Chapter Sixty-Nine

Daisy describes the shock of seeing a police photo of Claire Connolly, whose eyes and features Daisy instantly recognizes. She wants to tell the officers Claire is her mother but stays silent as the search fails, then retreats to her room and weeps.

In the months that follow, Daisy fixates on Claire. She quits in-person school, persuades Stuart to register homeschooling, and spends her days writing stories and creating art about a life with Claire, sharing them online under a pseudonym. Her disgust for Jessamine intensifies, fueled by memories of Jessamine’s violence toward Stuart.

Daisy questions Jessamine about her baby photos and about Allen, learning the early images are missing and that Allen supposedly left with them. As normal life resumes after the pandemic, Daisy becomes reclusive and unrecognizable to former classmates, finding safety only at home with Stuart.

About a year earlier, Daisy finds a hidden photograph: Allen on the sofa with Jessamine and an unfamiliar boy with floppy hair holding a plastic clown mask. The reverse reads, “The Last One of Us.” Daisy realizes the boy is Jasper, the missing brother.

Concluding Jasper was present when Claire came to the house, Daisy decides he is the key to the truth. She believes Jasper can confirm that Claire Connolly is her mother and explain what happened in the Vales’ home.