Maggie’s brother Jason threatened to never allow Vanessa to forget what had happened to his sister. Because Vanessa was activities director and the girl’s big sister, Vanessa blamed herself for Maggie’s death. Maggie, a pledge in Vanessa’s sorority drowned during initiation. In the second part of the novel, Vanessa shares with her reader the incident in college that made her flee from her home in Florida after graduation. She is obsessed with Richard’s new girlfriend not because she wants Richard back but because she wants to warn her about Richard’s real personality.

This part of the novel demonstrates how much Vanessa changed while she was married to Richard. Nellie was Richard’s nickname for Vanessa. As the novel progresses it becomes clear that Nellie and Vanessa are the same person. The reader assumes Nellie is the girlfriend of whom Vanessa is jealous. Vanessa’s story is told in alternating chapters with the story of Nellie, a woman who is preparing for her wedding to Richard. She appears to be a jealous ex-wife because she breaks down when she learns that Richard is marrying the girl with whom he had an affair. In the first part of the novel, Vanessa describes her life after she gets a divorce from Richard. The apparent jealous ex-wife Vanessa Thompson turns out to be the one who orchestrated her husband’s affair while the princely Richard Thomas turns out to be less than perfect. The novel The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen demonstrates how perceptions can blur reality as both characters in the novel and the reader are drawn into false beliefs.

The following version of the novel was used to create this study guide: Hendricks, Greer and Pekkanen, Sarah.

Novel the wife between us