Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussions of prescription drug and alcohol addiction.

Through her portrayal of Chloe Davis’s journey, Willingham explores the deleterious effects of the past on the present. Despite her best attempts to forge a new life away from the trauma of her childhood, Chloe struggles to navigate the triggers that threaten to disarm and destroy her. As Chloe faces the reality of her trauma’s resonating effects, she embarks on a journey of self-discovery that teaches her how to maintain her humanity and gain independence.

Due to her traumatic childhood, Chloe has anxiety, insomnia, nyctophobia, and hypochondria. Her fears stem from the arrest of her father when she was 12 and she describes their emergence as “a force so suffocating it hurt to breathe” (2). Even mere memories of summer, the season in which the Breaux Bridge murders occurred, elicit “memories of fear” (16). To cope with these fears, Chloe uses alcohol and prescription medications “to numb the constant fear vibrating through my veins” (64). Rather than facing her demons, she avoids confrontation and chooses to abandon her childhood home and her mother. This avoidance allows Chloe to escape and create a new life. She forges a career as a psychologist, which allows her to perpetuate a belief in her own power and proclaim that “I can help myself” (208).