Christine Stiles

Christine Stiles is Fay Hamilton’s therapist and, for much of the novel, a careful presence whose work helps Fay speak outside her family. Her history with Evan Harris overturns that initial impression: she was once his young client, and his continued influence over her compromised both her independence and her professional judgment. By the end, she becomes a witness in the prosecution of Evan, offering evidence about his connection to Connie Hamilton and his access to information about Fay.

Identity and Introduction

Kathy Hamilton first encounters Christine outside the clinic, at a gathering hosted by Cindy Bowers. Christine is there as a plus-one through a friend of Cindy’s, rather than in her professional capacity. Their relationship is already awkwardly bounded by confidentiality: Kathy has only exchanged brief greetings with her while bringing Fay to or collecting her from sessions, and Christine knows intimate details about Fay that her mother does not. That imbalance leaves Kathy conscious of what she says and unsure how much Christine can tell her.

Christine explains that Fay finds it difficult to open up but is present in sessions, and she expects the work to become useful over time. She also describes Fay as special and perceptive, qualities that do not reduce her to grades or activities. Kathy, proud and moved, responds by listing Fay’s achievements, including cheerleading and high marks; Christine’s distinction between accomplishment and perception gently redirects attention toward Fay as a person. The moment establishes both Christine’s warmth and the boundaries of what she can disclose to a parent.

Work with Fay Hamilton

The confidential progress notes reveal the more specific concerns Christine is addressing. Fay feels pressed by parental expectations, family tension, and the need to appear respectable. She describes Kathy as overprotective and preoccupied with other people’s opinions, while Mitch Hamilton is often working. Fay feels expected to earn high grades, take part in activities she does not enjoy, and perform a version of herself that leaves her exhausted and unsure that being herself is enough.

Christine’s notes also track Fay’s efforts to shape her identity and her body. Fay has begun limiting foods in an attempt to lose weight, while considering cutting her hair short as a dramatic change and a way to look less like her mother. Christine records these changes as possible signs of peer pressure or a search for individuality, not as settled explanations. The treatment goals are practical: Fay is to practice self-care when overwhelmed, tell her parents when something upsets her instead of allowing it to accumulate, and continue taking her medication regularly.

The notes register improvement as well as risk. Fay leaves a session feeling better after speaking to someone outside the family, and agrees to return before her next appointment if she becomes overwhelmed. Christine sees no particular immediate safety concern, but notes growing anxiety, dietary restriction, and that Fay sometimes skips her low-dose medication when she feels well. This careful account gives Kathy, and later the reader, a view of pressures Fay has not been able to discuss openly at home.

When Charlie disappears and Megan Carter is attacked, Fay’s distress intensifies. Kathy phones the clinic to seek an emergency appointment, but the receptionist says Christine’s schedule is full. Christine later visits the Hamilton home without an appointment to check on Fay, having thought she might want to see her. The contrast between the unavailable emergency slot and the personal follow-up shows her concern, while also making the professional relationship increasingly close to the family’s unfolding crisis.

Connection to Evan Harris

Christine’s private history with Evan emerges gradually. Fay recalls that Christine’s partner had recently celebrated receiving tenure at the University of Vermont. That detail prompts Kathy to ask who the partner is; Fay can remember only that his first name is Evan. The connection makes Christine’s professional role newly troubling, because Evan is implicated in the danger surrounding Charlie and has been close to Christine while she has treated Fay.

Kathy goes to Christine’s home intending to ask whether she helped Evan kill Charlie. Christine is alone, visibly upset, with papers before her and an almost-empty bottle of wine on the coffee table. She denies helping him. As Kathy reads the last of Evan’s old notes, references to his suspicion of a young client and discomfort about assisting her alone lead her to recognize that Christine had been his client too.

Christine explains that she was thirteen when she was assigned to Evan, then twenty-nine, and that he sexually abused her beginning when she was fourteen. She describes a lasting psychological hold that was stronger when she was younger and says she has been trying to break free of it. His support over the years—including contributions toward her qualification and help obtaining her job—was bound up with her silence, leaving her increasingly dependent and less able to live independently. The revelation recasts her connection to Evan: she is not simply the partner of a suspect, but a former client whose professional and personal life have remained entangled with his influence.

Breach of Confidence and Investigation

Christine’s victimization does not erase the harm caused by her own professional choices. She admits that she disclosed some of what Fay had told her about difficulties at home. The disclosure was unprofessional, and Evan took an interest after learning that Christine was counseling Fay. The novel thus places two truths beside each other: Evan exploited Christine’s dependence, while Christine’s compromised boundaries gave him access to private information entrusted to her as a therapist.

After Charlie’s death, Christine tells investigators that she did not know Evan was involved in the murder. She confirms, however, that she once walked in on Evan and Connie Hamilton together at home. Evan asked her to leave them alone while they talked; afterward, he relied on Connie’s explanation that she had been there to make a donation to the university. Christine’s account places the two together and supplies a detail relevant to the investigation without establishing that she knew what they were planning.

Christine also confirms that she passed on some information about Fay’s home life to Evan. This makes her a significant witness for the prosecution: she can speak both to the encounter between Evan and Connie and to the way Evan learned that she was treating Fay. She agrees to testify at Evan’s murder trial. Her testimony may help free her from his influence, though the novel presents that possibility as something she hopes for, not as a completed release.

Narrative Role and Ending

Christine’s arc turns on the gap between the trusted role she occupies in Fay’s life and the coercive history shaping her own. Early scenes show her recognizing Fay’s individuality and responding to her anxiety with care; the notes give that care concrete form through observations, treatment goals, and attention to medication and restrictive eating. Later scenes expose the danger of relying on an apparently private therapeutic relationship when the therapist herself remains subject to an abuser’s influence.

At Charlie’s funeral, Kathy reflects that Christine has insisted she knew nothing of Evan’s involvement in the murder, while confirming the facts she can testify to. Christine’s account connects the private worlds of therapy and family life to the criminal case: she saw Connie with Evan, and Evan learned from her about Fay’s struggles. Her decision to testify marks a consequential move from silence toward public evidence, but not a simple resolution. She remains a witness whose own history with Evan is part of what the prosecution must understand, and her hoped-for independence remains unfinished.