Summary
In 1989, Evelyn married Robert Jamison (Celia's brother). Evelyn, Robert, and Connor all moved to Spain to live with Celia. The move was good for Connor, and she grew especially close with Robert. After a few years, Connor began attending college at Stanford; Evelyn and Celia were able to live a quiet and happy life together. One night, they talked about the challenges their relationship had faced, and held their own marriage ceremony, in which they promised to always love and be faithful to one another. Celia died peacefully in 2000. Evelyn was devastated to lose her, as was Robert. Life quietly went on; Connor built a successful career for herself on Wall Street, and Evelyn and Robert eventually moved to New York to be closer to her. Robert eventually died, and Connor switched her career to teaching. Evelyn would have been fairly content with her life, but she was devastated when Connor was unexpectedly diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer, and died when she was 40.
Evelyn begins to conclude her narrative, explaining that she no longer cares about her wealth or fame; she just misses everyone she loves. Then she tells Monique a new piece of information: the man in the car accident with Harry was named James Grant. With the name and date of death, Monique realizes that Evelyn is referring to her father. All this time, Monique has believed that her father died due to driving drunk, but now learns that Evelyn constructed a lie. She is furious and lashes out at Evelyn. Evelyn gives Monique a note she found at the scene of the accident; the note was written by James to Harry, and explains that James loved Harry deeply. However, James was also not willing to abandon his wife (Monique's mother) and child to marry Celia (as Harry had suggested). James explained that he loves his wife and family.
Evelyn explains that she tracked down Monique because she wanted to give her the note, but she then became interested in Monique's writing, and decided she wanted Monique to be the author of her biography. Monique angrily argues that the career and financial opportunity represented by the biography does not justify the secret that Evelyn has kept, and Evelyn agrees. Evelyn also explains that she has late-stage breast cancer, and will not be around for much longer. Monique storms out of the apartment, unsure if she will ever return. However, despite her anger, she comes back to the apartment the next day for Evelyn's photoshoot for the Vivant cover story. As the photoshoot wraps up, Evelyn's housekeeper, Grace, mentions that Evelyn is sending her on vacation, and that Grace is leaving that night.
Monique puts the pieces together, and suspects that Evelyn is going to end her own life before she succumbs to cancer. However, Monique is unsure, and leaves the apartment. She goes to pick her mother up from the airport, even though she questions whether she should go back and try to stop Evelyn. Monique decides that she ultimately respects Evelyn's right to end her life. Reunited with her mother, Monique asks about her parents' marriage, and is reassured by her mother's explanation that they loved each other deeply, even if they did not always have a passionate relationship. Monique decides that she may or may not ever tell her mother the truth about her father's death, and that she is content to potentially keep the truth from her.
A clipping from a news article announces that Evelyn dies in March 2017, from a suspected accidental drug overdose. This article confirms Monique's guess that Evelyn was going to end her own life. In June 2017, Monique publishes an excerpt from her forthcoming biography, and explicitly reveals that Evelyn was a bisexual woman.
Analysis
Despite their tumultuous relationship, Evelyn and Celia enjoy a period of deep peace and contentment together in the final years of Celia's life. Notably, the two times when the women can be happy and peaceful together occur in places outside of Hollywood (New York and Spain), suggesting that much of the stress and strain in their relationship is tied to the pressures of celebrity and the Hollywood lifestyle. It is also notable how much of a role financial privilege plays in their ability to have this freedom: both Celia and Evelyn are extremely wealthy, and can effectively buy themselves privacy and security. One of the novel's paradoxes is whether or not Evelyn's fame and fortune imprisons her or liberates her: her position in the world makes the stakes of revealing her identity much higher, but it also gives her the opportunity to set up her life the way that she wants it.
Evelyn and Celia's informal marriage ceremony represents the climax of their relationship, and is juxtaposed against Evelyn's many other marriages. Evelyn has had glamorous and beautiful wedding ceremonies before, but none of them were ever as meaningful as her promise to Celia. Evelyn's description of the moment makes it clear that two of the world's most beautiful women looked decidedly ordinary, but they were being their true selves and did not need jewels or gowns in that moment. Their promise to one another is significant in that it took place decades before same sex marriage was legalized in America; although some portions of the novel take place after same sex marriage was legally upheld in the United States in 2015, the plot never refers to this historical context. Certainly during Celia's lifetime, legal marriage was never an option between the two women. This non-legal promise of commitment furthers the novel's project of unsettling assumptions about marriage: legally binding unions might be fraudulent, abusive, or insincere, and non-legal promises might be completely authentic and rooted in genuine love and intimacy. There is no real way to know what a marriage means by looking at it from the outside.
This argument is furthered by Monique learning about her father's infidelity, and confronting the idealistic assumptions she has made about the marriage between her parents. She has always assumed that her parents had the perfect marriage because they seemed so happy and loving; this assumption wasn't wrong, but it also wasn't the whole story. Monique has been primed to be much more accepting of what she learns about her father because of the moral relativism she has absorbed from Evelyn's narrative. She can see why her father might have hidden his true identity, and his relationship with Harry (and potentially with other men), because she has heard about why Evelyn, Harry, and Celia felt so much pressure to hide. She can also understand that marriages can serve different functions, and it sounds as though the relationship between her parents was much like the relationship between Evelyn and Harry. Since she knows how much Evelyn and Harry truly loved one another, she can be much more accepting of the information she learns.
However, Monique is still very angry with Evelyn for her actions and deceit. Out of a need to protect her own family, Evelyn left another family to suffer for decades. Evelyn claims to have no regrets, but her hesitation and delay in telling Monique the truth suggests otherwise. Interestingly, Monique has been sympathetic to Evelyn's revelations of hurting and betraying other people, but she reacts very differently when she is personally implicated in one of Evelyn's actions. Despite her anger, Monique still decides to allow Evelyn to pursue her plan of dying with dignity. Evelyn's desire for control and agency has determined every step of her life, and it determines her death as well. Because of what she has learned from listening to Evelyn's life story, Monique is more willing to accept that people need to be free to make their own choices, and do what they believe to be right.
Monique also no longer puts the same expectation on total honesty and transparency as she previously did: she is content with withholding the truth from her mother, and doesn't assume that her mother would necessarily be happier knowing all the details about her late husband. While the novel often highlights themes of deception, and the gap between appearance and reality, it also implies that sometimes illusions are necessary for happiness. The plot does end with a significant truth coming to light: as soon as she begins to publish excerpts from the biography, Monique reveals that Evelyn was a bisexual woman. Evelyn has made it clear that she wants this truth revealed, so that it may inspire and encourage others. Paradoxically, Evelyn finds freedom and authenticity, but only after her death.
