The Other Mrs.

Sadie goes upstairs to have a bath while her family relaxes downstairs, but she decides instead to snoop in Imogen’s room. She finds a picture of a man with his face scratched off and a letter from him apologizing, saying that he can no longer live a double life. Sadie hears Imogen return home and rushes out of the room but accidentally leaves her wineglass behind.

Like the previous Mouse chapter, this one starts with “once upon a time.” The narrator talks about the last stair on the staircase, which makes noise. The stair is a warning; when Mouse hears it, she knows someone is coming to her room, and she hides. Mouse’s father is impatient and not handy, but he is handsome and a good father.

Will notices that Jeffrey Baines, Morgan’s husband, has returned home from Tokyo. Will tells Sadie there will be a memorial service for Morgan, and Sadie believes they should go together. However, he tells her that they will not be going since they did not know Morgan that well. Sadie still suspects that Jeffrey is responsible for the murder, even though he had been out of the country. She sees him out the window and notes that he does not shed a single tear.

Camille describes herself as addicted to Will. She follows him around and snoops in his agenda to find out his schedule. When she sees Will talking to one of his students, Carrie, on campus, she becomes jealous. Camille pretends to be a student and butters up Carrie to be her tutor so she can get information. She wants to protect what is hers.

Sadie awakens from a dream to find Imogen in her bedroom. Imogen found the wineglass in her room and realized that Sadie had been snooping. She yells at Sadie to stay out, and Sadie lies and says she wasn’t in her room.

Sadie lies regularly at work but accuses Imogen of being cunning. She leaves work to go to the memorial service, as she is determined to meet Jeffrey. At the service, Sadie learns that Morgan is the second of her siblings to die. Jeffrey’s ex-wife, Courtney, shows up at the service. Some gossipy friends reveal that Morgan had been Jeffrey’s secretary and their relationship started as an affair while he was still married to Courtney. Sadie spies on Jeffrey and Courtney in an intimate situation in the sanctuary and overhears what she takes to be incriminating evidence. Sadie’s phone pings—it is Joyce, telling her she is late for work. Courtney leaves for her red Jeep, and Jeffrey watches from the steps. Sadie watches both of them from her car.

Sadie comes home to find a furnace-repair van in the driveway, hears angry male voices from the basement, and worries the man she hears is the murderer. She is surprised to find that Will is being profane and menacing to the man, which she says is out of character. Sadie wants Will to apologize for his behavior, but he explains that he simply does not want to be ripped off by the repairman.

Sadie becomes jealous when Will goes to a Lego event at the library with Tate, his friend, and his friend’s mother, Jessica. Sadie likes to wear Alice’s old brown cardigan. She and Will have not been intimate since his affair, but she blames herself and her career for their lack of intimacy. She has no recollection of telling him that they would be together forever. She reflects that Will thought he could change her, but he was wrong.

Sadie arrives early at the clinic and worries someone is watching her in the fog. She considers the islanders, who do not like outsiders unless they are children, like Tate, or gregarious, like Will. She sees the schedule and realizes she had been scheduled to work a nine-hour shift on the day the Nilssons said she was arguing with Morgan. She takes a picture of the schedule and wonders why Mr. Nilsson lied. She checks his medical file even though it is not ethical and discovers that he has neither vision nor cognitive problems. She is about to check Courtney Baines’s file when Joyce shows up.

Mouse returns with another “once upon a time” opening. Fake Mom has moved in, along with a dog crate—but no dog. Father gets Mouse a guinea pig that she names Bert. Tension is already building in the house, as Fake Mom does not seem to appreciate Mouse’s intelligence, and Mouse’s special time with her father has been replaced by his time with his new wife. Fake Mom threatens Mouse for making her look stupid in front of her father. Mouse speaks with her deceased “real” mother about Fake Mom.