In Verity by Colleen Hoover, a struggling writer named Lowen Ashley is hired to finish a bestselling thriller series for famous author Verity Crawford, who is believed to be brain‑damaged after a car accident. While staying in Verity’s home to review her notes, Lowen discovers a hidden, unfinished “autobiography” manuscript that reveals a horrifying version of Verity’s past, including the deaths of her two daughters and her twisted obsession with her husband Jeremy.

Main setup

  • Lowen moves into the Crawford home to sort through Verity’s office and outlines.
  • Verity is kept in an upstairs bedroom, unresponsive, cared for by nurses, while Jeremy and their young son Crew try to live a “normal” life.
  • Lowen and Jeremy grow closer as they share grief, trauma, and late‑night conversations, and an attraction slowly turns into a dark, emotionally charged affair.

The secret manuscript (“So Be It”)

Lowen finds a hidden file/manuscript titled “So Be It” , written by Verity. It reads like a brutally honest, first‑person confession where Verity:

  • Admits she never wanted her twin daughters, Chastin and Harper, and tried to abort them.
  • Describes extreme jealousy of the children because they “steal” Jeremy’s love and attention.
  • Details cruel thoughts and acts toward them, including attempts to harm them as babies.
  • Claims Harper intentionally caused Chastin’s death (by a peanut allergy incident), and Verity later capsizes a boat on purpose , drowning Harper in retaliation.
  • Ends the manuscript saying she plans to kill herself by driving into a tree to avoid consequences.

Reading this, Lowen becomes convinced Verity is a monstrous, abusive mother and possibly a murderer.

Creepy things in the house

Even though Verity is supposed to be incapacitated, Lowen keeps noticing strange signs that suggest Verity might be faking :

  • Verity’s eyes seem to follow Lowen.
  • Lowen hears noises from Verity’s room and sometimes thinks she sees movement.
  • Crew, the son, sometimes hints that his mother talks or moves when adults aren’t looking.

Lowen installs a hidden camera in Verity’s bedroom. The video eventually proves Verity can move—she shifts her leg and reacts, confirming she is not fully catatonic.

Confrontation and Verity’s death

Lowen finally shows Jeremy the manuscript and tells him she suspects Verity has been faking. Jeremy confronts Verity in her room:

  • Under pressure, Verity drops the act and reveals she has been aware and pretending.
  • Jeremy snaps and tries to strangle her in rage over what she did (or what he believes she did) to their daughters.
  • Lowen intervenes only to change the method: she warns him that strangling will look like murder, then helps him stage Verity’s death to seem like an accident in her sleep (by inducing vomiting and making it appear she aspirated).

Verity dies, and Lowen and Jeremy become complicit in covering up what happened.

Aftermath: new life, new secret

Months later:

  • Lowen is pregnant with Jeremy’s child.
  • They’ve moved on and are preparing to sell the old Vermont house.
  • While clearing out Verity’s former bedroom, Lowen finds a handwritten letter from Verity hidden under the floorboards, addressed to Jeremy.

In the letter, Verity tells a completely different story.

The letter twist: Was the manuscript real?

Verity’s letter claims:

  • “So Be It” was not a real confession but a writing exercise. She says her editor once told her to write from the antagonist’s POV and be as evil and unfiltered as possible, so she cast herself as the villain.
  • She says she never harmed her children and that Harper’s death was a tragic accident, not a deliberate drowning.
  • She explains that Jeremy had already read the manuscript before the car crash and was horrified; he then caused the car “accident” in an attempt to kill her after seeing what he thought were confessions.
  • Verity claims she survived but was terrified of Jeremy and decided to fake her brain damage to stay alive long enough to plan an escape with Crew.

Lowen realizes this means:

  • Either the manuscript was true and the letter is manipulative fiction.
  • Or the manuscript was fiction and she and Jeremy just killed an innocent (though deeply complicated) woman.

Lowen chooses not to show the letter to Jeremy. She destroys it, deciding to protect their new life and keep the ambiguity buried.

The ending ambiguity

The book never clearly tells you which version is real. Readers are split into “Team Manuscript” and “Team Letter”:

  • Team Manuscript : believes Verity is exactly as monstrous as the manuscript shows—abusive, manipulative, and dangerous; the letter is just another lie.
  • Team Letter : thinks Verity’s letter is the truth; the manuscript was twisted “practice,” and Jeremy and Lowen essentially murder a traumatized woman based on misinterpretation.
  • Many discussions argue that everyone in this story is morally compromised—Verity, Jeremy, and Lowen—so there’s no fully reliable narrator, which keeps the ending haunting and unresolved.

Quick bullet recap – what happens in Verity book

  • Lowen is hired to finish Verity Crawford’s series.
  • She moves into Verity’s house, where Verity is supposedly brain‑damaged.
  • Lowen finds Verity’s hidden manuscript describing child abuse, attempted abortions, and the deliberate drowning of their daughter.
  • Lowen and Jeremy start an affair amid growing suspicion that Verity is faking her condition.
  • They discover Verity can move; Jeremy confronts her and, with Lowen’s help, kills her and stages it as an accident.
  • Later, Lowen discovers Verity’s secret letter claiming the manuscript was fiction and that Jeremy tried to kill Verity after reading it.
  • Lowen destroys the letter, keeping the truth—and their complicity—hidden as she and Jeremy start a new life.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.