Summary

Chapter 3 transitions to a later therapy session. Andrew says that last week, he decided to go see his child for the first time in years. The child is named Willa; Briony picked the name. Following Briony’s death, Andrew temporarily suffered a mental illness in which he hallucinated that Briony was still alive, helping him raise Willa. Andrew’s behavior had become erratic, and so he decided to give the child to Martha and her husband. Shortly before Andrew decided to visit Willa, he heard an opera on the radio: Boris Godunov. Martha’s husband—whose name Andrew never states—is an opera singer. He had once called Andrew the Pretender, saying that Andrew merely pretended to be a good person. This nickname again reminded Andrew of the opera Boris Godunov, the story of which involves a pretender to the Russian czarist throne. The...