Content Warning: This section of the guide references domestic abuse and drug addiction.

As Claire is driven to her interview at the CNN studios in San Francisco, Danielle’s text causes her to panic, leading her to believe that the driver of the car is one of her husband’s minions. The air rushes out of her, she begins to sweat, her heart pounds, she feels dizzy, and her hands tremble. That the driver proves to be a CNN employee reveals one of the novel’s major themes: “This is the price of abuse. It has twisted my thinking into such a tangle I can’t tell what’s real and what’s not” (252).

Living for 10 years anticipating that a single wrong move could trigger a beating from her volatile husband, Claire cannot negotiate the real-time world without heightened suspicion and caution. With her family all dead from a traffic accident and Rory’s controlling ways alienating her from friends, Claire struggles to survive on her own. Rory faces no accountability for what he does. Embarrassed and scared, Claire cannot bring herself to call out her husband: He is too powerful and his psychological games have created a kind of Stockholm Syndrome, in which the victim, Claire, must depend on her abuser just to avoid beatings.