63 pages • 2 hours read
Christina LaurenThe Paradise Problem
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 31-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 31 Summary: “Anna”
Ray promptly arranges for Anna and Liam to fly back to mainland Singapore. Liam and Anna get a hotel near the airport, and Anna urges him not to take the CEO position even though she knows that he will most likely bow to his father’s will. She attempted to Google “this mysterious Pisa thing” but could find no information (283), so she asks Liam again to tell her what it is. He promises to explain it when they get back to California.
Anna’s manager calls to tell her that more galleries are interested in her work; the manager also hopes that more people will get to see the paintings this time, because the last three were bought anonymously before the show even opened. Anna confronts Liam with her sudden suspicions, and he confirms that he bought her paintings. He insists that he did it to help build her reputation as an artist, but she feels deceived and claims that he is using money and influence to direct the path of her career, just like Ray does to his sons and daughter. Anna insists that his siblings will all be fine even if Ray does strip them of their inheritances. When he asserts that he must choose his siblings over his happiness, Anna counters that his siblings would choose money over family every time. Liam refuses to force them to make this choice.
Chapter 32 Summary: “Liam”
Liam and Anna break up before their flight home. He insists on sending her the money he promised for fulfilling her part of the bargain, and she forbids him from sending any more than the agreed amount. As he watches her leave, Liam worries that he will never see his wife again.
Liam discovers that Anna’s paintings have already been delivered to his house. As he hangs them, he is in awe of her talent. Jake calls and tells Liam to defy Ray. As Liam explains the way their father can use the linked trusts to manipulate him, he realizes the depths of Ray’s need to control them. He wishes that Jake would prove Anna wrong by telling him to refuse the job despite the consequences, but instead, Jake merely thanks him for being willing to “take one for the team” (295). Jake puts Ray on the phone so that Liam can accept the CEO position, and Liam asks if Ray is really determined to extort his own son. Ray calls it using “leverage” and offers a promise not to release any remaining PISA documents in return. He states that if there had been no fraudulent marriage, he would have simply used the PISA documents to manipulate Liam.
Liam stares at Anna’s paintings and realizes that she is the only person in the world willing to put him first. He tells Ray that he won’t take the job and invites his father to go ahead and try to destroy him.
Chapter 33 Summary: “Anna”
Anna seeks refuge at her father’s house and tells him the truth about the trip, which she had concealed earlier by saying that she was going to paint wedding portraits. She asks David if he thinks that Liam is too broken, but her father surprises her by seeing things from Liam’s perspective. The next morning, details about PISA are all over the news, and Anna finally learns that PISA is a program that Liam created to track store inventory, but it was used to spy on and stalk employees and its use led to several lawsuits.
When Anna speaks to Blaire and learns that Ray is behind the news story, she knows that Liam refused the position of CEO. Blaire explains that Ray had Liam modify the software he created so that he could track specific keywords across all company systems, violating privacy laws. After several employee lawsuits made the news, Ray paid to have PISA scrubbed from online searches. Blaire remarks that Ray simultaneously hates and admires Liam’s refusal to bend to his will. Ray even takes credit for the endowment that Liam set up, which provides grants to company employees and allows them to take classes, go to college, or buy homes.
Before Anna gets off the phone with Blaire, she reveals the loophole in the trust. Anna also speaks to Jake, who is at first dismayed and then approving when he learns what has happened. Anna flies to Palo Alto to support Liam.
Chapter 34 Summary: “Anna”
Reporters recognize Anna’s pink hair and swarm around her, but Liam comes to her side and brings her into the house. Anna apologizes and urges Liam to fight back against his father’s accusations, but Liam turns her attention toward the television. Alex is on the news, explaining that Ray Weston is a liar and that “Liam never engaged in any predatory or illegal activities” (315). The narrative reveals that Blaire called Alex in Singapore and told him about the inheritance loophole, and this convinced him that the siblings needed to band together against their father.
Liam and Anna embrace happily, and she notices that he is looking at her the same way he did when he first showed up at her apartment. But this time, he likes seeing the “real” Anna in her messy clothes: the person who loves him and makes him laugh.
Epilogue Summary
The epilogue weaves back and forth between Liam and Anna’s perspectives as they navigate the first year of their relationship and the aftermath of the novel’s events. Ray is sentenced to prison for a host of corporate crimes related to PISA. Anna’s art career begins to gain momentum, and she gets a job teaching art. Liam can fully fund the endowment that he started for the employees of Weston Foods. He also takes a seat on the company’s board even as he keeps his position at the university. The date when he and Anna can legally divorce comes and goes. Liam gives Anna the engagement ring that she wore on the island, telling her that she can put it in a drawer until she wants to wear it, if ever. They buy a house together in Palo Alto, and he buys another house nearby for Anna’s father. They gradually blend their families together, including his siblings and Janet, who filed for divorce after Ray’s lover called her with details about their affair. On Liam and Anna’s sixth wedding anniversary, Liam asks Anna to marry him for real, and she accepts.
Chapter 31-Epilogue Analysis
The novel’s resolution focuses primarily on The Tension Between Romantic and Familial Loyalty and The Complex Motivations Behind Marriage. In the typical “third-act breakup” that is featured in many romance novels, Anna mistakenly equates Liam’s motivations with Ray’s toxic behavior, and this misunderstanding is exacerbated by Liam’s noble yet shortsighted refusal to reconsider his unswerving loyalty to his siblings. This “perfect storm” of conflicts temporarily drives them apart and forces both character to undergo an internal reckoning. Although she can cope with the disastrous events of the wedding, Anna cannot countenance the idea that Liam would deceive her by anonymously buying her artwork, and it is only when her father stresses the importance of a person’s intentions that she finds a way to forgive him. Notably, it is Anna’s artwork that reminds Liam of the strength of her values, for as he reflects, “She was unemployed, but she was still fighting. She was penniless, but she was living. She wasn’t ever afraid to start over, again and again” (298). This realization prompts him to reject the notion of familial loyalty and honor his personal ethics and freedom instead.
As the novel resolves the conflict that stems from Liam’s decision to stand up to Ray and “choose himself,” the authors employ multiple ironic twists. For example, Alex finally realizes that his loyalty to his father will only be repaid with disloyalty. Finally realizing the extent of Ray’s corruption, his sons band together to reject his power, and this collective action effectively nullifies his influence on their lives. Likewise, Anna’s assertion that everyone in Ray’s family will leave him proves to be prophetic, for Ray’s dissemination of the PISA documents destroys himself and has no detrimental effects upon Liam. The siblings ultimately work together to protect their inheritances, thereby fulfilling their grandfather’s hopes that the clause would encourage them to confide in one another. Most importantly, Liam and Anna’s marriage, which began as fraudulent, now blossoms into something very real, highlighting the importance of Preserving Authenticity Amidst Pretense.
As Liam and Anna find their footing as a couple and as successful professionals, they both identify their ideal lifestyles and decide who is deserving of their loyalty, and they also build a strong, viable marriage together. In true “happily-ever-after” fashion, Liam uses his money to implement good deeds, and with Anna’s new success as an artist and her authentic connection to Liam, her family’s financial struggles are over. Because she and Liam are able to work through The Complex Motivations Behind Marriage and create a workable, healthy relationship, Anna manages to create a space in which the remaining Westons—including Janet—can feel comfortable enough to be themselves. Liam’s comparison between his childhood family dinners and the dinner that he and Anna host highlights the fact that his own family has blossomed in the absence of Ray’s toxicity. As he states:
Our table growing up sat sixteen, and nobody but my dad ever spoke much at mealtimes. This table seats eight and there are twelve of us with extra chairs from the kitchen carried in, sitting crammed together [...] We’re occupying the same space, we are making room for each other. There’s not a single break in the conversation all night (331).
Through this heartfelt resolution, the novel emphasizes the idea that personal authenticity always triumphs over societal pretense, and the story also implies that loyalty is worthless unless it is reciprocated, just as wealth is a burden unless it can be used to improve the lives of others. Ultimately, the authors suggest that the meaning of a marriage should only be defined by the two people in the relationship.
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By Christina Lauren
