Things We Do in the Dark

Paris prepares for her murder trial. She appreciates her new lawyer’s aggressive style. She is not sure how to handle her mother’s blackmail threats. With time on her hands, she binge-watches an old docudrama series that features a fictionalized version of Ruby’s murder trial. Paris/Joey remembers visiting her mother in prison just before the trial. Ruby instructed her daughter that she must testify about her husband’s molestations: how “Charles was hurting you” (252). Paris/Joey was not sure that she could talk about it in open court. Ruby reminded her that if she did not talk about it, the motive for why she killed her lover would be lost. “Promise me, Joey, or I will die in prison” (252). Paris/Joey struggled with the way that her mother told her never to tell anyone about the way she abused her but that she should talk about how her boyfriend molested her. Paris/Joey knows the truth: Her mother did not stab Charles Baxter to protect her; she stabbed him because she was jealous of his twisted affection for her.