The Wife Upstairs

Bea writes about the party she hosted to celebrate “the latest Southern Manors line plus the celebration of the company going public” (338). This party occurred when Bea was still single and before she met Eddie. Bea’s mother attended. Bea gave a speech lying about the origins of the company and her family’s history to cover up the traumatic reality of her family’s issues with alcohol. Bea’s mother grew intoxicated despite Bea’s best efforts to ensure she did not drink at the party. She called out Bea’s lies in front of everyone and then fell. Blanche helped Bea’s mother up and escorted her out.

Eddie does not return upstairs for almost a week. When he returns, he and Bea have sex again. Around the time Eddie meets Jane, they stop having sex. Bea notes a change in Eddie, who seems to be “slowly re-forming into the Eddie [she] fell for, the Eddie [she] married” (347). Bea soon realizes that Eddie is involved with another woman, and Eddie confirms that he is dating someone. Bea grows jealous.

Eventually, Bea and Eddie have sex once again. He reveals Jane’s name to Bea and tells her, “She’s nothing like you” (351). When alone, Bea begins to thump her bed on the floor to alert Jane of her presence. Meanwhile, Bea and Eddie continue to have a sexual relationship. During one of Eddie’s visits, Bea writes an entry in her journal addressed to Jane. She places the journal in Eddie’s jacket pocket as he showers, hoping that Jane will find it and save her. She includes instructions for how Jane can free her.

Bea reflects on her childhood and her parents’ alcoholism and money issues. Her father also physically abused her. Desperate to escape, Bea applied to a boarding school in Birmingham without her parents’ knowledge and received a full scholarship. Attending Ivy Ridge introduced Bea to a new world. She met Blanche, who gave her the nickname Bea and sparked her transformation. Bea’s father died during her junior year in high school. Bea contemplated returning home for the summer at her mother’s request, but then Blanche invited her to stay with her family. The two girls became inseparable.

Blanche encouraged Bea to go to a different college than her, much to Bea’s disappointment. The women did not reunite until their twenties, when Bea moved back to Alabama. The chapter ends with Blanche commenting on the similarities between Bea’s designs for Southern Manors and Blanche’s home décor.

This part covers Chapters 29-30.

Jane meets with Tripp at his home. He reveals that two weeks before Blanche’s death, she told him she wanted to move away from Bea. He also shares that Bea invited Blanche to the lake to discuss the future of their friendship and then asked Tripp to join them. Tripp admits to being at the lake house but swears he passed out in the house and left early the next morning. He also claims that he does not remember being on the boat and that someone else used his credit card to purchase the hammer. He urges Jane to escape and leave Thornfield Estates behind.

Jane returns home and frantically searches for any evidence of Eddie’s involvement. Hours into her search, Jane finds Bea’s journal. Jane rushes upstairs and unlocks the door to the panic room and meets Bea. The chapter ends with the door opening.

This part covers Chapters 31-34.

The narrative picks up from Eddie’s perspective as he returns home and sees the aftermath of Jane ransacking the house. He rushes upstairs and discovers Jane and Bea in the panic room. Jane hits Eddie over the head with a figurine and knocks out multiple teeth in the process. Eddie falls to the floor.

As he comes to, Eddie remembers his first encounter with Bea in Hawaii. He was in Hawaii with another female companion, who spotted Bea at their resort and told Eddie about Bea’s success. Eddie looked up Bea on the Internet and was impressed by her net worth of $200 million. He charmed his way into Bea’s more exclusive resort as a ploy to meet her.

Eddie admits that he was aware of Blanche’s intentions to seduce him. Despite the rumors and Bea’s suspicions, Eddie and Blanche did not have sex. He tolerated Blanche’s flirtation to make Bea jealous. He recalls Blanche kissing him. She became enraged when Eddie rejected her, ranting about Bea’s true background and revealing that Bea’s mother was found dead at the bottom of her stairs two weeks after her outburst at Bea’s party. Bea was the only one home at the time of her mother’s death.

This revelation sparked suspicion in Eddie. He confronted Bea about not telling him how her mother died. He now claims that it was Bea who murdered Blanche, recalling the night when Tripp informed him that Bea had invited him to their lake house. Suspicious of why Bea would invite Tripp, Eddie drove to the lake and discovered Tripp passed out in the guest room. Bea returned from the lake without Blanche and confessed to killing her. Eddie comforted her before knocking her out and returning home to lock her in their panic room. He did this to protect Bea but also to protect her business and their wealth.

Eddie admits that his relationship with Jane offered him a fresh start but that he does not truly love her. He also reveals the truth of his relationship with his family: He has cut off contact with them because his humble background embarrasses him. He acknowledges that it was his greed that made him believe he could maintain his relationships with both Bea and Jane. The chapter ends with Eddie revealing that there is a way to escape from the panic room. He rises to try to escape.