The Wife Between Us

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Prologue-Chapter 3

Part 1, Chapters 4-6

Part 1, Chapters 7-9

Part 1, Chapters 10-12

Part 1, Chapters 13-15

Part 1, Chapters 16-18

Part 2, Chapters 19-21

Part 2, Chapters 22-24

Part 2, Chapters 25-27

Part 2, Chapters 28-30

Part 3, Chapters 31-33

Part 3, Chapters 34-36

Part 3, Chapters 37-39

Part 3, Chapter 40-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Part 1, Prologue-Chapter 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Prologue Summary

The Prologue is told from the first-person point of view of Vanessa, who is following the beautiful younger woman her ex-husband, Richard, left her for. As she stalks the other woman, she muses over the harm she has already inflicted on her unsuspecting prey, alluding to further damage if the younger woman “continues like this” (4).

Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary

Now in third person, Chapter 1 opens on Nellie, who wakes early in the morning to a woman standing over her, dressed in her new lacy, full-skirted wedding gown. Before she can scream and reach the baseball bat beside her nightstand, the hallucination fades. She falls back, wishing her fiancé Richard was home to comfort her. Since childhood, Nellie has suffered from insomnia, but her sleeplessness intensified after an incident in college. She briefly saw a counselor but was not willing to open up fully and soon stopped going.

As Nellie prepares for a long day of parent-teacher conferences for her preschool class, she receives a call from a blocked number. Then comes a voicemail: quiet, rhythmic breathing. It is the third one she has received this week.

Nellie convinces herself that her anxiety is a result of all the upcoming changes in her life.