47 pages • 1 hour read
Kennedy RyanThis Could Be Us
Kennedy RyanFiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Prologue-Part 1, Chapter 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Prologue Summary: “Judah”
Judah Cross feels affection and respect for his ex-wife, Tremaine, as they mediate the end of their marriage. Instead of disappointment that their love didn’t last forever, he feels relief. A child specialist, Kimberly, helps them work out custodial arrangements for their twin sons, Adam and Aaron, both of whom have autism. Adam is diagnosed as level 1 and is more independent, while Aaron is diagnosed as level 3 and needs substantial support, including a communication device that he uses to display pictures of the concepts he wants to convey. Both Judah and Tremaine have made sacrifices to help their boys, and they work together to supply whatever their children need. Aaron expresses that he wants to stay in their family home with Judah, and Adam goes where Aaron goes, so they arrange that Judah will have the boys during the week and Tremaine will take them on weekends. Judah has never gotten an autism diagnosis, but he sees several of his own traits in his sons, and he understands them.
Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary: “Soledad”
Three years after the Prologue, Soledad Charles Barnes is getting ready to accompany her husband, Edward Barnes, to his company’s Christmas party. CalPot makes cooking pots, and Edward is an important executive. Edward chastises Soledad for the dress she wants to wear, insisting that he needs to make a good impression in front of his nemesis, Judah Cross. Edward and Soledad have been married for 16 years and have three daughters, but something has changed in the last two years. Soledad feels Edward becoming distant and shifty and feels alone in the marriage: “I can’t hold off a landslide by myself, and lately Edward seems content to watch it all fall down” (13). When she mentions that he has not given her much affection lately, Edward blames Soledad. He insists that nothing is going on between him and his assistant, Amber, though the two spend a lot of time together.
At the party, everyone is pleased by the White Glove program that Edward introduced to give special attention to big-spending clients. Edward goes to talk to Amber. As Soledad stands in line for the lackluster food, she chats with a handsome Black man who strikes her as proud, reserved, and observant. Edward returns and is angry that Soledad was talking to Judah; his irritated remarks drive Soledad to take refuge in the bathroom. When she steps out, she sees Amber in an alcove, kissing a man she introduces as her cousin Gerald.
Soledad walks into the library and finds a boy working on a Rubik’s Cube. He says his name is Aaron. Judah enters and identifies Aaron as his son. He then notices the bruise that Edward’s grip left on Soledad’s wrist. As Edward comes to find her and insists that they leave, Soledad notes the difference between the two men.
Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary: “Soledad”
Over dinner, Soledad discusses the next day’s schedule with her daughters. The youngest, Lottie, is in gymnastics, and she and the middle daughter, Inez, go to an expensive private school, Harrington. The eldest, Lupe, attends public school. Lupe is best friends with Deja, the daughter of Soledad’s best friend, Yasmen Wade. Lupe looks more like Edward, who is white, while her other daughters “took a deep dive into the African American and Puerto Rican end of [her] gene pool” (34). Soledad and her sister, Nayeli, had lighter skin than their half-sister, Lola; Soledad grew up knowing what colorism was, so she has made sure that all her daughters know they are beautiful.
Edward complains that Judah is making his life hell. When Soledad defends Judah, Edward is furious and retreats to his “man cave.” Just then, FBI agents arrive and place Edward under arrest.
Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary: “Soledad”
The FBI agents have a warrant to search the house. Edward is being charged with embezzlement. Edward shouts that he’s innocent and that Judah Cross set him up. He tells Soledad to call his lawyer, Brunson. Inez runs to hug her father. As Edward is taken away, Soledad takes the girls inside and promises that she will take care of them and that they will be all right. While the girls console one another, Soledad’s friends Yasmin and Hendrix arrive. On the news, Edward is being accused of embezzling $6 million. Soledad can’t believe that her husband, the father of her children, could be a liar and a criminal. When she talks with the lawyer, Soledad learns that Edward didn’t use his one phone call to contact her.
Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary: “Soledad”
The morning after Edward’s arrest, Soledad thinks about her family: Her father and mother are deceased, Lola lives in the South Carolina house where they grew up, and Nayeli has six children and lives in Los Angeles. Soledad has a video call with her sisters, who have never liked Edward. She feels “that safety net of love and acceptance [they] made for each other as girls, it still holds. It still catches [her]” (51). Reaching out to this so-called “Boricua High Council” cheers Soledad up. Then, she sees that her grocery payment isn’t accepted online. The principal of Harrington calls to say that the girls’ tuition payment didn’t go through.
Soledad learns that the FBI has frozen their assets. Judah contacts her, and Soledad meets him in Edward’s man cave so that the girls don’t see him. Judah encourages Soledad to cooperate with the FBI, though she doesn’t know anything about what Edward was up to. Judah, who is a forensic accountant, reveals that Edward stole the money through the White Glove program, but Judah hasn’t been able to find where he hid it. Soledad is testy, but Judah reminds her that he isn’t responsible for her situation; Edward is. Later, groceries are delivered, and Soledad realizes that they’re from Judah.
Prologue-Part 1, Chapter 4 Analysis
The Prologue sets up a contrasting motif between romantic love, which Judah realizes he didn’t have with Tremaine, and a partnership of friends. As the novel examines different kinds of marriages, Ryan juxtaposes the emotional and physical bonds that make some unions lasting and cause others to dissolve. The breakdown of Soledad’s marriage is a more dramatic version of the ebbing away of passion that Judah and Tremaine experienced. While Soledad wants to hold on to her marriage to Edward, she has suspicions that her husband is being unfaithful to her. Edward’s inattention to Soledad, his attention to Amber, his cruel words to and rough treatment of Soledad, and his lack of sexual interest are a darker escalation of Judah and Tremaine’s amicable breakup. While Judah and Tremaine remain close enough to smoothly co-parent, Soledad is left a single mother by Judah’s arrest. The lack of physical interest in both relationships is vividly contrasted by the immediate sexual attraction between Soledad and Judah.
The importance of their children to each of the protagonists is established in these early chapters. The Prologue introduces Judah’s relationship with his twin sons. Parenting in Difficult Circumstances, especially when caring for children with special needs, will be a substantial theme throughout the book. Ryan outlines in her Author’s Note that the subject is dear to her heart because she has a son on the autism spectrum. The different abilities of Judah’s twins are one way that Ryan educates readers about how autism presents and what supports different children require. Soledad also faces the complexities of parenting as she deals with her three very different girls, whose talents and educational needs mean sending them to different schools. The scene in which Soledad meets and bonds with Aaron, who is not usually open to new people, establishes that she could fit into Judah’s life and foreshadows how important the well-being of their children will be to the protagonists as they later contemplate blending their families.
These chapters also introduce another important theme: Navigating Multi-Ethnic Identities. Soledad’s sisters have different skin tones, mirroring the appearance of Soledad’s daughters, who have inherited various combinations of genes from their white father and their mother’s multi-racial and multi-ethnic heritage. Through these sets of adult and young women, Ryan addresses colorism—the cultural bias in favor of lighter skin that is sometimes a marker of internalized racism in people of color. Soledad, who had a white father, looks different from Lola, who had a Black father. While Soledad’s daughter Lupe appears lighter than Inez and Lottie, Soledad, who is proud of her multi-ethnic and multi-racial roots, has made a special effort to value each of her daughters’ uniqueness, fighting the bias they might encounter elsewhere.
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