This Is Why We Lied

The novel flashes back to before the murder. While she and her ex-husband Dave have sex, Mercy thinks about everything she must do that day: Five new couples are arriving that afternoon. Afterward, they discuss Cecil’s announcement about potential investors for the lodge. Mercy has been running the lodge since Cecil’s accident 18 months ago, and their profits have increased, but an influx of cash would be welcome.

Mercy’s younger brother, Christopher, also known as Fishtopher, or Fish, comes to tell them that their Aunt Delilah is at the lodge. Delilah hasn’t been there in years, so her presence is significant. Christopher adds that Delilah wasn’t surprised to see Cecil in a wheelchair, which means they’ve been in communication since his mountain biking accident. Mercy suggests that Delilah is there because Bitty’s cancer has returned, but Dave says Bitty would tell him first. Dave, who took care of Bitty throughout her previous treatments and recovery, is closest to her.

Mercy, Dave, and Christopher enter the lodge. Bitty and Cecil are there, and Mercy reflects that her father seems like the perfect backcountry host. Dave theorizes that the “investors” are there to buy, necessitating a full family meeting. Cecil agrees, and Mercy fights back as she hasn’t before. Cecil reminds her that he paid for her rehab and lawyers when she got in trouble, but Dave changes the subject, saying that a majority of the seven family members would have to vote to sell.

Mercy knows that both Christopher and Dave will vote to sell, but she feels that the security of the lodge is best for Jon. Cecil responds with a vicious attack, and Mercy reminds them all that she knows their secrets and will use them, if she must, to keep the lodge.

Will and Sara hike to McAlpine Lodge. Will was in charge of planning the honeymoon and worries that she wanted something different, but Sara loves it. He chose the lodge because every summer he lived at the children’s home, children went to Camp Awinita, across the lake from the lodge, but he’d never gotten to go.

They stop for a lunch break, and another couple catches up with them. Will struggles to make small talk with Frank and Monica and tells them that he’s a mechanic and Sara is a high school chemistry teacher. Another couple, Keisha and Drew, joins them on the trail. They’ve been to the lodge twice before. The lodge has no internet access for guests and no cell phone reception, but the staff has road access, internet, and landline phones. At the lodge, Mercy greets them with snacks, water, and champagne. She tells them the rules and passes out information folders. Will notices the scar that runs the length of her face and guesses that it’s from a car accident.

Mercy’s son, Jon, leads Will and Sara down the trail to their cabin, pointing out another trail that leads to the lake. He says if they need anything to leave a note on their porch: A staff member walks by and checks at eight o’clock each morning and ten o’clock each night. Jon has a vape pen in his pocket, and Sara buys it from him. When they go inside, she throws it in the trash.

Sara takes a bath while Will goes to the lodge to get flatter pillows. He detours down the lake trail and is enjoying the view when he hears a voice from his past, calling out, “Trashcan.” Will turns around and recognizes Dave, the “Jackal,” his biggest bully and nemesis at the children’s home.

Mercy takes Keisha and Drew to their cottage and makes a mental note to tell Dave to fix their toilet, which is running. As she goes to the next cottage, Mercy feels her father watching her from the lodge’s porch. A couple named Gordon Wylie and Landry Peterson are staying in the next cottage, and Landry answers the door, freshly showered and wearing a towel. Mercy sees a tattoo on his chest that reads “Gabbie” and immediately feels ill. He asks Mercy about her scar, but she ignores the question and leaves. She rubs her scar, a physical manifestation of the before and after of her life.

She sees Dave, who tells her that the honeymooner Will Trent was a kid at his children’s home, nicknamed Trashcan. Mercy is intrigued, since Trashcan “featured prominently” in Dave’s childhood stories. Dave confronts Mercy again about selling and, when she refuses, strangles her until she nearly passes out. After he leaves, she thinks about the first time he strangled her, when she asked for a divorce. The second was when she got an apartment for her and Jon in town and, afterward, filed for divorce and moved back to the lodge. This time, she won’t let him control her.

Mercy sits on a nearby bench to recover, and Jon finds her there. She tells him to ask Cecil why Delilah is there: She wants him to make up his own mind without her influence. Then she gives him the night off and tells him she loves him. After Jon leaves, Mercy goes to the equipment shed, where Christopher is cleaning canoes. Chuck comes out of the shed burning something on a piece of foil. Christopher leans over and inhales, and Mercy calls them “[d]umbasses.” She walks down to the lake, her refuge. Landry’s tattoo returns to her mind, and she wonders if he’s related to the Gabbie that “Mercy had killed seventeen years ago” (73).

After Will leaves the cottage, Sara sits on the bed and cries in relief. She tried not to stress over the honeymoon but was so used to taking care of everything that it was hard to let go.

Through the open window, she hears one of the other couples, who call each other Gordon and Paul, arguing about a woman. Sara gets into the bath, and when Will returns, he joins her. He tells her that a man named Dave, who was at the children’s home with him, works at the lodge. Will and Dave were friends until a bad foster family adopted Dave. After he returned, a survivor of sexual abuse, he began bullying Will and nicknamed him Trashcan. Will, in turn, nicknamed him the Jackal. He ran into Dave on the trail and started counting until Dave ran. He finds it ironic that Dave ended up here, since when he disappeared from the home, Will told the police he’d be at Camp Awinita. Will and Sara decide to try to find the summer camp across the lake.

Mercy feels a wave of nausea as she preps the dining room for cocktail hour and dinner. She’s proud of the increased profit made from selling liquor, something Cecil refused to do. She greets the bartender, Penny—they’ve known each other a long time and are both in recovery.

Frank and Monica arrive first, and Monica goes right to the bar. Cecil and Bitty arrive next with Max and Sydney, the “investors.” Bitty tells Mercy to be nice to the investors and says that Jon cried over Mercy’s refusal to sell. She then fires Mercy, giving her until the end of the week to leave.

Mercy sits down, shocked. She hears Delilah’s voice, asking if she’s okay. Delilah reminds Mercy that when she wanted to run the lodge, Cecil attacked her with an ax. She still has the scar on her jaw. Mercy is still angry at Delilah for seeking full custody of Jon when he was younger. Delilah refuses to apologize: Mercy was in and out of both rehab and jail and then had the car accident that killed Gabbie. Delilah maintains that she isn’t Mercy’s enemy and will vote with her. Mercy storms off but realizes later that her behavior has put her in even greater jeopardy.

She returns to the guests. Chuck comes up behind her and surprises her, and she yells at him. Mercy tells Christopher that she was fired but can tell he already knows. She feels betrayed but not surprised: He never stands up for her. He tells Mercy that the buyers have agreed to hire him as a fishing guide. Mercy threatens to go public with what she knows about him and Chuck, but he threatens her right back.