Dolores Claiborne

Dolores receives a long-distance call from Vera Donovan’s solicitor and learns that she is the sole beneficiary of Vera’s will and is set to inherit 30 million dollars. Astonished, Dolores tells him that the money should belong to Vera’s children. However, the solicitor explains that the children died in a car wreck 30 years previously despite Vera talking about them as if they still lived. Dolores realizes then that Vera definitely killed her husband and that her teenage son and daughter, who died one year after their father, may have committed suicide. Dolores now understands the depth of Vera’s loneliness and mental instability. After letting the lawyer know that she will consider the inheritance and get back to him, Dolores makes her way to the police station. At the end of the novel, Dolores’s thoughts turn to Vera. She remembers moments of their lives together when Vera’s odd behavior and words hinted at the children’s deaths. Dolores also considers her own life and her children’s lives, noting that she’s told the truth and that she now feels “at peace with [her]self” (368).

Following Dolores’s testimony, three entries from newspapers provide additional information about events following the interrogation. The first reports that Dolores was found innocent of any blame in Vera’s death.