The Last Mrs. Parrish

Daphne goes to the city for Meredith’s husband’s surprise birthday party. She puts on a dress that Jackson dislikes and meets him for drinks. He forces her to spill, making them late as they must go to the apartment to change. There, he forces her to have sex. At dinner, Jackson contradicts Daphne’s story by claiming she had a massage, embarrassing Daphne and hurting Meredith’s feelings.

Daphne reflects on first meeting Amber and their fast friendship, admitting that she probably was too quick to accept the woman into her life. In exchange for securing Daphne a job with Jackson’s firm, he forces her to cancel plans with her mother, demanding she say hurtful things as part of the deal.

On Daphne’s way to a dinner date with Amber, Jackson arrives home in a fury. He rages at her and forces her to perform oral sex. When Daphne arrives at dinner, she is tempted to reveal her life to Amber, but refrains, knowing Amber cannot help her.

When Meredith first uncovers Amber’s fraud, Daphne initially believes Amber’s story. Meredith argues with Daphne, but Daphne hides her true feelings. Immediately after Meredith leaves, Daphne gets cash, a new phone, and the turtle Amber gave her and calls a cab. She meets with a private detective and hires him to investigate Amber.

The following Wednesday, Daphne meets with the detective and reads Amber’s file. Amber’s birth name is Lana Crump, and she has a long history of crimes and cruelty. None of the details Amber has given about herself are true, and she has a current outstanding warrant for her arrest. Daphne asks if the detective is obliged to turn this information over to the police, but the man assures her that is not the case. Daphne leaves him with one more task and goes to the bank, putting the file in a safe-deposit box. She formulates a plan, seeing both Amber and Jackson as people without a conscience. 

Daphne resolves to give Amber what she wants: access to Jackson and the information needed to “steal” him away. The two women meet after Amber has undergone a makeover and is beautiful. The two chat and Daphne lies, claiming that Jackson cheated on her after Tallulah was born. Amber promises to keep an eye out, but Daphne now recognizes her behavior as predatory.

Daphne arranges for Amber to see Hamlet with Jackson and faces his wrath afterward for changing plans. The next morning, Amber and Daphne have a calculated phone call during which Daphne feeds Amber more information, behaving flippantly about clothing prices. Daphne invites Amber to a dinner party, intentionally trying to pair her with Gregg to make Jackson jealous. She invites Amber to swim before the party, then eats carbs and sugar to gain weight beforehand. She hides the evidence and falsifies her food journal. Jackson comes home from a business trip and inspects Daphne’s food journal, berating her for having eaten a baked potato. When Tallulah appears, Jackson continues to insult Daphne’s weight, calling her a fat pig. He has Daphne take Tallulah to bed, telling her to come to his office afterward, where he sexually assaults her.

On the morning of the dinner party, Amber is dressed in a revealing bikini at the Parrish pool. Jackson shows off to the women, and Daphne notices him watching Amber while she swims. Jackson leaves to work, and Daphne reveals some of the benefits of his money. This includes an on-call hair stylist and masseuses who come to care for the women. In the evening, Gregg is smitten with Amber, which angers Jackson. One of the other wives asks Daphne how she is comfortable with Amber working with Jackson, as beautiful as she is. At the evening’s conclusion, Amber and Gregg discuss date plans. In bed that night, Daphne begs Jackson not to have an affair with Amber, knowing that doing so will make him eager for Amber’s affections.

Daphne invites Amber to the lake house with the intent of telling her about Jackson’s desire for a son. She also gives Amber the key to the New York apartment. Daphne intentionally does things to bother Jackson. She pretends to have invited some friends for dinner, claiming she misread his calendar. He leaves to stay in the New York apartment, and Daphne sends Amber a warning message after he arrives that he is in a bad mood. She sets Amber up to be a sympathetic ear, hoping to end the night with the two of them in an affair.

Daphne observes Jackson’s infidelity, seeing all the signs of his affair. Daphne waits nervously for Amber to get pregnant, afraid that Jackson will get bored of Amber otherwise. She pretends to begin menopause to make Amber more appealing. After Jackson and Amber’s trip to Paris, he forces Daphne to wear the corset he gave Amber, insulting her weight gain. He sexually assaults her and Daphne despairs, worried that he is losing interest in Amber.

Daphne hears Amber and Jackson arguing late at night and knows that Amber is pregnant based on her appearance. That night, Jackson and Daphne go to bed, and he shines a flashlight in her face, pressing a gun against her cheek as he questions her about things Amber claimed she said. He says he knows someone who is having a baby boy, and they can adopt him. He cocks the gun, claiming there is one bullet in it, and pulls the trigger. It does not fire. 

The novel transitions back to the third-person point of view as it begins its third section. Amber leaves the luxurious hotel Jackson took her to, writing Jackson a note stating that, if he does not divorce Daphne, she will abort the baby. She ignores his calls and texts until the next afternoon, then calls him to say she has an appointment in an hour. He begs her not to do it, swearing that he will tell Daphne and inviting her back to the New York apartment. Once there, Jackson exposes his angry side for the first time, but Amber brushes it off. After sex, she convinces him to keep his house rather than give it to Daphne in the divorce. She thinks joyously about kicking Daphne and her children out of the house, wanting them to live in poverty.

Daphne gets a call from Jackson to go to the New York apartment for a serious discussion. She learned from the private investigator how to clone a cell phone and has access to messages sent between Jackson and Amber. At the apartment, Jackson announces that he is marrying Amber and she is pregnant with his son, mentioning Daphne’s weight gain and appearance as contributing factors to his infidelity. Daphne feigns shock and hurt. Jackson promises to reward her for a fast divorce, and she claims to need time to think. Outside the apartment, she smiles.

Six months later, Amber is preparing for her wedding the next day. She and Jackson are having a courthouse wedding because she is self-conscious about her pregnancy. She also convinces Jackson not to invite his children, claiming that they might be upset about the arrangement. The next day, Amber gets ready, then calls Daphne to talk to the girls. On the phone with them, Amber claims she wanted them to be there, but Jackson had refused over his excitement about his son. That afternoon, Jackson and Amber meet at the courthouse, with Jackson’s new assistant Douglas as their witness. In the limousine afterward, she thinks about how she manipulated Gregg to be on their side and is satisfied, believing the people of Bishops Harbor will be unwilling to say a word against her with his support.

Daphne consents to let the girls stay with Jackson and Amber for the weekend. At the house, Amber tries to introduce the girls to her son, Jackson Junior. Bella bluntly insults the baby’s appearance and Amber is enraged, saying that Jackson must have forgotten about the visit because of his joy over his new son. Daphne waits for Jackson’s arrival, going to the drawing room where a naked portrait of Amber has been hung amongst wedding photos. Jackson arrives, and as Daphne leaves, she tells Amber to “Enjoy it while you can” (384).

Two months after the divorce, Daphne goes to Jackson’s office. She presents him with the file on Lana Crump, explaining Amber’s con and her own orchestration of events. She demands that Jackson sign over his parental rights in exchange for keeping Amber’s secret and not turning her in to the police. She warns Jackson that if anything were to happen to her, she has arranged for a copy of the file to be forwarded to Meredith, with additional contingencies to follow if necessary. Daphne presents him with the papers, as well as a document to sign saying he made up the mental health and child neglect allegations against her.

Amber’s joy in marriage does not last as Jackson arrives one morning with Daphne’s documentation. He forces Amber into Daphne’s old position, with careful budgeting, excessive dieting, and the food journal. When Amber lashes out about keeping track of calories, the two fight. That night, Amber is awoken by Jackson choking her. He holds a gun to her head and pulls the trigger, but it is not loaded. In fear, Amber urinates, and he makes her clean it up. He shows her the gun’s engraving, YMB, and explains it stands for “you’re mine, bitch.” Amber, for fear of her life, does everything Jackson says.

Eight months later, Daphne returns to New York, reflecting on how her life has changed. She reconciled with her mother, explaining Jackson’s abuses and manipulations. Her mother makes plans to sell her bed and breakfast so she can move with Daphne and the girls to California. They find a house on the coast, get a dog, and put the girls into therapy. They eat sweets and watch fun television shows, though all of them carry trauma that is evident in their conversations. Daphne arrives at Parrish International and texts Douglas. He comes to get her just before FBI agents arrive. They take the elevator ahead of the agents, and Daphne walks into Jackson’s office, giving him a wrapped gift. The agents arrive and arrest Jackson for money laundering, tax evasion, and wire fraud. Daphne reveals that Douglas was her partner in discovering Jackson’s crimes because his sister’s life was saved by Julie’s Smile. The agents inspect Daphne’s gift to Jackson, which is a plastic turtle.

Daphne goes back to her old home where it is evident the staff dislikes Amber. Daphne suggests they talk in private, and she reveals that she knows Amber’s identity. Daphne says she knew Amber’s plan and manipulated Amber ensuring that the woman got what she wanted and freed Daphne from abuse. In the ensuing conversation, Daphne reveals that Amber framed a man for sexual assault and got him sent to prison, where he was beaten so badly that he needed to use a wheelchair. Amber had a son from their relationship whom she abandoned when fleeing a warrant for jury tampering during the trial. The real Amber, whose identity Lana assumed, is a missing woman who disappeared long before Lana stole her passport and a sapphire ring from the real Amber’s mother. Lana tries to manipulate Daphne into helping her, but Daphne rejects her and tells her about Jackson’s arrest. Daphne leaves and, while riding in the cab, writes a letter to Julie. The novel concludes with Daphne smiling and reciting quotes from a Shakespeare play she and Julie saw together.