The Three Lives of Cate Kay

As the time for Ryan’s departure nears, Cass hopes that Ryan will invite her to Charleston. On the day before Ryan is supposed to leave, Cass preemptively books herself a flight to Charleston. She leaves Sidney a message about the change in plans, saying that they can talk about what this means when she returns to New York. Later, when she is getting ready for dinner with Ryan, Cass gets a phone call from someone who introduces himself as a reporter with the New York Times. The man tells her that he knows she is Cate Kay and that she was involved in a death in her hometown. Panicked, she hangs up and calls Sidney for advice. Sidney says that she is sure Ryan is the source of the leak. She offers to go to the Times and get the story killed, then suggests that Cass fly back to New York immediately.

In February of 2007, Amanda has a terrible night out at the bar with the few friends who have remained in Bolton’s Landing. One asks her an insensitive question about the nature of her relationship with Annie, and even as she reacts with drunken fury, she knows that her reaction will burn this final bridge with her friends, who are already uncomfortable around her because of her injury and her disability. When she gets home, Kerri sees how upset she is. Knowing that Amanda blames Annie for much of what has happened to her, Kerri exclaims that she hates Annie. Amanda asks her to promise that she will never say such a thing again. Amanda suddenly realizes that if Annie were to walk in the door, she would beg Annie’s forgiveness for deliberately manipulating Annie’s feelings. She understands now that Annie is likely in just as much pain as she is. The next day, she attends her first AA meeting.

As narrator, Kerri explains that she does not hate Annie, despite what she said to Amanda that night. She flashes back to their childhoods and recounts a memory that illustrates why she loves Annie.

In this flashback, Annie and Amanda are getting ready to watch a movie on the VCR in Amanda’s room. Annie is making their usual after school snack of cheese melted on tortilla chips. Kerri hesitantly asks Annie if she can have some, and Annie not only offers to share the snack; she also invites Kerri to watch the movie with them. They spend hours happily transcribing the dialogue and acting out the scenes.

When Kerri mentions a red notebook that Amanda would not let them use for this purpose, because she was saving it for something special, “Cate” interjects in a footnote, stating, “That sound you hear is me exhaling—this, this is the notebook in which I wrote the first draft of The Very Last” (183).

Ryan’s agent, Janie, recalls how quickly she and Ryan grew to think of themselves as a “West Coast family” (185). Janie sees it as part of her job to protect Ryan and to be completely loyal to her, and she has made it clear to Ryan that she will do whatever she needs to do—openly or behind the scenes—to help Ryan achieve her grand ambition of becoming a famous actor, and then a powerful director and producer. This, she says, is why she feels justified in calling the paparazzi on the last night that Ryan was scheduled to be in Los Angeles—the night that Ryan finally invited Cass out to dinner in public. Janie was sure that a continued relationship with the intensely private Cass would hinder Ryan’s career, and she believed that “a few flashbulbs [will] send [Cass] back to New York” (186).

Ryan dreamily imagines how romantic it will be to spend time in Charleston with Cass. When they have dinner together that night, she plans to ask Cass to accompany her to Charleston. Wanting the dinner to be special, she suggests that they eat out in public for the first time—at a discreet local spot called Jack’s. They spend a wonderful day together, but just before they are supposed to leave for dinner, Cass’s attitude seems to shift. During dinner, Cass seems uneasy, but Ryan assumes that Cass is worried about publicity. Finally, Cass asks pointedly why Ryan invited her to Los Angeles. Ryan is confused and begins worrying that she has somehow missed signals or unknowingly mistreated Cass. Cass gets up and announces that she is taking a red-eye back to New York. Ryan follows her outside, trying to stay calm despite her confusion and concern. There are photographers outside, and they call to her as they snap pictures. She sees Cass get into a black SUV that has clearly been waiting for her. Then Cass is gone.

Cass recounts her experience on the night that she leaves Los Angeles. Because she finds it impossible to believe that Ryan has been faking her feelings over the past weeks, she continues with their plan to go out to dinner, even in the immediate aftermath of the reporter’s phone call. However, she is hyperalert for signs that something is off, and she is ready to flee to the car that Sidney has arranged to have waiting for her if she thinks it is necessary.

At dinner, she has the sudden realization that ever since Amanda’s accident, she has been “nothing more than a visitor in other people’s worlds” (194). She tries to communicate her confusion about the phone call without directly confronting Ryan, but Ryan’s responses make her suspicious. She reverts to her “default setting” of escape and leaves the restaurant. Inside the SUV, she calms down and realizes that Ryan may simply have been hurt and confused by the conversation, so she asks the driver to take her to Ryan’s place in Los Feliz. Once she gets there, however, she sees Ryan talking to a beautiful woman over a bottle of wine, so she gets back in the SUV and heads for the airport.

When a heartbroken Ryan gets home from Jack’s, she calls Janie, who reassures her that she will kill the pictures the paparazzi caught of Ryan and Cass. Ryan hears a knock at the back gate. Hoping that it is Cass, she hurries outside, but it is Sarah, bearing a bottle of wine. She begs for five minutes of Ryan’s time.

Amanda attends her first AA meeting at a local church. Even as she enters, she is thinking about having a drink as soon as the meeting is over. By the time she sees Patricia Callahan (Annie’s mother) there, it is too late to flee unnoticed. Patricia looks better than she has in years. Amanda does not want to talk to Annie’s mother because she is still very hurt by Annie’s abandonment, and she blames Patricia’s emotional neglect for many of Annie’s problems. Patricia embraces Amanda, welcoming her warmly to the meeting. Amanda doubts that she will come to any more meetings, now that she knows that Patricia will be there. She is a silent observer for most of the meeting, but she abruptly leaves early when she is falsely convinced that Patricia is about to try to make her speak.

Sidney is delighted to have “won” the battle for Cass’s affections and believes that she and Cass will quickly settle back into their old routine. However, Cass is devastated about what happened in Los Angeles, and she is also angry that Sidney has taken the additional step of having her cell number changed without her permission. These reactions surprise Sidney. When Cass packs her things and moves out the next day, Sidney realizes that she has “miscalculated.” She finally understands that she cannot manipulate Cass into loving her, but she still feels satisfied to have broken up the fledgling romance between Cass and Ryan.

Ryan finds Charleston beautiful, but she is deeply depressed about her breakup with Cass. Janie is alarmed by Ryan’s depression and asks how she can help, but Ryan does not know how to answer her. Janie suggests that Ryan write Cass a note, explaining how she feels. Ryan is skeptical, but she writes a note for Janie to deliver. Janie returns from New York and reports that Cass has disappeared and that even Sidney does not know where she is. Janie returns the note to Ryan.

At first, Janie says, she has no intention of delivering the note to Cass. However, after reading it and realizing the depth of Ryan’s feelings for Cass, she changes her mind and actually does fly to New York. She wants to try to fix what she believes she has broken by calling the paparazzi, but after meeting with Sidney, she realizes that this will not be possible, because Sidney has no idea where Cass has gone.

Cass moves to Charleston. She views it as a way to stay close to Ryan—by literally visiting the sites where Ryan is filming once Ryan is gone for the day. Her actions also feel a little bit “like a punishment” (212). She begins writing a sequel to her book and spends hours each day walking in the intense heat, thinking about herself and her life choices. Eventually, she feels her long-held guilt over Amanda begin to ease.

In October of 2007, Patricia visits Amanda at home, just to check in on her and remind her that she is still welcome to come to AA. Patricia has rented an accessible van and invites Amanda to come for a ride. Amanda wants to refuse, but Patricia’s warmth and Amanda’s growing compassion for Annie’s pain work together to disarm her. She agrees, wondering if Patricia has heard from Annie. When she learns that Annie has not contacted Patricia in all these years, she feels tears of disappointment spring to her eyes. Patricia confesses that when Annie left, she did not know her daughter was gone for two weeks, because she was busy with a boyfriend in another town. Amanda can see that Patricia regrets her neglect of Annie and that she is sincerely trying to get her own life together. Amanda tells Patricia that she should read The Very Last but does not tell her why. That night, Amanda begins rereading the novel herself and discovers that now it feels like a lifeline to Annie.

In 2011, Cass finishes the third and final book in The Very Last series. She overhears two young mothers in a park, talking about their book club. She has become very lonely over the years, and she impulsively asks whether she can join their club. When they explain that the book club is for new mothers, she pretends to have a child herself. Cass finds that she really enjoys the companionship and the intellectual stimulation of being in the club, but she is nervous when they decide to read The Very Last. She is pleased at how seriously they take her book but taken aback when one of the women criticizes Samantha for abandoning Jeremiah. She listens in a kind of panic as they debate whether Samantha was right to put her ambitions ahead of her friendship with Jeremiah. The members of the book club finally agree that although careers are important and satisfying, they cannot replace relationships. They decide to vote on whether Samantha is terrible or heroic; Cass is the deciding vote, and she says that she has to vote “neither” because people are “all so much more, and less, than [their] best, or worst, moment” (222).