The Soulmate: A Novel

Amanda asks Max why Gabe was at Arthur’s house with Baz. Max says that Gabe felt responsible and wanted to help. Max agreed, even though he knew better, because he liked Gabe. When Arthur’s body is eventually discovered, the investigation never comes near Max because Arthur’s activities made him a target for lots of people. Max fires Gabe.

Pippa sees Dev at the grocery store and apologizes for leaving in the middle of their meeting. In the parking lot, a big man with a snake tattoo approaches and tells her that “[i]t’s important to return things to their rightful owner” (246).

Gabe doesn’t show up for Asha’s third birthday party. Pippa calls him at work, but the receptionist acts strangely before saying that he’s not there. Later, her mother confronts Pippa about their marriage, and Pippa realizes that no one has been fooled by the appearance they’ve tried to maintain. That night, when Gabe still isn’t home, Pippa begins to pack bags for her and the girls. When she is half packed, Gabe comes home. He is disheveled, and his knuckles are bloodied and swollen. When she asks what happened, he is overwrought and leaves again. Pippa calls Max, drops the girls off at her mother’s house, and meets Max at his office.

When Pippa gets home from the grocery story, she tells Gabe about the man in the parking lot. He says he’ll take care of it.

Amanda knows that Arthur’s death is weighing heavily on Max—he’d never intended for Arthur to even be hurt. One night at dinner, he tells her that Gabe had a “sort of episode” at the office after being fired and had destroyed an office (255). After dinner, Max takes Amanda to a local bridge and tells her that his brother, Harry, died by suicide there. He says that Harry was a lot like him. He cries, and she holds him as they talk. She understands Max much better afterward and wishes he had told her he loved her.

Kat comes to Pippa’s house and says that everyone in Portsea now knows that it was Max Cameron’s wife who jumped off The Drop. She asks if the police know that Gabe worked for Max. When Pippa says no, Kat says that she has to tell the police. Pippa admits that Gabe is protecting her, and Kat loses her temper. She tells Pippa that they didn’t all move to Portsea because they are a “close family” but because they worry about her life with Gabe. She asks Pippa how long she is going to stay with Gabe.

At Max’s workplace, Max shows Pippa the office that Gabe destroyed. He also tells her that Gabe hasn’t worked there for weeks, but he won’t tell her why he was fired. He asks if Gabe might have an undiagnosed mental health condition. She tells him about the ADHD diagnosis, and they agree that his recent behavior seems like something else. When Max tells her that he will pay for Gabe’s medical needs, she is so relieved to have someone share the burden that she hugs him. As he holds her, she feels safe. She kisses him and then takes off her shirt and bra.

After Gabe talks to Max, he, Pippa, and the girls spend the next few days at home. After four days, however, the girls want to go out. Gabe and the girls go outside to play, and Pippa watches them through the window. She thinks about her conversation with Kat and wonders why her sister is so quick to blame Gabe—she thought her family loved them all. She realizes that she has to figure out how long she is going to stay with Gabe.

Max asks Amanda if she wished she had been pregnant and says that he feels like he hasn’t given her enough. She says that he has given her his fidelity. He says that it was easy to give. His tone is sad.

Pippa works in her office while Gabe plays outside with the girls. When she notices that Gabe is inside, she looks out the window. The girls are not in the backyard. She looks out toward The Drop and sees Asha and Freya talking to a big man. She recognizes the man from the grocery store parking lot and runs outside.

After Gabe and Pippa move away, Amanda and Max have a year of happiness. He is thinking about retiring but doesn’t know how he can sell the company without exposing the connection to Arthur Spriggs. One day, Amanda finds Max’s secret laptop. She downloads all the files to her USB stick, wanting to look through everything.

Pippa and Gabe run to The Drop, and the man runs away. Freya tells them that the man had a snake on his neck, but the girls don’t seem frightened. Asha gives them a note from the man. It reads, “Last chance to play nice” (279).

Max is looking out the window of their Portsea house. Amanda knows that he is thinking about the note he gave to Baz to give to Gabe’s daughters. The police call again about A.S. Holdings. They have discovered that Gabe Gerard, who had recruited Arthur Spriggs for investment through A.S. Holdings, was fired shortly after Arthur’s murder. They also know that Gabe was present when Amanda died. The officer pressures Max to talk, and he agrees.

Amanda goes through the files from Max’s secret laptop. She finds a video of Max meeting Pippa at his office. She watches the video and sees Pippa kiss Max and then take her shirt off. Amanda vomits.

Gabe calls Max and tells him to come to the house to get the USB drive. After he hangs up, he tells Pippa to take the girls to her parents’ house and that he is going to “fix it.”

Amanda wonders what happened after the video cut off, just after Pippa took off her shirt. While she is wondering how Max feels about Pippa, he comes to tell her that he is going to the office. She nods absentmindedly, not knowing that it is the last time she will see him. After he leaves, she takes out the USB drive and puts it in her pocket. She is going to talk to Pippa.

Pippa realizes that Max isn’t responding to her kiss. She backs away, embarrassed, and he tells her that he loves his wife. On the way home, she gets a call from Max’s security saying that Gabe was taken ill at the office. Max called an ambulance for him, and Pippa drives to the hospital to meet them.

Amanda can tell that Max is relieved as he talks to the detective. Since dying, she’s gained empathy and understanding for everyone, even Pippa. She also now knows the truth about Max and Pippa and feels joy.

Pippa takes the girls to her parents’ house. As she is putting them in the car, she sees Asha holding something and recognizes Amanda’s USB drive. She drops the girls off and then returns to the house, intending to give Gabe the USB. She realizes that Gabe is going to kill Max.

Gabe’s new doctor diagnoses him with bipolar disorder. Pippa convinces herself that he is now properly diagnosed, medicated, and undergoing treatment again. She hopes that he will soon be “better.” A few weeks later, Pippa and Gabe decide to make a fresh start. They find the cottage in Portsea. Pippa thinks about the incident with Max and realizes that she’d wanted to hurt Gabe and still wants to “even the score” (301). While he is still in the hospital, she tells him what happened with Max but gives the scene a different ending: To hurt Gabe, she tells him that she and Max did have sex in the office.

Pippa finds Gabe and Max outside near The Drop. She offers the USB drive to Max in exchange for him leaving them family alone. He agrees, saying that he only wants to know what really happened when Amanda died. Gabe says that she jumped because she was upset that Max had sex with Pippa. Max is surprised, and Pippa admits that she’d told Gabe they’d had sex.

Gabe tells them that Amanda said their “relationship was based on trust and fidelity [but now] didn’t feel obliged to keep our secrets any longer” (304). Pippa realizes that the word “our” indicates that Amanda was keeping a secret about Gabe. She thought that Gabe was protecting her, but he was actually protecting his own secrets. She confronts Gabe, beginning to believe that Gabe did push Amanda, and he agrees to tell them what really happened that night.

Amanda is only at The Drop for a few moments before Gabe comes out of his house. Once he recognizes her, she says that she wants to talk to Pippa. She tells him about the video and realizes that he knows about the incident. She shows him the USB drive and tells him that she is considering giving it to the police. Gabe steps toward her, and she realizes that the USB drive also contains information that would incriminate Gabe.

Gabe reaches for the drive, and they struggle over it. Amanda pulls back, and when her grip on the USB slips, she steps backward. As she stumbles and begins to fall, Gabe begins to reach for her but then stops and holds his hands up. She can’t tell if he realized that he couldn’t save her without going over himself or if he decided to just let it happen. As Amanda falls, she realizes that now Gabe will never know Max’s biggest secret.

One night, Max tells Amanda about his connection to Gabe. A few months after his brother, Harry, died, his parents received a phone call from one of Harry’s girlfriends, saying that she was pregnant. They dismissed it as someone looking for money, but years later, they told Max about her. By the time Max found her, the child was a teenager: Gabe. Marina, Gabe’s mother, asked if he’d like to meet Harry’s family, but he wasn’t interested. Instead, Max supported Marina financially and “kept an eye on [Gabe] from afar” (311). He could tell that Gabe was very similar to Harry.

When Gabe was a landscape designer, Max took the opportunity to hire Gabe and then offered him an internship at his company. He had hoped to reveal their relationship before realizing that he could never tell Gabe the truth. Max tells Amanda that Harry’s mental health condition, and its genetic possibilities, are the reason why he never wanted to have children. He has never told anyone any of this. Amanda promises to keep his secret.

Gabe says that Amanda told him that Max was her soulmate. Gabe says that Amanda threatened to take the USB to the police and, when he tried to grab it, fell backward off the cliff with it. He says that he tried to grab her, but Pippa, remembering the position of his hands, doubts his story. Max thanks Gabe for telling him the truth. He tells them that Amanda was his soulmate. Then he steps off the cliff.

As Amanda watches the scene between Max and Gabe unfold, she feels every emotion of Max, most of all his love for her. On his call with the police, Max confessed to the murder of Arthur and said that his guilt had prompted her own death. After he hung up, he went to The Drop. As Max steps over the edge, Amanda realizes that she’s been trapped in a “liminal space” to wait for him, and now they can move on together.

Pippa pushes Asha and Freya on the swings. The girls see Gabe across the park and run to him. As Pippa and Gabe say hello, she feels sadness but also knows that there are things she doesn’t miss about their life together. Although he has bipolar disorder, it isn’t responsible for his actions and lies.

The police have accepted Max’s confession and his version of what happened. After Max’s death, Gabe received a letter from Max’s lawyer explaining their connection, and Max’s behavior and confession now make more sense. Max leaves his estate to Freya and Asha in a trust. Pippa and Gabe buy houses near each other and have an informal custody agreement. The girls live with Pippa but visit Gabe often.

After Gabe and the girls leave the playground, Pippa goes to the Pantry to see Deve, who she is dating. Then she goes to the beach and rents a surfboard. She has discovered that she doesn’t need Gabe to “make magic.”