Keep It in the Family

This chapter is narrated by Mia and set two years after Sonny’s disappearance. Debbie has been charged with all 40 murders and sentenced to life in Broadmoor Psychiatric Hospital. She is kept in a secure unit for especially dangerous inmates. In the aftermath of losing Sonny, Finn and Mia have found it too difficult to keep in touch with each other, but they make an effort to be cordial whenever they have to communicate about Sonny. Mia refuses to give up hope and relentlessly appears on public television to beg for any information about Sonny. Lorna, Mark, and her parents continue to support and encourage her.

The narrative shifts to Debbie’s perspective as she reflects on the events that brought her to Broadmoor. She has recently been attacked with a knife by a fellow patient—the aunt of a child whom Debbie murdered. Instead of being angry about her wounds, Debbie is eager to put them on display, implying that she hopes they will evoke sympathy from her only visitor.

She reveals that, unbeknownst to Mia, Finn secretly visits Debbie in the psychiatric hospital. A tense conversation between the two reveals that Debbie’s delusions have intensified; she is heartbroken when Finn refuses to hug her or show her pictures of Chloe (his and Emma’s daughter). When Debbie hounds Finn about his unloving behavior, he snaps, revealing that he was the young accomplice in the previously unidentified stalker’s reflections; whenever Debbie reminisces about sharing her murderous compulsions with someone and teaching another person how to kill, she is talking about her son. Finn was only 14 years old at the time. Now, when Finn invokes this memory, Debbie’s sadism flares to life, and she remembers that Finn is only visiting her because she has manipulated him into doing so. In a deliberate attempt to goad him, she threatens him, implying that Sonny may or may not be alive. Visiting Debbie is Finn’s only chance to receive any news about his son.

This chapter introduces the first-person perspective of George Lewis, Debbie’s brother. Although Debbie had spent years assuming that George is dead, the narrative reveals that their father saved George in the same way that he prevented his wife from murdering Debbie as a child. In the dead of night, he smuggled George out from the attic and gave him to a friend from Norway, who took George abroad with him and helped him to forge a new identity. Fearing that their mother would track him down and kill him if she ever learned he was alive, George never returned to England or attempted to contact Debbie.

However, the news of Dave’s suicide and Debbie’s notoriety reached George in Norway and compelled him to reach out. Convinced that his little sister was a victim, George returned to England, reconnected with Debbie, and believed her when she told him that Dave was a violent man who abused her and made her kill for him. Overwhelmed with sorrow for Debbie’s suffering, George offered to help her in any way he could. The narrative implies that George will do anything Debbie asks of him.

The narrative shifts to Debbie’s perspective as she suspects that this visit with Finn is different. Instead of responding to her taunts and becoming angry, Finn is suspiciously composed. Debbie tries to regain control of the conversation by hinting that Sonny will be returned to Finn when she dies; until her death, Finn must continue visiting her. However, Finn slowly reveals a digital photograph. Smirking, he replies that he won’t have to wait until her death to see Sonny.

This chapter returns to George’s perspective and is set three weeks prior to Finn’s final visit with Debbie. George’s narrative reveals that Debbie did not murder Sonny. Instead, she sent him to live with George. Playing on George’s desire to reconnect with her, Debbie asked him to kidnap Sonny away from his “abusive” and “neglectful” parents. George believed that Debbie was acting out of genuine love and concern for her grandson, so he agreed to help. Since that day in the cemetery, Sonny has been living with George in Norway, having a wonderful life with an uncle who loves him dearly. Together, George and Sonny have adopted a dog; the three of them enjoy hunting, sailing, and exploring. Although George initially felt overwhelmed by the idea of caring for a young child, he has come to feel a sense of profound love and satisfaction. He finds catharsis in serving as a positive father figure and searches for new ways to give Sonny the loving, happy childhood that George himself never had.

(Unbeknownst to George, Debbie has allowed Mia to believe that Sonny is dead, and she manipulates Finn by forcing him to visit her once each month. On each visit, Debbie shows him a single picture of Sonny, hinting that he may or may not be alive.) George believes that he is sending these pictures to Debbie to comfort her during her confinement in Broadmoor. George reflects on his love for Sonny and the simple, uncomplicated happiness of their life on a remote Norwegian island. However, George’s contented musings crash to an abrupt halt when he suddenly gets an unknown visitor.

This chapter returns to Debbie’s perspective as Finn smugly announces that this visit will be his last. After two years of working with a private investigator, Finn has tracked Sonny down and mounted a rescue mission to get his son back. Finn informs Debbie that after he leaves Broadmoor today, she will never see or hear from him again. Desperate, Debbie cycles through a range of pleas and threats, hoping that some emotional appeal will keep Finn connected to her. Debbie watches in horror as Finn turns his back on her and walks out of her life forever.

The narrative shifts to Mia’s perspective. Two weeks before Finn’s final visit with Debbie, Mia and Finn travel to Norway to be reunited with Sonny. She is outraged to discover that, for the last two years, Finn has been fully aware that Sonny is alive. She resents Finn for having that shred of hope to cling to while she had nothing, but she also understands that Finn played Debbie’s game because that was the only way to track Sonny down.

She and Finn are now at a hospital in Oslo, waiting for a Norwegian team of doctors and policemen to finish assessing Sonny and return him to his parents. As she anticipates a reunion with her son, Mia spirals through a wide range of emotions. She worries that Sonny won’t recognize her, and she is afraid that he will resent her for taking him away from George. She wonders if she can truly be a good mother and if she deserves to have Sonny back. Finn and Mia reach for each other’s hands as they wait to see their son.

Finn, Mia, and Sonny have reunited and are attempting to rebuild their family. Mia and Emma are working together to create a blended family so that Finn can still be a part of his daughter’s life and Sonny can have a relationship with his half-sister. Sonny and Mia are both in therapy, and Finn has reconnected with his biological family in an effort to learn more about where he came from before Debbie stole him. One day, Finn and Sonny spend a day together as father and son, but when they arrive at a storage unit, Finn’s inner monologue reveals that the unit is full of suitcases, each of which contains the body of an adult he has murdered. Among his victims is the journalist who lured him into her home with a fake maintenance call. As Finn runs his hands over his suitcase collection, he encourages Sonny to play with the skeletons of his murdered victims.

Finn’s reflections on his own childhood reveal that Debbie encouraged the same hobby in him shortly before she began taking him with her to stalk and murder children. Finn rejects the idea that his actions parallel those of his mother, reassuring himself that unlike Debbie, he is a genuinely loving parent who puts his son’s needs first. However, Finn also acknowledges that he abducted and abandoned Sonny’s beloved dog with the express purpose of making Sonny sad enough to seek comfort from himself and Mia. In Finn’s mind, triggering that crisis for Sonny was a way to bring their family closer together.