Summary

Chapter 12 starts in 1984. Ethan called Ashlyn at work. He had just read about Helene: “My Jewish great-grandmother married a Nazi sympathizer, who locked her up to hide her from his Nazi-loving friends” (244). They discussed possible endings for both novels. Ashlyn knew through psychometry (which she described to Ethan as intuition) that both Hemi and Belle believed they were betrayed and the stories were missing a key piece of information. Ashlyn suggested reading the novels together as a date, which they did immediately over the phone

In Forever, and Other Lies, Belle processes Hemi’s notes, trying to convince herself that Hemi was lying, but realizes his story is true. Belle confronts Cee-Cee, asking her “How long have you known our mother was Jewish?” (250). Cee-Cee states that their father did what was necessary to handle their unstable mother. She warns Belle to stop badmouthing...