Keep It in the Family

The narrative returns to Mia’s perspective in the present moment. Mia awakens from a coma with Finn and Debbie by her side in the local hospital; her first conscious thought is of her baby, and she panics when she cannot feel her baby inside her. Debbie reassures her that the baby is safe; while unconscious, Mia had an emergency cesarean section, and her baby boy was delivered safely. However, Mia’s fall from the attic left her with two broken ribs, wrist fractures, and bruising on most of her body. She is in a great deal of pain, but Finn and Debbie tell her that she has a great team of doctors, and that the police are investigating the bodies in the attic.

This chapter is also narrated by Mia as she returns to the house for the first time since her accident. When she arrives, Mia is horrified to find their house swarming with journalists, photographers, and police. While she is eager for detectives to investigate, she is not prepared for their discovery to become a media sensation. Mia feels overwhelmed and wants to hide away with Finn and their baby, Sonny, until the attention dies down. But every time she tries to touch her baby, Mia finds herself shrinking away from him. In spite of her love for him, she is terrified to touch him for fear that she will somehow harm him.

In the aftermath of her fall from the attic, Mia feels paralyzed with guilt; she replays Finn and Debbie’s warnings and berates herself for ignoring them and climbing into the attic. Although Sonny is safe and healthy, Mia recognizes that he could have been harmed by her actions. Mia is repulsed by her own recklessness and feels unworthy of being Sonny’s mother.

The narrative shifts to Finn’s point of view and reveals that he is instinctively aware of her reluctance to touch Sonny or engage in any aspect of his care. While he doesn’t quite understand her perspective, he empathizes with the trauma she has experienced and wants to support her. Despite his support, however, Finn suspects that he and Mia will soon have another argument; he wants to continue renovating the house so that they can live there, but Mia has already made it very clear that she will never return to the house.

The narrative returns to Mia’s perspective as she grapples with the trauma of her recent experiences. Emotionally processing her fall, her son’s birth, and the discovery in the attic has overwhelmed her, and she feels unable to function normally. She becomes obsessed with the children in the attic and cannot stop thinking about who they were and how they died. Even looking at Sonny triggers a cycle of intrusive thoughts that Mia cannot stop, so she distances herself from her baby. Because her body is still recovering from her injuries, she is physically unable to care for Sonny, so she feels even more disconnected. Finn and Debbie reassure her that she is still a good mother, but Mia does not believe them. As Debbie supports her without complaint, Mia admits that perhaps she misjudged her mother-in-law.

The narrative shifts back in time to describe a moment three years prior to the discovery in the attic. The chapter is narrated from the perspective of the unnamed stalker. The narrator admits that their compulsion to kill is growing and can no longer be ignored. They justify their urges to kill, believing that they are unable to suppress their desire to help others. The killer compares their murderous actions to volunteering with a charity. They believe that they only crave the sensation of killing so much because any charitable deed makes a person feel pleased to help others.

The stalker reflects on the painstaking process of selecting victims without being noticed by caregivers, neighbors, or police. They lament that new advances in technology make it more difficult to evade detection. In the interest of avoiding unwanted attention, the stalker has attempted to limit themselves to killing one child per year. However, as their urge becomes more intense, they feel the need to break that rule. As they observe children on a playground, they reflect on the loneliness of their commitment to killing and their longing to share their passion with someone who understands.

This longing gives way to reminiscences on painful childhood memories. The killer thinks about their older brother George; the two siblings shared a lonely, isolated childhood. The narrator has lost touch with George, and despite searching for him, has encountered no evidence that he is alive. As the narrator reflects on the pain of their childhood, they acknowledge their similarity to the parents who caused their misery. They admit that their parents killed children, and now the narrator shares the same compulsion. However, the narrator insists that their own motivations for murder are different.