The Last Party

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, death, child death, death by suicide, child sexual abuse, child abuse, emotional abuse, and animal death.

Over dinner, Perla comments on Paige’s new look. She encourages Grant to give her a compliment the next time they are alone together.

Grant asks if Dr. Keita saw Perla’s scar during surgery. He doesn’t understand her refusal to have it fixed. Perla suspects that seeing the scar and being reminded of her mortality endears her to Grant.

Redd delivers a chocolate milkshake to Leewood, along with a letter from Grant. The letter thanks Leewood for coming clean and apologizes for Grant’s identity deception. He references a Latin saying: “[M]ortui vivos docent […] the dead teach the living” (228). Lucy’s death has taught him that not everything happens for a reason. Reading over the letter, Leewood regrets not asking Grant for an unspecified favor while he had the chance.

This chapter opens with a quote from Douglas Foster, a Dynamic Tech IT employee. Douglas recounts his surprise when the police showed up at the company wanting to search through Grant’s email. In his deleted email folder, they found “bad ones.