Confessions on the 7:45

Selena Murphy missed her usual train home from work and decides to take the 7:45 home instead. She works at a literary agency in New York City, and she knows that her nanny, Geneva, will get her two sons, Oliver and Stephen, ready for bed.

Selena recently moved a surveillance camera from a bedroom into the playroom because she suspects her husband, Graham, is having an affair with Geneva. At her desk, she pulls up the video feed, and her suspicions are confirmed as she watches them have sex in the playroom. Geneva tells him that they need to stop and she should probably quit, but Graham begs her to stay.

As she watches, Selena seems to care more for Geneva than Graham; he has cheated on her before, is immature, and lost his job, which is why Selena had to go back to work and hire a nanny in the first place. Geneva, on the other hand, is organized, efficient, and great at taking care of the boys. Though she is angry and hurt, Selena tamps down her feelings until she is numb. She boards her train and sits next to a young woman who looks sympathetic—maybe even a little familiar.

The next chapter focuses on Anne, a young woman who is having an affair with her married boss, Hugh. Hugh’s wife, Kate, owns the investment firm where they both work, and Anne respects and admires her power and intelligence. Anne was not planning to sleep with Hugh, but now that she is, she is thinking about how she can take advantage of the situation. They have sex in Hugh’s office, and afterward, Hugh tells her that he is going to leave his wife so they can be together. Anne doesn’t believe him and is not particularly interested in his marriage or having a real relationship with him.

Hugh leaves for a fundraising event, and Anne returns to her office. She gets a text that says, “This is wrong. I don’t want to do this anymore,” and Anne replies, “Just stay the course. It’s too late to back out now” (28). It is not revealed whom she is talking to or what they are discussing, but Anne is her superior. The chapter closes with Anne looking at her watch and realizing she needs to hurry to get to her next place on time.

Chapter 3 returns to Selena’s storyline. She has boarded the train, but it loses power on the track, and the car goes dark. She texts Graham that she’ll be even later getting home, and his response is nonchalant. She decides that his use of an exclamation mark, which he rarely uses, is a sign that he feels bad for what he did.

Selena still thinks the woman next to her looks familiar but doesn’t know why. The woman asks her, “Did you ever do something you really regretted?” (31), and Selena replies that she has and thinks about some of her regrets, including leaving her ex-boyfriend, Will, for Graham. A short flashback shows how happy they were when they first got married, in contrast to how Selena feels now.

The woman introduces herself as Martha and offers Selena a small bottle of vodka. Selena has a video call with her sons before they go to bed, and when it's over, Martha comments about how nice her family seems. Selena confesses that she suspects her husband is cheating on her with the nanny. She doesn’t tell her that she caught them on video.

Martha tells her that if he is cheating on her, she hopes he gets what he deserves or that the nanny will disappear. This response sounds a little threatening to Selena, and she feels uneasy around Martha. They thank each other for letting the other vent, and Selena hastily gets off the train, hoping she won’t run into Martha again.

Geneva is tidying up the kitchen while Graham unsuccessfully tries to calm the boys before bed. She reflects that he is not as skilled as her or Selena, and she feels guilty about their affair. She admires Selena and feels disdain toward Graham. She writes a note for Selena with reminders and updates about the boys.

Geneva reflects on her role in the Murphy family, how she started the job, and when the dalliance with Graham started. At first, she liked being in their large, beautiful home and pretended that she lived there herself. However, she saw how Selena was “Wonder Woman,” working so hard at her job and being a wonderful mother while Graham was lazy, petulant, and reluctant to find a new job. She thinks that Graham isn’t the worst father she’s met; she didn’t even know her own.

She drives home to her small apartment and gets a series of texts from an unnamed man with whom she has been having a relationship. They start desperate and become aggressive and threatening. He calls her a “whore” before she manages to block his number. Geneva looks out the window and sees a car she recognizes. She wonders if the owner is following her—the text alludes to it being the same person who was texting her. She watches out the window until the car drives away.

Chapter 5 is the first time Pearl appears in the novel. She is a teenage girl who lives with her single mother, Stella. Pearl has gotten good at fading into the background and just listening and paying attention to people and details. Stella is somewhat reckless and often has different men coming and going from their home. Pearl does not know who her father is.

Pearl is fascinated with her mother’s latest boyfriend, Charlie. Stella hired him to work at the bookstore she owns, and now, he is often in their house, cooking dinner and asking Pearl about the books she reads. He is different from the other men her mother has dated, who are usually loud and not very sharp.

Pearl is so used to watching people without being noticed that she is surprised and pleased that Charlie actually seems to see her. He praises her for being clever, and she likes having him around.

Selena finally makes it home from work, and when she gets inside, she tells Graham that they need to talk. The narrative flashes back to when she first met Graham while she was still dating Will. He was charming and swept her off her feet immediately. She broke up with Will to be with Graham, and Will seemed more concerned than anything, questioning Graham’s character and how quickly their relationship escalated. After a whirlwind romance, they soon got married.

She remembers other instances of his infidelity. Once, she caught him sending sexually explicit texts to an ex-girlfriend. Another time, there was a situation with a sex worker in Las Vegas that forced her to fly there and bail him and a friend out of jail. Graham went to therapy and begged for forgiveness, and for a while, it seemed like he was doing better.

Now, she tells him that she saw him with Geneva in the playroom. He tries to make it seem like Geneva instigated the affair and like, since he’s been feeling depressed, he let his guard down. He begs her to give him a chance to explain, but she says that he needs to leave. He persists, and she knows that he is getting angry. She has seen Graham go into such a rage that he becomes another person. He’s never hurt her before, but she senses that he is capable of violence when he gets into this state. Before he has the opportunity, she screams at him to get away and throws one of the boys’ toy robots at him.

This chapter goes back to Anne, the young woman who is sleeping with her married boss, Hugh. One day, she is summoned by Hugh’s wife, Kate, to speak with her in her office. Anne knows this cannot be good; it is probably about Hugh, but it could also be because Anne is siphoning money from various accounts into her own. She thinks about how Pop coached her to keep an expressionless look on her face.

When Anne arrives in Kate’s office, she sees that Hugh is there, too. Kate tells her that she knows about the affair, and despite what he told her, he will not be leaving his wife. Kate asks what they need to do to settle this conflict, and they agree that Kate will give Anne a huge sum of money if she leaves her job and never speaks to Hugh again. Kate escorts Anne out of the building, and Anne goes home to Pop, where she reflects on the “job”—the con she pulled with Hugh and Kate.

She and Pop discuss the job. He has been coaching her on how to con and manipulate people, and she admits to herself that she made a mistake by letting herself enjoy her time with Hugh and the luxuries that came with being his mistress. Pop warns her that if she gets too involved in a con for reasons other than money, she might make a wrong move. She assures him that she has everything under control.

At the end of the chapter, Anne gets a series of texts that say, “I don’t want to do this anymore…it’s wrong…don’t you ever get tired?... I think things have gone south here. I want to leave” (69-70). Anne is dismissive of the texts and the person who sent them, whose identity is not revealed.

The next day, Geneva arrives at the Murphy house, and things do not seem right. Everyone is gone, and the house is a mess. Usually, Selena has everything for the boys organized and laid out before she leaves for work. Geneva tidies up the boys’ room, does a load of laundry, and starts cleaning the kitchen when she notices drops of blood on the counter. She wipes them up and feels even more like something is wrong.

Geneva picks up the boys from school and has them eat a snack. They start recording silly videos of each other on their iPad while she continues cleaning up the house. She hears the garage door open and worries that it is Graham, but it is actually Selena, who has come home early from work.

Selena asks her to get the boys settled while she changes and tells her that she’ll pay her in full even though she arrived home early. Geneva feels a coldness and distance between her and Selena that wasn’t there before. She assumes that she knows about her and Graham. This is not the first time Geneva has slept with the father of a family that employs her; she previously worked for the Murphys’ neighbors, the Tuckers, until she abruptly had to leave. She doesn’t feel as bad about disrupting their family as she does about the Murphys, though, because they already seemed unhappy before she got there.

As she walks to her car, she thinks that her days with the Murphys are probably numbered and she should update her resume. She stops when she sees an unnamed figure get out of their car and walk toward her. Their identity is not divulged, but Geneva recognizes them. The chapter ends with her saying, “Oh. It’s you” (79).