The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Hoover, Colleen. Verity. Independently published, 2018.

The novel opens in New York City. Lowen Ashleigh is a woman in her early thirties living in New York City. She is a novelist, but she has had limited success. Also, for the last year, she has had to spend most of her time taking care of her mother, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Her mother recently died. One day, a man named Jeremy Crawford sets up a meeting with Lowen through Lowen’s literary agent. Jeremy is married to Verity Crawford, a famous thriller novelist. Verity was recently in a car crash and suffered severe injuries. Jeremy wants Lowen to help write the remaining books in Verity’s popular thriller series.

Lowen goes to the house in Vermont where Jeremy and Verity live with their five-year-old son, Crew. Jeremy reveals to Lowen that Verity has been catatonic ever since the car crash. Jeremy and hired nurse take care of Verity. Lowen looks through Verity’s office files, searching for outlines of the remaining books in the series. In one file, Lowen finds a manuscript called So Be It, which appears to be a secret, unpublished memoir written by Verity. Lowen cannot resist reading it. The autobiography begins with Verity and Jeremy’s first chance encounter at a party. They quickly developed an intense sexual and emotional relationship, and they eventually married.

Lowen reads So Be It one chapter at a time, over the span of several days. Lowen finds that each chapter becomes increasingly disturbing. In the autobiography, Verity writes that she was distraught when she became pregnant with twins, as it became apparent that Jeremy’s love for the unborn children surpassed his love for Verity. Verity secretly attempted to induce a miscarriage, but she failed. Verity continued to hate the children—Chastin and Harper—after they were born. However, one day, she found that she had suddenly developed maternal love for Chastin. Meanwhile, she became irrationally paranoid that Harper would try to kill Chastin one day.

Between work and reading the memoir, Lowen spends time with Jeremy in his house, and the two of them soon begin to develop a romantic connection. They resist this connection, as Jeremy is still technically married. However, they are eventually unable to resist, and their relationship becomes both emotional and sexual. Meanwhile, Lowen becomes increasingly uneasy in the house, as she begins to suspect that Verity is faking her catatonic state. One day, Lowen even seems to glimpse Verity standing at the top of the stairs, watching Lowen and Jeremy.

Lowen reads the rest of So Be It. Chastin had a severe peanut allergy, and when she was a toddler, she died after eating peanuts. Verity became convinced that Harper had force-fed Chastin in order to kill her. As revenge, Verity then killed Harper by drowning her in a nearby pond. Verity made the drowning look like an accident, but Jeremy later began to possibly suspect that Verity had killed Harper on purpose.

Lowen gives the manuscript of So Be It to Jeremy and then proves that Verity is faking her cataonia. Jeremy and Lowen kill Verity, and they make her death look like an accident. Seven months later, Lowen is pregnant with her and Jeremy’s child, and they are preparing to begin a new life elsewhere with Crew. However, Lowen then discovers a handwritten letter left by Verity. In the letter, Verity writes that So Be It was merely a writing exercise designed to help her practice writing villain characters. Lowen learns form this letter that Jeremy had actually found So Be It before he ever even met Lowen, and Jeremy had then tried to kill Verity by staging a car accident. Verity survived, but she decided to fake a catatonic state until she could figure out what to do. Lowen destroys the letter, as she realizes it is now impossible to determine whether the letter is the true account of events, or whether So Be It is the actual true account.