The Husbands: A Novel

Cornelia tells Hayden and Nora that her sessions are immersive and unconventional, and they officially consent to treatment. Later that night, Nora stops by the charred remains of Penny’s home and finds Francine and a boy there, smoking and drinking. The boy clearly wants to say something when Nora questions Francine about the fire. Francine avoids Nora’s questions because Nora is her mother’s friend. The boy can’t maintain eye contact with Nora.

Nora asks Penny about Francine, and Penny says they haven’t spoken for a while because Francine thinks Penny is a tattletale. Francine was in a relationship with a boy, Devin, and Cornelia convinced them to do couples’ therapy, which shocks Nora. Penny describes Cornelia’s belief that “early intervention” gets better results than can be achieved in adults. Eventually, Francine told Cornelia she broke up with Devin, but when Penny found them together one day, she felt obligated to tell Cornelia, and Cornelia gave Francine an ultimatum: Either she doesn’t see Devin, or they continue therapy.

Nora suspects Francine is responsible for the fire. An email from Liv’s preschool about next year’s classes prompts Nora to realize that she never got a reenrollment confirmation. She is sure she turned in the paperwork, but an administrator says they don’t have it. Now, all the classes are full. Nora knows Liv and Hayden will be upset with her for dropping the ball. Later, Nora finds the school paperwork still buried on her desk. That afternoon, at therapy, Cornelia attaches Nora and Hayden to lie detectors and asks them several yes-or-no questions. She praises Hayden often, though never Nora. Though Nora is shocked by some of Cornelia’s questions, she answers dutifully.

Nora forgets Andi’s birthday. When she remembers, she apologizes for being so preoccupied and tells Andi about the March case and couples’ therapy. Andi warns Nora against getting too invested in gaining the wives’ approval. When Alexis calls, Nora hangs up with Andi. Alexis invites Nora to yoga at Cornelia’s this week. When Nora arrives, Asher offers her a glass of fresh juice. It’s his own recipe. Nora joins the class with Thea, Cornelia, Alexis, and Penny, finding that it does relax her. Afterward, Asher offers them warm towels, and they sip tea and chat. Nora tells the women about missing the deadline to enroll Liv for pre-K, then goes to the bathroom. She overhears Francine reassuring Asher that the table he’s wiping is clean; she says how much she loves him. Nora returns to the women, and Alexis reports that she just received Nora’s HOA application with Thea as her sponsor.

A week later, Hayden feels he earned an “A plus” in therapy. Cornelia continues to praise him. At home, Nora is cooking dinner when a small fire breaks out. It feels like a sign that she needs to solve the case. That night, she dreams she accidentally burns down her home, and, in the morning, she gets an email that promises to tell her the truth about Dynasty Ranch.

Nora meets the sender, Sylvia Lamb, at a coffee shop. Sylvia alleges that she was under contract to buy the home Nora wants but the HOA wouldn’t sell the house to a stay-at-home mom. Sylvia was a wealth manager, but once the seller accepted her offer, she put in her two weeks’ notice. Just before the sale became final, Sylvia told Penny she’d quit. Despite growing close to the neighborhood women, Sylvia’s contract fell through. She tells Nora they only want “high-powered career ladies” (197), and she correctly guesses that they’ve already recruited Nora. Nora decides that Sylvia sounds like an embittered conspiracy theorist.

The chapter is followed by a summary of and link to an article about how few midcareer women are still in the workplace, and the article claims that this is responsible for the appearance of sexism. One female commenter agrees that she was being groomed for a leadership role but was at “max capacity,” so she quit. Another commenter quit because she believed her colleagues worked harder than she did; as a mom, she couldn’t give 100% of herself to work. Other commenters lament the overwhelm many women feel and argue that the “motherhood penalty” affects women whether they are mothers or not.

Andi texts Nora to say that she’s returning to the US this weekend to visit her mother, and she’s scheduled a long layover in Austin. Nora calls around and learns that none of the good pre-schools have openings. Nora realizes that her belief in a “normal” week is a fairy tale. She’s just about to go pick up Liv when Gary asks for a “minute” of her time; he proceeds to talk for a lot longer than that. When she tells him she must go, he says that work will sometimes interfere with life. It irritates her that Gary believes he’s better at his job than she is, but she knows he’s reached this conclusion because he has never had to think about running a household.

Hayden and Nora wear gym clothes for their next session with Cornelia. When they arrive, Cornelia puts them on treadmills for “active meditation.” Cornelia praises Hayden for being in such great shape and fits him with electrodes to make the exercise more challenging. They each don a pair of noise-cancelling headphones, and Nora’s play a country song about wanting a better man. Afterward, Cornelia refers to the session with the lie detectors, asking Nora why she resents Hayden. Nora explains that Hayden’s a great dad, but he doesn’t help enough, and Hayden says he feels like she forgets all he does do. Nora wants him to see what needs to be done and just do it, like she does. She’s too exhausted to delegate responsibility.

Cornelia acknowledges the workout Hayden just completed, asking him to relax. She tells him to think about how nice it might be if he kept track of household duties, took care of doctors’ appointments, did the dishes, and maintained bedtime routines. He says he will, that he wants to help. Nora is confused by how lopsided Cornelia’s attention seems. She wants to know what Hayden resents about her, but she knows what he will say before he says it: “The accident.”