Haunting Adeline

Daya and Adeline continue working on their respective projects, with Daya presumably working for Z and Adeline searching through photos of Gigi. The two make plans to attend Satan’s Affair, a Halloween fair that features various haunted houses. Adeline expresses a longstanding fascination with Halloween and the macabre, including Satan’s Affair. When Daya leaves, Adeline receives another text from Z, asking her if she is ready for her punishment. Initially, Adeline challenges Z, but she then finds herself afraid of his presence in her home. She looks for him, and she ultimately finds him on her balcony, smiling and holding a knife.

The chapter ends with a diary entry dated March 13, 1945, in which Gigi recounts a weekend trip with Ronaldo. She laments that she wishes Serafina could join them, as she knows that John and Serafina have a good relationship. She wishes she could somehow merge the families to keep her daughter and Ronaldo, too.

Adeline challenges Z to remove his hood, and, when he does, she recognizes him from the prior book signing. He approaches her and grabs her knife, letting it cut him, then throws it away. He presses against her, and she asks him to leave. He proposes a deal, that if Adeline can hide from him, he will leave. However, Adeline hides in a closet and is immediately found. Z’s “punishment” is to bite Adeline’s neck repeatedly. In turn, Adeline bites into Z’s cheek, leading him to grow more frustrated. Z brings her to the sunroom, commenting on how she and Arch were intimate there, and he takes out a gun.

The chapter ends with a diary entry dated April 14, 1945, in which Gigi notes that her and John have grown apart, and she feels bad that she broke his heart. However, she feels that she is mending herself, and she is glad that Serafina can keep them together. Frank is revealed to be a police officer.

With the threat of the gun, Z sexually assaults Adeline. She repeatedly tells him to stop, but Z claims that he is marking her as his property. After the assault, Z drops another rose with Adeline and leaves. Adeline is distraught and ashamed, blaming herself for failing to handle the situation. Z continues to stand on her lawn at night, and they stare at each other.

Adeline does not tell Daya about the incident, but she starts wearing turtleneck sweaters to cover the bruises from the assault. Daya is inquisitive, but Adeline deflects the conversation to Gigi. Daya found some information on Ronaldo, and the two resolve that he was involved in organized crime in the 1940s. Their conversation is interrupted by Max, one of Arch’s friends, who interrogates Adeline regarding Arch’s death. Adeline does not give him any new information, and both she and Daya insist that neither of them is involved in Arch’s death or his former business. As Max leaves, Daya and Adeline agree that Max must be the new boss of the organization Arch formerly ran, and they lament that Adeline is now likely being targeted by them.

The chapter ends with a diary entry dated April 15, 1945, in which Gigi recounts her night with John and Frank, during which John drinks too much and must be escorted home by Frank. John accuses Gigi of cheating, and, though Gigi denies it, Frank seems to believe John and storms out.

Z hides in Adeline’s closet, watching her get ready for bed. He notes his own arousal, and he claims that his actions arouse Adeline. He hides in the closet until Adeline falls asleep and comments that he read through Gigi’s diaries, taking specific note that, like Gigi, Adeline will fall in love with her stalker. He leaves a rose on her nightstand, and he plans to record her reaction to seeing it in the morning.

As he leaves Parsons Manor, Z gets a call from Jay. Jay reveals that Mark Williams and the other three senators involved in the blood ritual are in Seattle, and Z makes plans to infiltrate their organization.

The following day, Z texts Adeline, telling her that she looks pretty while she sleeps. Adeline is upset, but she messages back, taunting him. She is worried about Max’s threats, and she notes that she and Daya got drunk the prior evening. She suspects that Z must have been hiding in her closet. He threatens her again over text, and Adeline goes to sleep.

In the night, Adeline wakes up tied to her bed with duct tape across her mouth. Z sexually assaults her again. Adeline does not consent to the interaction, and she resents her body’s arousal response to Z’s actions, which causes her inner turmoil. They kiss, and Z tells her not to taunt him again. Once Z leaves, though, Adeline falls into crying and rage.

The chapter ends with a diary entry dated June 19, 1945, in which Gigi notes that John has been drinking more frequently, leading to him yelling at Sera, and Gigi fears that he might become violent. She runs off with Ronaldo when she can, and she feels guilty that she might not want to save her marriage, even for her daughter’s benefit.

Z sits in his car thinking about his actions with Adeline, rejecting the idea that he sexually assaulted her but acknowledging that it was wrong to act without consent. However, he insists that sexually assaulting her is the way to get her to fall in love with him. Jay calls him and tells him that the four senators are going to Satan’s Affair, and Z plans to go there to infiltrate their group. Z finds Adeline’s name on the roster of those who already have tickets.

Z texts Adeline a lewd message, and she responds asking if Z knows about Gigi’s stalker and subsequent death. Z recalls the diaries, but he is not convinced that Ronaldo is the killer. He calls Adeline when she comments that all stalkers are crazy murderers, and she tells him about Max’s threats. Z tells Adeline that he will take care of Max and anyone else that targets her.

Z goes to the club where Adeline met Arch and goes to the VIP room. Max and the twins are engaged in sex acts with waitresses, and Z fires a bullet by Max’s head, getting all three to drop their weapons. Showing Max a video of his father strapped to a chair, Z gets Max to agree to leave Adeline and Daya alone. Once Max agrees, Z leaves to go to another club.

The other club is an illegal underground club, in which the waitresses are drugged and abused by the patrons. Mark Williams, one of the four senators Z is investigating, is playing poker, and Z joins him. As a child, Z was taught how to play poker by his father, and he uses his skills to match Williams throughout the evening. When Williams goes to abuse a waitress, Z drops his glass and brings the waitress out of the room, pretending that he is going to abuse her. Once in a closet, Z tells the waitress, Cherry, that he is going to help her. Jay sends them a car, and Z guides Cherry out the back, promising that his organization will help her and her family.

The chapter ends with a diary entry dated July 4, 1945, in which Gigi is preparing for a Fourth of July celebration. However, John is drunk and yelling at her and Serafina, and he breaks a glass plate on the wall. Gigi notes that Frank is coming over to help, and she hopes that Frank will be able to distract John while she entertains their family guests.