiscated Penny’s laptop. Nora realizes she should have seen what was happening, but she didn’t want to because a part of her is just like these women. Alexis defends their actions, saying they are protecting women who might cure cancer or make other significant contributions to society. Nora tells Cornelia to “fix” Hayden, and Cornelia brings out her gold pen, clicking the top three times.

Hayden emerges, covered in Penny’s blood. Cornelia has tied Nora to the crime though she assures Nora that their actions aren’t self-serving: The “world’s a shit show” (320) because of men. She justifies their choices by pointing out that they’re acting like men, who routinely regulate women’s bodies. Cornelia clicks her pen again, summoning Asher, and Nora realizes that this is the clicking Richard heard. She evades Asher and runs. Nora sees Francine outside and concludes that the teen has been trying to do the right thing all along. Devin is there too, and Nora realizes Devin called to tell her what he knew. Francine says he overheard Alexis on the phone the night of the fire and realized it wasn’t an accident. Nora praises Francine for loving her father, and Francine says she loves him the way he is. She didn’t want to choose between Devin and her family, but she had to, and now Devin’s been brainwashed, too. Nora calls 911, and Officer Evelyn Aziz is there in minutes. Nora tells Officer Aziz about the murders, but Evelyn is a resident of Dynasty Ranch and a favorite patient of Cornelia’s. They discuss whether they need to kill Nora, and Nora convinces them that her death would create more questions, especially for Sylvia Lamb. She demands that they let her out of the contract, telling them the only way to make this work is together. Cornelia and Evelyn agree. Later, Nora opens Penny’s narrative, reads it, and burns it.

Nora is at book club with a group of women from their new neighborhood. They discuss the text’s woman characters after one woman, Jamila, wishes they were “nicer.” Another, Leah, complains that Jamila sounds like Leah’s husband. Nora can’t help agreeing that Leah isn’t very nice, and she meets the eyes of Rose Bailey, who is thinking the same thing. Jamila objects to women being “assholes now” because the world doesn’t need more of those. One woman, Nomi, casually mentions that she recently “bleached [her] asshole” (336), causing the women to erupt with laughter and talk about the ridiculous things society obliges them to do.

Nora and Rose chat as they walk home, just two doors apart. Andi now lives much closer, and she and Nora have patched things up. Nora made partner, and she inherited Gary’s clients when he died. Her son, James, is still awake when she gets home, and Hayden says he tried everything, but James wants Nora. The house is a mess. Nora puts James to bed and imagines a place where women do half the household work and feel satisfied, where they talk to friends uninterrupted while their husbands make to-do lists and clean up. She loves Hayden, but as she ages, Nora grows less tolerant of “men’s bullshit.” She pulls out the gold pen she hasn’t touched in two years and wonders how long men think this arrangement will go on, how long men expect women to do all the work. She clicks the pen.