Chapter 28

Summary

• The chapter begins with the protagonist reading an email from Noah. Noah had sent information about a woman named Bethany Ann Jarvitz who had spent most of her twenties in prison for arson and involuntary manslaughter. She was born to a single mother who passed away from a drug overdose and there was no record of her father. Her next of kin was listed as a cousin named Melissa Kellerman. There was no record of Bethany having an education beyond high school.
• The protagonist suspects that someone might have sought revenge on Bethany for her crimes which led to her incarceration. She came to this conclusion after discovering a security camera footage of a fire, that resulted in the death of a thirty-two-year-old man, with an unidentifiable person along with Bethany.
• The protagonist also communicates with someone named Vince Mendelson who shares the story of his breakup with a girl named Amelia (referred to as Ammi by him). Amelia left Vince after discovering him with another girl from his high school named Melissa. After the confrontation, Vince moved out and assumed Amelia handled the lease on their apartment.
• Vince's story adds more confusion, as Melissa was also Bethany's next of kin. The protagonist wonders if there was even a fiancé, or if Emmy (as Amelia is called by the protagonist) just fed her a made-up story to gain sympathy. The protagonist starts to question if she had "created" Emmy, due to a misunderstanding with her name.
• The protagonist plans to dig more into Bethany's background but is interrupted by a student, Izzy, showing her a sketch of her (the protagonist). Izzy found the drawing in the library and believes it was done by their classmate Theo during his detention.
• Izzy's interaction and her reluctant behavior intrigue the protagonist. She speculates if Theo had anything to do with the twenty-eight-year-old woman's incident by the lake. She also regrets not being more observant and not noticing Izzy’s discomfort.