Harper discovered the truth through a handwritten note left on the refrigerator. When Trevor returned from his trip with suitcases and souvenirs and questioned why police were at his home, the narrator calmly placed evidence on the kitchen table. It included a child-endangerment summons, screenshots proving Trevor had falsely claimed Eli was safe, and a canceled San Diego plane ticket.
The canceled ticket revealed that Trevor had deliberately excluded Eli from the family trip. He had refunded Eli’s ticket weeks before the narrator’s mother died, kept the money, and taken his own two children to San Diego. The funeral had simply provided a convenient excuse to hide what he was doing.
Trevor had also coached nine-year-old Eli to lie. Eli sent cheerful messages saying he had eaten and everything was fine because his father told him not to worry his mother. In reality, Eli spent six days largely caring for himself, eventually walking to a supermarket when the food ran out.