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Summary
Chapters 25-26
Chapter 25: Present Day
When they reach the safe, Devon alerts Evie that they have company. George opens the safe, but inside, there’s only an origami swan. Furious, George confronts Evie, and she calmly reveals that she knows the truth—he is Mr. Smith, and his real name is Christopher Smith. He was hiding in plain sight all along.
Evie admits that she did recover the information from Amy Holder, but she didn’t hide it in the safe. She throws his own words back at him, telling him that the job was successful, he just didn’t know what the true end goal was. George insists that they are more alike than she thinks, and asks how long she’s been planning to betray him. Evie responds that she’s been planning it for four years, ever since the Tate job—half as long as he’s been plotting to betray her.
She reveals that Amy Holder discovered Christopher had been deceiving the Connolly family for years. While the Connollys believed he was protecting them, he was secretly undermining them. Amy had been unable to blackmail him with the information because she didn’t know his real identity—until now. Evie warns Christopher that the Connollys are waiting for him just outside the bank, and when he threatens her, she replies that he’s already taken everything she cared about—her identity as Lucca Marino—leaving her with nothing to lose.
With her plan complete, Evie flies to a new destination. At a secluded house, she meets Devon—and Amy Holder, alive and well.
Lucca Marino—Four Years Ago
After the Tate job, Evie tracks Amy Holder to a charming pink beach house in Florida. Initially, Amy is reluctant to talk, but Evie shares her real name to establish trust. When they finally meet, Evie reveals that she won the Tate competition, while Amy came in second by stealing the forgery Evie had left behind. Evie also discloses a grim truth: they are the only two competitors still alive. Everyone else involved in the Tate job died under suspicious circumstances soon after, evidence that Mr. Smith was systematically eliminating operatives.
Recognizing the inevitable—that one of them will eventually fail a test and be next—Evie devises a plan. She suggests they uncover someone Mr. Smith has betrayed and use that information to reveal his true identity. Amy, fearful of Mr. Smith's reach, warns Evie that she has no idea what he is capable of. But Evie insists that they don’t have a choice—they must act before it’s too late.
Chapter 26
After sleeping for several days, Evie debriefs with Devon and Amy. She and Amy had been waiting for the right moment to act, and everything fell into place when Amy uncovered the Connolly information. Devon then stepped in, helping relocate Amy’s sister, Heather, and her daughter, Sadie. Heather and Amy had been separated into different foster families after their mother’s overdose but reconnected as adults. Mr. Smith had threatened to send Sadie into foster care if Amy stepped out of line, so they relocated to Phoenix under new identities, and Devon began a relationship with Heather.
To protect the plan, Amy moved to Atlanta and began acting recklessly, forcing Mr. Smith to send Evie to retrieve the information. Devon acquired a body matching Amy’s description, and Amy ensured she appeared intoxicated on security cameras. The unexpected twist was Mr. Smith having hard evidence of Evie’s involvement in the murder, but if Evie had been close to going to prison, Amy was prepared to reappear and clear her name.
Devon also investigated Ryan’s involvement with Mr. Smith and found that Ryan had helped Mr. Smith a few times. However, it is unclear why Ryan was sharing his financial information, although it’s confirmed that Mr. Smith genuinely wanted to steal Ryan’s business.
Evie tells Devon and Amy that she’s done with this life and has no reason to speak to Ryan again. But Amy encourages her to reconsider, noting that they are both morally gray and suggesting that Evie should give Ryan another chance.
Analysis
These chapters explore the theme of duality: Evie and Mr. Smith reflect two sides of the same coin—both are resourceful, manipulative, and survive by staying several steps ahead of their enemies. They are masters of deception, capable of shifting identities and manipulating others to serve their own agendas. However, the key difference lies in how they wield their power: while Mr. Smith isolates his operatives and pits them against each other to maintain control, Evie forms alliances, ultimately using her connections to dismantle his carefully constructed web of deceit.
Mr. Smith’s approach to control is revealed through the systematic way he destroys Evie’s identity, eroding her autonomy piece by piece. By tying all her aliases together under the name Evelyn Porter without her knowledge, he ensures that she can no longer exist outside the world he controls. His manipulation leaves Evie with nothing—her attachment to the Lucca Marino identity, the dream of building a life with a garden, all of it has been destroyed. But this destruction becomes Evie’s source of power. With nothing left to lose, she can act boldly and decisively, using the leverage she has gained to destroy Mr. Smith. His efforts to isolate and control her, ironically, set the stage for his own downfall. By severing her attachment to past identities, he unknowingly frees her, making her far more dangerous.
The origami swan plays a pivotal role in this moment of transformation. Initially a symbol of Evie’s connection to her mother and her personal resilience, the swan is reclaimed by Mr. Smith and turned into a tool of manipulation. When she finds the swan in her room, it serves as a reminder that nothing—not even the most intimate parts of herself—has been spared from Mr. Smith’s influence. However, in the final confrontation, the swan becomes a symbol of Evie reclaiming her agency. She uses Mr. Smith’s own philosophy—that “the most obvious solution is not the right one”—to outmaneuver him, demonstrating that she has learned to wield the very tools he used against her.
What truly sets Evie apart from Mr. Smith is her decision to build meaningful connections. Where Mr. Smith isolates his operatives, ensuring they can’t trust or rely on each other, Evie uses her relationships with Devon and Amy to outmaneuver him. The depth of her bond with Devon, cultivated over years, allows them to coordinate seamlessly and enact a plan to dismantle Mr. Smith’s control. Her ability to build trust with Amy, not just through manipulation but through shared vulnerability, proves instrumental in Mr. Smith’s defeat. This contrast underscores the novel’s message: connection, even in a world built on deception, offers a path to power and liberation that isolation never can.
In the end, Evie’s victory over Mr. Smith reflects the culmination of her journey toward reclaiming her identity. Though she lets go of the dream of becoming Lucca Marino, this act is not a surrender but a declaration of freedom. By relinquishing her attachment to a past self, Evie creates space to build a new life on her own terms—one grounded not in illusion but in the messy, ambiguous reality of who she has become. Where Mr. Smith’s power lies in destroying others, Evie’s strength lies in her ability to adapt, connect, and rebuild. Through these connections, Evie transforms from a ghost drifting through others' lives into someone with the power to shape her own future, no longer beholden to the identities she once clung to for survival.
