Love, Mom

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness, death, child death, child sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, suicidal ideation, addiction, and substance use.

Twenty-one years earlier, Ben paces around Tonya’s lake house, worried that Elizabeth Dunn knows about their affair, which has been going on for months. Although Ben had wanted to break up with Elizabeth, Tonya insisted that they stay together, desperate for revenge on Elizabeth. Tonya claims that Elizabeth killed three boys in a barn fire because she was jealous that a boy chose Tonya over her.

Tonya claims that Elizabeth is capitalizing on her painful memories through her novels and believes that she is owed money as a result. She convinces Ben to marry Elizabeth before her first novel is published so that he has access to her profits. Ben wants to be with Tonya but is anxious about the responsibilities that come with being a father. Tonya promises him that she will take care of everything.

Elizabeth appears at Tonya’s cabin, having followed them from the airport where she dropped Ben off after he claimed to be visiting his mother. She breaks up with Ben angrily. Elizabeth’s anger causes her to go into labor.