The Wife Between Us

The Wife Between Us is a psychological thriller by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen published in 2017. Pekkanen and Hendricks are a best-selling author duo known for their co-authored psychological thrillers, including The Golden Couple (2022), An Anonymous Girl (2019), and You Are Not Alone (2020). The Wife Between Us follows recently divorced Vanessa Thompson as she tries to prevent her ex-husband’s second marriage to the woman he left her for. 

Plot Summary

The novel is divided into three parts; Part 1 switches between Vanessa’s first-person narration and Nellie’s third-person account. In the Prologue, Vanessa stalks the young, pretty woman her ex-husband, Richard, left her for and ominously alludes to the harm the other woman may suffer if she stays with Richard.

Nellie, a compulsively nervous pre-school teacher, prepares for her upcoming wedding to Richard, a successful businessman. When Nellie was in college, her life was altered by a traumatic event, and this experience intensified her lifelong insomnia. Her anxiety has recently grown as she has begun to receive mysterious, anonymous calls. These calls unsettle her, but she finds comfort in Richard’s ability to soothe and protect her.

Chapter 2 switches back to Vanessa’s first person-account. After the breakdown of her marriage, she moved in with her Aunt Charlotte. Now, she spends her time obsessing over Richard and her “replacement.” Vanessa learns of her ex-husband’s engagement while at work. The news sends her into hysterics.

The rest of Part 1 tells Vanessa’s and Nellie’s tales alternately. Nellie’s upcoming wedding is tainted by her apprehensions towards her life with Richard, which she rationalizes despite the growing evidence that Richard is controlling. He interferes with her time with her friends, pressures her to leave her job, and leaves her out of crucial life decisions. Vanessa spends her time attempting to contact Richard’s fiancée, her obsession escalating as she struggles to reach her. Part 1 concludes with a twist: Nellie is Vanessa’s younger self. Vanessa had been trying to reach Richard’s new fiancée, Emma, to warn her about Richard’s abusive tendencies.

Part 2 unpacks Vanessa’s trauma and the abuse she suffered with Richard. During her senior year of college, Vanessa planned a sorority event in which a pledge, Maggie, accidently drowned. Vanessa, who was supposed to be looking after Maggie, blames herself—and so did Maggie’s brother, Jason. At her funeral, Jason threatened Vanessa with revenge. Vanessa’s guilt and terror motivated her to move from Florida to New York.

Richard’s abuse is psychological, emotional, and physical. When Vanessa confronts him, he calls her irrational, suggesting she has inherited her mother’s mental illness. Whenever Richard feels he is losing control of his wife, he punishes her. After his first attack, Vanessa convinces herself it will not happen again. Eventually, she begins to keep track of his deceits in a notebook. When Richard finds this notebook, thinking she’s planning to leave him, he nearly strangles her. Vanessa realizes that in order to leave her marriage unharmed, it must be Richard’s idea to end it.

Part 2 ends with another twist: Vanessa orchestrated Richard’s affair with Emma, hoping he would replace Vanessa with Emma. However, once Vanessa realizes that she is condemning Emma to the abuse she suffered, she resolves to save her. Vanessa finally gets through to Emma, but she fears Emma has been pulled back in by Richard’s charm, so she takes desperate measures. Vanessa plans a confrontation with Richard in the hallway of Emma’s apartment, hoping Emma will catch him in his violence. Though Vanessa knows she may not survive, the risk is worth it to her to ensure that Richard never harms another woman again.

Vanessa incites Richard, and he nearly chokes her to death, but Emma interferes. Once his violence is exposed, Emma leaves Richard, and he must undergo inpatient therapy.

A final twist comes in the Epilogue: Emma is the daughter of a professor Vanessa had an affair with in college. Emma started her affair with Richard to hurt Vanessa for her role in the breakup of her parents’ marriage, but once she learns that Vanessa was ignorant of the professor’s family, she is racked with guilt. Emma tells Vanessa the truth, and the women part ways.