22. Ophelia

Ophelia returns to her cold, neglected childhood home for Christmas break and struggles with loneliness and the weight of family secrets. Alex calls on Christmas morning and sends his mother to greet her, then arranges to have a new boiler delivered when he learns her heating is broken. By day's end, Ophelia is grateful but wracked with guilt over the dishonesty she's been carrying about her parents and her original mission to destroy his family.

Ophelia arrives at her dilapidated family home to find it frozen and decaying, with broken appliances and a dead houseplant. She receives a Christmas morning FaceTime call from Alex, who is in Paris with his family. When his mother Elise joins the call, Ophelia is struck by her warmth and beauty, and experiences a pivotal realization: she cannot publicly expose Cain Green or damage his family because doing so would harm Elise, whom Alex clearly loves deeply. This decision means abandoning her four-year plan for revenge. Over the following weeks, Ophelia works at a local nursing home to pay for repairs, spending time with May, an elderly neighbor from her childhood. She spends Christmas Day alone in the freezing house, then works at the nursing home, where she shows the staff a photograph of Alex and becomes the subject of local gossip. After her shift, she discovers a large parcel containing a new boiler—a gift from Alex, who paid to have it delivered. Though grateful and emotionally connected to him through their phone call, Ophelia is consumed by guilt over her deceptions and cannot accept his kindness until she confesses everything.