55 pages • 1 hour read
Darcey BellA Simple Favor
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2, Chapters 25-33Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2, Chapter 25 Summary: “Emily”
Emily watches as Stephanie takes her place; although it disgusts her, it also excites her. As far as she is concerned, Stephanie can have her life—except for Nicky. Emily’s habit of spying began when she was a child as she watched her mother drink from a hidden gin bottle. When she got a little older, Emily drank from her mother’s hidden bottle, but her mother never noticed. She believes that, thanks to television, everyone had a bad childhood but thinks everyone else’s was perfect.
After she disappeared, it took everything Emily had “not to completely mess with Stephanie’s head” (158). She is annoyed at Sean for being with Stephanie and feels that he failed a test. She wonders how quickly Sean would dump Stephanie if she returned. After all, she reasons, Stephanie isn’t very smart, which is why Emily chose her. In contrast to how Stephanie feels about secrets, Emily knows that they are necessary.
Emily sees herself as a predator. She met Sean at a charity dinner and immediately realized that she could control him. On their third date, they watched her favorite movie, Peeping Tom, about a serial killer who films his murders. Afterward, Sean commented that it was “a little much” (161) and to Emily, he failed a test.
After they elope to Las Vegas, they go to England to visit his mother. Emily gets bored and knows she has to do something bad, so she steals Sean’s mother’s sapphire ring. She helps Sean and his mother look for it all over her house. On the plane, she shows him the ring and tells him that she stole it. At first, he thinks it is a joke, but Emily refuses to give it back. She tells him that she sold her engagement ring and wants this one. He slides it onto her finger, and later, they have sex in the plane’s bathroom. Emily knows that Sean is hers forever now.
Emily had told him not to believe that she was dead, no matter what he heard, and she is insulted that he chose Stephanie after her. She stands in the woods and watches Stephanie gaze out the window, holding the phone. Then Emily drives back to her hotel, where she is registered under a fake name. She isn’t worried that Stephanie will report that she is alive and is confident the plan that she and Sean concocted—to get the life insurance money—will continue uninterrupted.
The plan began out of discontent. Even though they have everything, they began to fantasize about what they would do with millions of dollars. Emily develops the insurance fraud plan, and Sean falls in line. She will disappear, then fake her death. After they collect the insurance money, they will move to Europe with fake identities. Now, however, Emily only wants Nicky.
Emily befriended Stephanie because she needed someone who would support her story and look after Nicky in the meantime. On the rainy day they meet, she can tell Stephanie is perfect for the task, and gives her the umbrella they share so that she feels special. It was perfect that Nicky and Miles were already friends. Stephanie is what they call “the fish” in poker. Emily clinches the friendship by pretending to respect and admire Stephanie’s blogging career.
Now, Emily realizes that she shouldn’t have been surprised when Stephanie and Sean started sleeping together. She understands how different Stephanie is from the persona she presents, especially when Stephanie reveals her affair with Chris. She also remembers the way that Stephanie studied her and seemed to want to be her.
Stephanie told Emily about Chris when they were watching Miles and Nicky on a ride at the county fair. Emily switched on a recorder that she started carrying, and records Stephanie saying that she thinks Miles is Chris’s child. Emily can’t believe that Stephanie tells her such powerful things, especially because Emily’s job is to manipulate information.
Emily and Sean hadn’t figured out how to convincingly fake her death until she came upon an unexpected opportunity. She didn’t explain the specifics to Sean and wonders later, if she had, whether Sean would’ve still believed she was dead. But the fake death was so convincing that it convinced him as well. Emily has spent the last months in hiding, so she hasn’t been online. When she reconnects with Stephanie’s blog, she is surprised by Stephanie and Sean’s relationship.
While Stephanie’s stepping into her life makes her angry, Emily knows that it is what’s best for Nicky. The only thing that Emily truly agreed with Stephanie about was how consuming motherhood is. Even though it is risky, she returns and sees Nicky at school. Curious about a different perspective, she also reads Stephanie’s blog, but she begins to feel like Stephanie is stealing Nicky. She is infuriated as she reads entries about Stephanie becoming an important part of his life. Two days after she calls Stephanie, the following entry appears on Stephanie’s blog.
Part 2, Chapter 26 Summary: “Stephanie’s Blog: The Afterlife”
Stephanie tells her readers she has been thinking a lot about the afterlife, and wondering where Emily is. She has decided to write her next post as if she is actually communicating with Emily.
Part 2, Chapter 27 Summary: “Stephanie’s Blog: The Afterlife (Part Two) Dear Emily, Wherever You Are”
Stephanie’s letter to Emily begins by telling her that Nicky misses his mother, but he has stopped crying at night. Although sometimes she likes to think that the dead are watching over us, she also thinks about the pain it must cause them. She knows that it must be painful for Emily, watching Stephanie in her life, but assures her that, although she can never replace Emily, she will take good care of Nicky and Sean.
Part 2, Chapter 28 Summary: “Emily”
After Emily reads the letter on Stephanie’s blog, she is enraged. Stephanie is playing a game with her, and Emily decides to enter the game and win. She will win because she is a predator, and Stephanie is not.
Part 2, Chapter 29 Summary: “Stephanie”
At first, Stephanie thought she hallucinated Emily’s phone call. Then she put it out of her mind. Telling Emily about Chris and Miles was a mistake because Stephanie is sure she’ll be punished, as Emily must be wishing her harm. She now regrets her relationship with Sean because Emily is smarter and capable of making her pay. She thinks about telling someone about Emily, but she doesn’t because it sounds unbelievable. She hasn’t even told Sean both because she doesn’t trust him and because he really seems to think that Emily is dead.
After her blog posts, she doesn’t hear from Emily. Stephanie begins to relax, but Emily calls again. Stephanie asks her to prove her identity, and Emily plays the recording of Stephanie, confessing that Chris may be Miles’s father. She tells Stephanie that she wants Nicky. After the phone call, Stephanie returns to her own home, wanting comfort, but she smells Emily’s perfume and remembers that they traded house keys.
Part 2, Chapter 30 Summary: “Stephanie’s Blog: Wise Children”
Stephanie tells readers that, in March, Nicky asked if they would celebrate Emily’s birthday. They did, with a cake, and she sends birthday wishes out to Emily.
Part 2, Chapter 31 Summary: “Stephanie”
A birthday card arrives for Emily from her mother. Stephanie wonders whether the woman was told about Emily’s death, or if she somehow knows that Emily is alive. Sean’s reaction to the card makes her wonder whether he knows that Emily isn’t dead. Lately, their relationship is perfunctory, and Stephanie thinks that something is coming between them. Stephanie arranges to visit Emily’s mother. She leaves Miles and Nicky with Sean and doesn’t tell him where she is going.
Emily’s mother shows Stephanie pictures from Emily’s childhood, and she realizes this is what she wanted, even if she hadn’t known it. She is shocked to discover that Emily has a twin, Evelyn. While Emily’s mother talks, Stephanie realizes that the body found in the lake could be Evelyn who, as Emily’s twin, would share her DNA.
Emily’s mother offers Stephanie a drink and pours one for herself. She tells Stephanie about the twins and mentions that they got matching tattoos after a bad argument. She doesn’t know where Evelyn is living now, but she has both drug and alcohol addictions and may be in a rehabilitation center.
When Stephanie excuses herself to leave, Emily’s mother’s caretaker, Bernice, follows. She tells Stephanie that the twins were identical except for the birthmark under Emily’s eye. She also mentions that not too long ago, one of the twins, both of whom had keys, stole their mother’s car. She assumes it was Evelyn. After the visit, Stephanie is angry, feeling used and manipulated. She wants to tell Emily that she knows about Evelyn and decides to use her blog to do it.
Part 2, Chapter 32 Summary: “Stephanie’s Blog: On Closure”
On her blog, Stephanie writes about her trip to visit Emily’s mother. She talks about how, as she looked at childhood photos, she felt that she had a new understanding of her friend, and that “Emily’s story was twice as interesting” as she had thought (224).
Part 2, Chapter 33 Summary: “Emily”
The night before Emily disappeared, she got a call from Evelyn, or Eve, late at night. She had to hide it as Sean didn’t know about her twin. Eve tells her that she stole their mother’s car and is going to the family cabin to kill herself. Emily can tell she is serious and asks her to wait until she gets there.
Emily introduced Eve to alcohol and drugs when they were young and, over the years, has blamed herself for Eve’s addictions. After Eve moved to the West Coast, Emily missed her. She tried to help by paying for rehab and therapists. Emily thinks all night and comes up with a plan. The next morning, she books a flight to San Francisco and asks Stephanie to look after Nicky just for the night. She could ask her to watch him for a few days, but she wants Stephanie to panic and raise the alarm about her disappearance.
Saying goodbye to Nicky is painful, but Emily reminds herself that she is doing this for him. Sean goes to London as an alibi, and she reminds him that no matter what he hears, she will not be dead. Wanting the police to be able to follow her, Emily heads to Michigan. When she gets to the cabin, Eve is there, and Emily is struck anew by the deep love she feels. Her plan, and Eve’s part in it, seems terrible to her now. Eve tells Emily she is serious about killing herself and has brought a variety of pills. She asks Emily to do it with her, in the lake.
Emily tells Eve about the insurance fraud plan, and her twin quickly understands how she fits into the plan. Even as Emily protests, she realizes Eve understands her better than anyone. She gets Eve to promise that she won’t kill herself that night. The next morning, Eve tells her that she has decided to live. Emily is overjoyed, but, having imagined the event and its aftermath, she now feels a strange sense of disappointment.
Emily suggests that they have a party and pulls out the liquor she has brought. It is eight o’clock in the morning, and Eve doesn’t notice that Emily is barely drinking. She also takes some of the pills that she has brought; while Emily doesn’t encourage her, she also does not stop her. When Eve brings up wanting to die, Emily tells her that she will support her no matter what she chooses.
Eve decides to go for a swim, and Emily hopes that she will come back after the cold water shocks her awake. She imagines forgoing her plan and living with Eve and Nicky. Before Eve goes out to the lake, Emily puts the sapphire ring on Eve’s finger. After Eve leaves, Emily passes out, and when she wakes up, she cannot find her sister. She goes back inside and takes two of Eve’s pills, then passes out again. When she wakes up, she knows she has killed her sister.
After a week, Emily cleans the cabin, leaves her rental car, and drives their mother’s car to a friend’s cabin in the Adirondacks. She misses Nicky and decides to return. When she gets back online, she finds out about Stephanie and Sean.
Now Stephanie is taunting her, through her blog, about Eve’s existence. Emily decides she needs to talk to Sean, who seems to believe she is dead. First, she calls Stephanie and threatens to kill her if she tells anyone about Eve. Then she texts Sean their code word, Peeping Tom, and they meet for dinner in Manhattan. When he arrives, she realizes she doesn’t love him anymore and that the plan is over. He tries to smooth things over, but she blames him for Eve’s death. She hates him even more than Stephanie now. Stephanie is just stupid while Sean has betrayed her.
Part 2, Chapters 25-33 Analysis
Part 2 begins with a startling shift—Chapter 25 is told from Emily’s first-person point of view. Until now, everything the reader knows about Emily, her relationship with her family, and her disappearance, has been from Stephanie’s perspective. When the novel began, Emily had already disappeared, so there wasn’t even a direct view of her—every scene in which she is present is being retold. With her perspective, a few things become clear: she isn’t dead, she is nearby, and she has no love for Stephanie or Sean. Emily has no problem leaving her life behind; as she says, “I just want Nicky” (155). In this chapter, the reader also hears about Emily’s history, her mother’s alcohol abuse, and her own alcohol abuse at an early age.
Emily is not just an expert at Living a Double Life—as a twin, she is a type of double. Like Stephanie, she is acutely aware of secrets; however, Emily believes, “We have to have secrets. We need them to live in the world” (158). She also offers her own perspective on her relationship with Sean, which she describes as a number of tests, many of which he fails, as when he doesn’t like her favorite movie, Peeping Tom.
However, he does pass the test of the sapphire ring, and the reader finally gets the real story of how and why Emily stole it. These incidents build a clearer picture of her character than has been illustrated so far: she is manipulative and controlling, and she becomes bored and restless when not pushing the boundaries of moral and legal behavior. She is, as she puts it, a predator. With the revelation of Emily’s true character, it’s clear that Stephanie is in danger. Although she, like Emily, knows The Allure of What’s Forbidden, Emily’s powers of manipulation far outstrip her own. This further builds the tension that has already increased in Chapter 24 with the revelation that Emily is alive and watching Stephanie.
Chapters 26 and 27 are both posts on Stephanie’s blog, and to her readers, it looks as though Stephanie is processing her grief. However, Stephanie is using her blog to communicate with Emily in a sort of double speak. She shows that while she may not be as devious as Emily, she can hold her own, and she appears to threaten Emily with her promise to take care of Nicky. In Chapter 28, Emily fully engages in this game with Stephanie, confident that she will win because “the cat always wins. The cat is the one who enjoys it” (200). With this shift, the novel enters a new phase, moving past Stephanie’s investigation into Emily’s character and into direct engagement with Emily.
Although Stephanie may think that she can equal Emily in this game, Bell creates uncertainty by showing the depth of Emily’s anger and cunning. In Chapter 29, after Emily calls again, Stephanie understands what she has gotten herself into. In addition, she now knows that Emily has a recording of her admitting to her affair with Chris. Bell warns the reader just how vulnerable Stephanie is: she smells Emily’s perfume in her house and realizes that Emily has been there and even has the keys. She recalls that, during the course of their friendship, she has opened herself fully to Emily and is completely vulnerable to this woman, whom she now understands to be very dangerous.
Stephanie, however, does not back down, but continues to investigate Emily’s life by visiting her mother. What she learns there about the existence of Emily’s twin, Eve, makes her understand the extent to which Emily has been Living a Double Life. Despite knowing how angry it will make Emily, she again reveals what she knows about Eve on her blog, in a way that no one but Emily will understand.
In Chapter 33, Emily finally reveals the full story of her disappearance and Eve’s death. This is a climactic point in the novel—although it has become clear that it was Eve’s body that the police found in the water, how her death occurred is still a mystery. When Emily tells her twin about the insurance fraud, Eve immediately understands her role in Emily’s plan. Emily shows some hesitation in carrying it out, but the following day, recommits to her plan. She doesn’t kill Eve herself, but she provides the means to do so and doesn’t stop Eve, as she always has done before. She withdraws her support from Eve and then passively waits for her twin to die by suicide. Later she avoids accountability again by shifting the blame for Eve’s death to Sean, and he becomes her new target.
