The Last Time I Lied: A Novel

After Chet leaves, Emma returns to Vivian’s diary. She is consumed with guilt about Theo’s accident and thinks if she can learn what happened to Vivian, Natalie, and Allison, she can make up for some of the “damage” she did in the past.

In the next entries, Vivian describes Franny’s anger after Lottie found Vivian in the Lodge. However, Vivian believes she is close to uncovering what Franny is hiding. She considers telling Emma what she is up to, worrying that someone may retaliate against her (Vivian). Instead, she “hints” at her mission by showing Emma the box of scissors in the woods. The next entry contains a list of reasons a woman could be sent to a psychiatric hospital in the 1800s; there are some cryptic numbers at the bottom of the entry. Finally, Vivian writes that Natalie and Allison read her diary, so she took it to a new hiding place. However, now that they know about her search, they want to be involved. Vivian writes that she has finally found the “cliched missing piece” and knows “the truth” (173). She decides she needs Natalie and Allison’s help and will tell them everything, claiming that “some wrongs are so terrible that the people responsible must be held accountable” (174).