As Chapter 13 opens, Chess and Emily grapple with each other, spilling wine on the carpet, before Chess gets loose. Thinking about Mari and the murder of Pierce, Emily begins to see how love can turn murderous. Emily asks when did the affair with Matt begin, and Chess confesses it was a one-time meeting in Hawaii, after Chess’s breakup with Nigel, a man she loved. Emily asks why they remain on speaking terms, and Chess explains that she wanted to spy on Matt as he left Emily. She feared too that he might tell Emily about the affair. Chess admits that she heard about Matt’s complaints, and his desire for children. She rationalizes her actions by suggesting that Matt never would have left Emily had she not had an affair with him. Chess tells Emily that Matt tried to control Emily and was destroying her.

Shocked by Chess’s claim that Matt was killing her, Emily skeptically considers that Matt could have poisoned her, reverting to her role as a writer of mysteries. Chess senses her train of thought, and counters that her symptoms were driven by stress and unhappiness, as Chess reverts to her role as self-help guru, quoting from one of her books, The Powered Path.