Vicious

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness, death, child abuse, bullying, ableism, and sexual content.

In the narrative present, Emilia struggles with the morality of threatening to testify against Jo. Though she does not wish to “ruin [someone] else’s life with a lie” (138), she wonders if Vicious’s story is true. Unable to sleep, she goes to the mansion’s library and is startled to see Vicious there. When she tells him that she cannot testify against Jo, he shows her that his torso is covered in scars from Daryl’s abuse. When Vicious reported the abuse to his father, Baron Sr. took his wife’s side over his son’s.

Vicious implies that he may have killed Daryl, who died from an apparent overdose and drowning. He promises that Emilia will “get out of this unscathed” and that he will not actually let her perjure herself (142). He insists that Emilia be the one to help him because he trusts her secret-keeping ability. (They later disclose that they were secret pen pals in high school.) When Vicious asks Emilia to sit with him, she does so, despite her conflicted feelings.