Rachel is an older woman and a figure of tragedy in the community. Though her daughter’s murder occurred 28 years ago, it still marks Rachel as different than the people around her. People’s expectations for her behavior seem to remain lodged in a place of grief and sadness. In some ways, she represents an older, more traditional way of seeing the world, particularly in her observations about Rob and Lauren’s marriage. Her grief is tied to anger, and much of her internal monologue regarding other people is resentful or critical. Despite having a living child, her relationship with Rob is stiff and shallow. Only Jacob seems to have passed her layers of brittle defense and reached a place of love and kindness.

Rachel continues to blame Connor for the murder of her daughter, Janie, and her anger drives her to hit him with her car. Instead, she accidentally hits Cecilia and John-Paul’s daughter Polly, and in the hospital, Cecilia confesses to Rachel that John-Paul killed Janie. Given the opportunity to turn him in, Rachel instead decides she won’t break up their family. As the novel comes to an end, Rachel appears ready to move on from her daughter’s death: She thinks about retiring and traveling, and in the Epilogue, Rachel reaches out to Rob and his wife, Lauren, prepared to forge a new relationship with them.