A Simple Favor

Stephanie asks her readers how to tell when something is real, using the example of a child faking sick. She believes that moms have good lie-detectors, but that sometimes it is important to help a friend when they really need it. She announces that she may not be able to blog for a while because she has a friend who truly needs her help.

After Mr. Prager visits, Sean and Stephanie don’t trust each other. Prager told Stephanie he reads her blog, and she resists the impulse to read back for incriminating evidence. She asks Sean if he and Emily had a plan to defraud the insurance company, but he denies it. She wonders if she would get custody of Nicky if both Sean and Emily go to jail.

Emily calls Stephanie a week later and asks for her help. Stephanie agrees, without even understanding why. Emily tells her that a man has been following her, and Stephanie recognizes Mr. Prager from her description. Emily asks to meet, and Stephanie agrees on the condition that Emily will tell her everything. Emily asks her to bring the sapphire ring and Sean’s hairbrush, and Stephanie agrees, even though this seems wrong.

When Emily arrives at their meeting spot, they hug and Stephanie notices that she looks sad, as if something is missing. She tells Stephanie that Eve died by suicide at the Michigan cabin, which was why Emily had left Nicky with her. After Eve died, she says, she was grieving, and, knowing that they thought she was dead, she thought it was easier to stay away.

Stephanie feels like she is seeing an entirely new, more complex person. She believes that she and Emily could be friends again. She already thinks of her relationship with Sean as over. When she gives the sapphire ring back to Emily, she can tell that her friend is back.

Emily tells Stephanie that Sean abused her. Stephanie reflects that Sean doesn’t seem like an angry person, the kind that might abuse Emily, even when under extreme pressure. However, Emily says that she went into hiding to get away from him, and it broke her heart to leave Nicky behind. The story begins to make sense to Stephanie, and she decides to help Emily.

Emily will be meeting Mr. Prager in the parking lot in a half hour and asks if Stephanie will come along for support. While they wait, they talk about what to do about Sean. Stephanie, seeing his behavior in a new light, fully believes Emily. When they go out to the parking lot, Mr. Prager is dead in his car, and Emily tells Stephanie that she killed him because she was afraid he wouldn’t believe her.

Stephanie decides to trust Emily and follows her plan to dispose of Prager and his car. Emily plants some of Sean’s hair from the hairbrush, in the car, while Stephanie worries about being late picking up the boys from school. She feels the excitement of friendship and adventure. Afterward, Emily tells Stephanie that nothing will come between them again because they are “in this together” (292).

Stephanie delves into the topic of domestic abuse on her blog. She talks about how a woman can be fooled by appearances, or by believing that a man who has abused others won’t abuse her. She tells her readers to be there for a friend and help her in any way she needs.

Emily is angry with Sean, but not with Stephanie, and doesn’t know why. She wants revenge on Sean and sets up her plan with Prager and Stephanie. By killing Prager, she has gotten him out of the way, and by having Stephanie help dispose of him, has ensured her loyalty. Then she calls her boss, Dennis Nylon, who never really believed she was dead. When she asks him to recommend a lawyer, he has a name ready.

After they dispose of Prager, Stephanie and Emily decide never to speak of it again. Weeks pass, and Stephanie begins to believe that nothing will ever happen, but it doesn’t change the fact that she is an accessory to murder.

Sean is surprised to see Stephanie’s car, along with another, in his driveway. Their relationship has ended, and Sean is relieved not to have her playing mother to Nicky. The other car has Michigan license plates, and the only person he knows there is Emily’s mother.

Inside, Stephanie and Emily are on the couch together. Stephanie accuses Sean of abusing Emily, and when he denies it, she says she saw him slap her, which is untrue. Then Emily accuses him of visiting the cabin with her and Eve multiple times and having broken Eve down to the point where she died by suicide. Stephanie brings up the sleeping pills he’s been taking and the psychotic episode side effect. She insinuates that he could’ve done these things and not remembered it even though he didn’t get his sleeping pills until just recently.

Emily wants to take Nicky, and Stephanie is helping her. She has a lawyer, and if Sean he doesn’t give her full custody, she will say the insurance fraud was his idea. Sean packs a bag, takes the train into New York, and checks into a hotel. The next day, he imagines that everything could work out and goes into work. He is going to ask his boss to recommend a lawyer, but before he can, his boss, Carrington, shows him Stephanie’s blog, and leaves him alone to read it.

Stephanie tells her readers that Emily is alive. She explains that Emily’s husband was abusive, and Stephanie had wondered if she might be alive, which is why she had written posts trying to reach out to her. She tells the entire fabricated story—that Emily had faked her death, but her twin had actually died, pushed to suicide by Emily’s husband, Sean Townsend. She also tells readers that Sean had arranged to meet with Mr. Prager, from the insurance company, who had offered Emily a deal in return for her story. Emily and Stephanie are friends again, reunited.

Sean’s boss, Carrington, is sympathetic, and Sean offers his version of the story. Carrington offers to send him to oversee a project in Ireland while things get sorted out. Sean sees it for the rescue it is because as a British citizen, he would not be extradited to the US. Sean takes him up on his offer, believing that it is temporary and that he will soon see Nicky. He knows that Emily is not done with her revenge, but all he can do is wait.

When Emily gets an email from Sean about his trip to Ireland, she knows that he has surrendered. She puts her house back the way she likes it and removes Stephanie’s presence. Realizing that she has won, she eats dinner with Nicky and promises herself to settle down. After Nicky goes to bed, she reads the Patricia Highsmith novel she never finished, but she senses that someone is watching her. She thinks it is Sean, coming back for Nicky, and takes one of Sean’s sleeping pills before falling asleep next to her son. When she wakes up in the morning, she decides that she will file for divorce and full custody.

Emily goes back to work for Dennis Nylon and hires a nanny. She is happy with her life and feels none of the restlessness that has plagued her in the past. Nicky and Miles are still friends, but she and Stephanie don’t see much of each other. She is setting up a plan for Sean to see Nicky, but not until she feels that he’s been punished enough for his part in everything that happened.

Stephanie tells readers that she and Emily are both focusing on their sons, and Sean is far away overseas. She doesn’t see much of Emily but knows that they will continue to be friends. She worries about Nicky, but he is resilient and will grow from his experience.

About a month after Emily returns, the police visit. They found Mr. Prager’s car and connected him to her disappearance case. Her ring was found in the car—Emily was aware that she had lost it but didn’t realize that it had been lost that day. Further, they know that the ring is the same one found on her sister’s body, and Emily says Eve stole it from her to pay for drugs. When they bring up Stephanie, she tells them that Stephanie and Sean had planned to get married, and he gave her the ring. She gives them Stephanie’s contact information and the link to her blog, even though she thinks their relationship is now over. The police leave to find Stephanie, and Emily congratulates herself.

She decides that she and Nicky should leave and begins to pack, bringing the fake passports. She thinks about visiting Sean, and for the first time, begins to be excited by the danger and risk again.