Stone Cold Fox

“Their Bony shoulders shook to keep laughter inside, their buoyant medium length blowouts bobbing up and down, all but giving it away. They glanced at Gale for her reaction and then quickly looked elsewhere—clearly she wasn't part of their little gaggle of gal pals. Gale didn't even acknowledge their poorly repressed actions at her expense because she knew the truth, too. Their forced camaraderie was only a technicality based on proximity.”

Bea exploits the petty conflicts between the women in Collin’s friend group, here, taking note of Gale’s exclusion from the other women. Gale’s knowledge of her position as an outsider only further weakens her position against Bea, and this scene is essentially repeated later on with Chloe and Calliope.

“‘Bea, you're smart, you know what I mean. Perhaps what you don't know is that this is kind of his thing with relationships. You're one of many. Collin’s been searching for something for as long as I can remember. How to best put it?’ she paused, thinking. ‘It's like he's looking for an identity outside of his own.’

‘How admirable,’ I said, maintaining my position. She could bump right into me if she wanted to, I wasn't going to move. ‘Collin and I have that in common.’”

While Gale exposes Collin’s penchant for dating outside his circle, she also points to how Bea and Collin can connect in a different way. Though Gale suspects Bea is putting on an act, her comment about finding a new identity is legitimate, as Bea no longer wants to deceive people to survive.

“This was a disaster. My résumé had not been updated nor my network sufficiently fluffed for maintenance. I was in no position to be seeking both new employment and a new boyfriend, so I remained calm with Collin. A show of temper could only be deployed in a relationship at moments when the other party would find it endearing and cute, believing their partner is a Spitfire or a spark plug or a pistol or some other terrible turn of phrase reserved exclusively for women who openly share their opinions.”

Bea’s understanding of her own situation, both logistically and as a woman in contemporary society, reveals the depth of her abilities in executing her con. Her observations on women both restrict her from expressing herself and provide the avenue through which she can continue to manipulate Collin.

“As obnoxious as they were, it was amusing to see a real family's dysfunctional dynamics emerge right in front of my eyes. It was like watching a play. I could find myself a role in this theater of the absurd, I was sure of it. Just as I'd always suspected, all families are a few snide comments away from a full-blown feud, in front of guests no less. Long standing rifts always bubbling to the surface, all members dying to tell the others how they really feel. I wanted to get involved, egg them on, take sides, play favorites, keep secrets for years on end, let one blow at an opportune moment years down the line and—”

Bea both relishes the “normalcy” of the Case family and the opportunities it presents for future manipulation. Bea did not have a traditional family of her own, so the Case family offers a chance to explore that side of herself. Still, she does not leave her deceptive past behind, keeping it alongside her in case she needs it.

“Another cue for me. I skip happily all the way down the hallway to the housekeeper and flash her a winning smile, just like mother taught me. I twirl a piece of my hair and my fingers and say, ‘Excuse me, miss. My mother and I were about to go get lunch downstairs, but she left her purse inside with the key. Could you please open it back up for us? See? She's just down there.’ Mother waves, smiles and then throws up her hand, doing all the right things.”

This passage from Bea’s childhood shows how her mother developed the need for performance early in Bea’s life. Even as a child, Bea was expected to act in certain ways to manipulate others and get ahead, which informs her adult life, in which she does the same kinds of things on grander scales.

“Syl went in for a hug like I knew she would, but this time I accepted it. Passersby probably thought we were genuine girlfriends. A thing like that. But it didn't mean I could trust her period it probably meant I needed my guard up around her even more. A delicate dance. Lure her in, without revealing too much of myself. Story of my life.”

Bea’s inability to make female friends is highlighted in this passage, as she feels genuine friendship building with Syl, but her first reaction is to step back. The idea that Bea can only see people as threats or targets hinders her socialization, which she nonchalantly sums up as the “story of her life,” deflecting away from responsibility or pursuing change.

“Second, I was thrilled she said it. All about the money. It was only going to make Collin more loyal to me. He didn't want to believe he was like the rest of them. I could relate to that, even though I thought he was ridiculous considering his privilege that he rarely recognized. He still thought he was better than most, just different, simply by virtue of loving someone like me, an outsider. Someone from the ‘fringe.’ Benevolent Collin who could see beyond the bank account. Bravo, buddy.”

Bea’s scathing analysis of Collin’s virtue signaling shows how Bea has carefully considered Collin as an option in her pursuit of wealth, highlighting The Value of Wealth and Social Status. He has enough desire to break with tradition to pursue Bea, but he retains enough of his privilege and dignity to defend himself against attacks like Gale’s. She sees the benefits she will inevitably gain if she becomes part of the Case family.

“Honestly, I just want to stay with him. Mother can go on without me and I think I can go on without her. Then it'll just be me and Dean, eating ice cream together in Sausalito, no sorbet. Mother will find a new family, and another one after that, and another one forever, wouldn't she? But would she find another teammate? I hate the thought so I make myself stop even thinking about telling Dean the truth. I decide to be grateful for a second school year ahead in the same place, sort of in disbelief that it's really happening.”

Bea’s desire to stay with Dean reflects her early attachment to men, as well as her early rejection of women, both of which define her adulthood. She has no female friends and moves from man to man in search of the security she wishes she could have had with Dean as her father.

“I'm sure it comes as no surprise, but I didn't have a lot of friends. A dynamic mostly by my own design, since I preferred to keep people at arm’s length unless they would be of real use to me. More men than women fell into that bucket. I'd argue that men are relatively easy to read, but women have real depth, and darkness, to the point that you never really know what we're thinking. Women have actual layers under our societally mandated glossy veneers. So many unknowns, which is why female friendship had mystified me my entire life. No, thank you. It's not like mother attended book clubs or wine nights or pampered chef parties and led by example.”

Bea’s gendered distinction regarding women both obscures the depth of personality in men and demonizes the depth of personality in women. This passage clearly shows Bea’s worldview, in which men are objects and women are enemies.

“I could ask everyone in person and we could begin the planning process as a unit. The whole thing sounded completely terrible, but I agreed because it was all part of the gig. Smile, girls! Parade yourselves around for others' amusement. This is how things have always been done. Women supporting women. Please. We would all hate it and pretend we loved it. And the vicious cycle continues.”

Bea criticizes the traditions of the Case family, noting how the thin veneer of feminine solidarity is punctuated by the women’s hatred for one another. The cycle Bea criticizes, here, is not significantly different from the same cycle Bea is caught in with her mother in the Interludes.

“I don't have a lot of friends and my teachers don't pay much attention to me anymore, like they did when I was little, even though I'm still one of the smartest kids at school. It just seems like most women avoid me now. I know it's because of the way I look. I look just like mother, but the younger version, so the sight of me triggers her now. Another bullseye on my back. It doesn't help that Mike looks at me all the time. I don't feel like I'm in danger, not from him anyway, but it definitely doesn't help with mother, even though I thought this is what she always wanted. A teammate. An equal.”

Bea’s precocious youth transitions into an uncomfortable adolescence, where she is ogled by men and rejected by women, informing her present struggles with female friendship. Most disappointing for Bea, though, is that her mother is rejecting her, too, even though she claims to want her and Bea to be equals.

“Francis immediately apologizes. To him. To diamond. Then Francis grabs me by the wrist, snatching me out of the party. Mother watches but doesn't follow us. She stays still and stoic and calm. She looks disappointed in me. ‘You're not a kid anymore, Fleur!’ Francis barks at me in the hallway, just the two of us, alone. ‘What did you think was going to happen here? We let you take your time, you've had plenty of it, and if you wanna stay here—if you and your mother wanna stay here—you have to grow up. OK? If she won't tell you that, I will, because I actually care about you.’”

The fact that Francis apologizes to Diamon and yells at Bea shows where his true motivations lie, even as he tries to convince Bea he cares about her. Bea’s mother’s lack of involvement and look of disappointment confirm that Bea’s mother both knew that Francis was abusing children and expected Bea to allow herself to be abused.

“Being on the receiving end of gifts from sunup to sundown, from women no less, was a new sensation. I knew that they all had to do it, but it felt important period it felt real. Like this life couldn't be taken away from me somehow. I had to stop thinking that way. It was too naive. Anything could happen, particularly with Gale still circling. I couldn't rest until the wedding was over. Then and only then would it all be over.”

Bea relishes her position of power relative to the other women present, seeming to wish that she had actual friends to attend the event. However, she also deludes herself into thinking that her problems will end when she gets married, reflecting the changing milestones of the text.

“I was questioning everything. I hated it. I hated her. I hated myself for underestimating her presence as sheer amusement and nothing more, because I was wrong. As it turned out, Gale Wallace-Leicester, mules, moles and oil, was a worthy adversary indeed. Why had I wanted such a thing? Especially when I knew what such a person could do.”

As Bea is forced to consider the possibility that her real past is about to be exposed, she regrets challenging Gale, but, more importantly, she reflects on how she already knows how people like Gale can become malicious. This passage both shows The Consequences of Deception and Manipulation and foreshadows Bea’s mother’s involvement.

“I deserve this pain. We both do. Feel it. I feel it. I know I am a bad daughter. But what did she think she'd get? She's a bad mother. Maybe I'll brush the hair away from her face. No. I won't do it. I can't. My face is soaking wet period I can hardly see. I rub the crook of my arm across my face. I can see. I can see everything. All of it. The black and the white and everything Gray. The future is finally mine. What's another scar on my heart? Do I even have one?”

As Bea thinks she has killed her mother, she considers herself and her future, seeing that she has an opportunity to start over while also acknowledging lasting damage that may never heal. Her consideration of whether she has a heart is undercut by her refusal to get petty revenge by brushing away her mother’s hair.

“Would I have liked the opportunity to show a man the real me? Have a real relationship? Fall in love? Of course I considered it, a long time ago when I first returned to New York, but who in their right mind would want to deal with everything that I carried with me? What was inside of me? Who would really stay at the end of the day? No one normal, no one kind, no good man would cook breakfast for a girl like me, buy me flowers just because, introduce me to their own mother, knowing the truth about me. She took that from me.”

Bea’s self-doubt comes through in this passage as she considers herself unattractive and repulsive due to her history and upbringing. She rightly blames her mother for this, but she misdirects that anger, placing it on the raw facts of her life rather than on the doubt her mother caused her to feel about herself.

“I dreamt about comparing dark family pasts with Syl. She would understand me on some level. Her father was in prison, leaving her to grow up in the system. Syl and I both had the same hard edges that we could soften on command to the untrained eye. Me with a made-up story. Syl with that sunny disposition. We let people think they had us figured out. It was a lot easier to be a woman in the world if you weren't a puzzle to be solved.”

Bea’s comparison of herself and her sister obscures Syl’s genuine optimism, which does not appear to be a performance. Bea understands her sister through the lens of manipulation, noting how sexism in modern society can be converted into an advantage for women like Bea, who craft their personas. 

“When Gale crossed the threshold, my hand on the door, she stared at me before leaving. A full 5 seconds. Enormous evil in her eye, possessing a callousness I had yet to see from her. She was no longer having fun. Neither was I. Gale smirked upon leaving, a small snort in my direction. A feeling of disquiet fell over me. Those eyes. Her eyes. They reminded me of Mother.”

Gale’s malice is palpable, and it reminds Bea of the other woman she has seen with that look—her mother. This comparison allows Bea to see how she differs from both women, as she merely enjoyed sparring with Gale up to this point, and she now realizes that Gale is not willing to lose gracefully, foreshadowing a climax in this conflict.

“Could I even love a baby? In theory, of course. When asked, always. But would I really? I didn't know. I tried to look on the bright side. A child would only increase my value within the case family, per my prenuptial agreement. More security was never a bad thing period having a baby was a sound choice, a solid progression even further into the family, and on that note, even more of a reason for Collin to never leave me.”

Bea questions her own ability to transcend her mother’s behavior, but she quickly deflects into looking at the baby as a transaction, the main method of Bea’s survival. From a transactional point of view, the baby is a benefit to the marriage, which will provide greater security, rendering Bea’s emotions unimportant, for now. Bea’s constant reliance on this method of thinking shows The Struggle of Identity Construction in a Materialistic Society.

“‘Tell me right now. Did she find you?’ I asked the question knowing it was impossible. It had to be impossible. ‘How?’

‘Who?’ Syl asked.

‘You know who I'm talking about!’ I was shouting now, daring her to tell me what I've long suspected. She was never gone. She was never really gone. I knew it. I always had. I'd never been able to leave her, it didn't work, and she was always watching me waiting to get me when I least expected it.”

As Syl is revealing that Gale helped her find Bea, Bea immediately suspects that her mother is behind Syl’s actions. Bea becomes “feral,” panicking and searching Syl’s home for signs that her mother is present, showing the ferocity with which childhood trauma can resurface.

“She would not take my life. I would take hers first period I wanted Gale Wallace-Leicester dead. How dare she pretend like she knew my mother. How dare she. I'm the only one who knows mother. Was this what she wanted? Did she want me to prove I would stop at nothing to get what I wanted? That I was just like her all along? If I killed Gale to keep Collin, to keep Bea, was I really so different from her?”

Bea’s mentality shifts from seeing Gale as the enemy to recognizing her mother behind Gale’s actions. Killing Gale ceases to be a matter of destroying her nemesis and becomes an issue of imitating or breaking from her mother’s influence.

“But in other dreams all I did was apologize to her endlessly period to her face, on my knees, shouting it from far away, shouting it right into her face again, but she wouldn't look at me. She'd never look at me, refusing to see me or hear me or acknowledge me. No longer a team. She didn't want me anymore. I'm so sorry, mother. Mommy, I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Louder and louder, as loud as I could. Or sometimes no sound came out of my mouth but it felt like I was screaming my apologies to her period she never forgave me in those dreams. She just walked away. Far, far away from me. She didn't like me. She didn't love me. My own mother.”

Bea’s dreams reflect the trauma inflicted on her by her mother’s callous parenting, in which Bea both craves her mother’s love and rejects having her mother in her life. Dreams often reveal critical elements of characterization, and Bea’s dream comes as her mother and her child are about to enter her life, again.

“So, what if there was another choice, if I was brave enough to see it through? What if I was willing to bet on Bea Case and tell Collin the truth in the hopes that he would protect me from whatever Gale was going to do or say to take me down? We were untouchable as the Case family, weren't we? Money can make anything go away, even my past, but did he love me enough to know my truth? The real me? I didn't know the answer, so how could I risk it?”

Bea decides to distinguish herself from her mother, choosing to end her con rather than risk Gale’s life. Even though Gale is her nemesis, Bea recognizes the moral problem with killing one’s enemies. Still, she worries that Collin might not continue to love her, which could end the marriage and the con.