Run Away by Harlan Coben (Book Summary)

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Simon and Ingrid have 3 children: Anya, Sam, and Paige. The oldest, Paige, is a drug addict and has run away with Aaron. Simon and Ingrid stopped looking for Paige since she was already hopeless.

Simon was informed that Paige had been playing in the park, so he went there and so Paige. She is fragile, and when Simon approaches her, Aaron appears and takes Paige away from him. Out of anger for what he has done to Paige, Simon punches Aaron. Someone took a video and uploaded it online. Most people who saw it hated Simon for bullying a homeless man.

Months later, Aaron was murdered in an apartment he shared with Paige. Paige is nowhere to be seen. Simon became a suspect because he had a motive to hurt Aaron.

Simon and Ingrid went to visit the apartment. They met Cornelius’s apartment owner, and he told them about Paige. He also told them about Rocco, a drug dealer. Rocco may know where Paige went. When they went there, Ingrid was shot by Luther. Simon was not fired because Cornelius shot Luther. Ingrid stayed in a coma.

While Ingrid was in a coma, Simon looked for Paige. While looking for her, he met Elena. She was checking out Aaron’s apartment whole Simon, and Cornelius talked. Elena and Simon agreed to cooperate.

Elena is looking for a man named Henry Thorpe. She was hired by Henry’s father. Henry has been missing for days already. Elena asked Simon to attend Aaron’s funeral to get information. Simon discovered that Aaron is adopted, which is something in common with Henry. Henry was also adopted.

Elena kept on investigating. She tracked the orphanage and had the woman’s name who processed the adoption. She was getting close. Aside from Aaron and Henry, there were also other male victims. All victims are adopted, and all of them are male. They were killed differently. Elena was getting close. She received a call from Alison’s roommate, wanting to meet her and tell her the truth about the adoption. The woman Elena met with asked her to get inside the car and deposit her gun and phone. When they arrived at their destination, the woman killed Elena.

That woman’s name is Dee Dee, and her partner in crime is Ash. Ash was just hired, while Dee Dee belongs to a cult. The cult initiated the killings. The victims were all siblings. The cult leader is dying, and they have decided to kill these men because they have discovered their connection. They have entered their DNA into a website and found that they are siblings. The cult is afraid to be discovered, so they kill them. Paige doesn’t fit in the picture because the siblings are all men, but she also entered her DNA to the genetics website – no one knows why.

Simon received a call from Cornelius telling him that Rocco wanted to meet since he had information on where Paige went. They requested Simon to bring enough money. Simon texted Elena with an update on where he was going, not knowing that she was already dead and Ash and Dee Dee were sending replies. Ash and Dee Dee realize that Simon is already getting close, and they have to kill him too.

When Simon met Rocco, he told him that someone saw Paige ride a bus. The other significant information will be said by Luther. However, when Simon entered the building, Ash and Dee Dee saw him, and they decided to kill them all. Before Luther could tell him the information about Paige, Ash and Dee Dee started shooting. Rocco and Luther died. Ash died. Simon and Cornelius survived with the help of a cult member who appeared and pushed Dee Dee off the building. Dee Dee got into a coma with a meager chance of waking up. The cult member who moved Dee Dee revealed to Simon that she is against the killings. She also got pregnant by the cult leader, and when he told her that her baby had no place in the cult, she agreed to let him go.

The baby got adopted. Years later, they both found each other through the genetic website, but she declined her son’s request to meet. She was happy that her son had a great life, but she felt like she could not tolerate the cult killing these men, including her own son.

The killings have been solved. The murders of Henry Thorpe, Aaron, and the other men have been linked to the cult performed by Ash and Dee Dee.

Paige is still missing. Even after the case has been solved, there’s still nothing that links to Paige.

However, one day she found Paige inside Ingrid’s room. She is still in a coma but showing progress. Paige exclaimed that she was in rehab for a month, and they were not allowed to use mobile phones. She was only granted this day to go out because this was an emergency. Paige is one month clean.

After a few months, Paige got out of rehab and went home to her family.

Here’s the truth about what happened to Paige: 

During one of the frat parties, Paige got sexually assaulted. Paige was interested in genetics. She wanted to pursue it. She entered her DNA into a website and found out that he has a brother named Aaron. She traveled to see him and got close to him. (Everyone thought that he was her boyfriend, only Simon knew that he was not. He figured it out himself.) Paige told Aaron about being sexually assaulted, so Aaron beat the guy. (It is this guy that made Simon realize that Aaron is not Paige’s boyfriend. The guy claims that Aaron called Paige ‘his little sister’ while beating him up.)

As for Aaron’s death, the truth is Ash, and Dee Dee didn’t kill him. Aaron once beat up Paige so severely, and Paige thought she could no longer tolerate it. But it wasn’t Paige who killed Aaron. It was Ingrid. Paige called Ingrid, told her what had happened. She didn’t expect that Ingrid would kill Aaron. After Aaron’s murder, Ingrid sent Paige to rehab. The reason why Ingrid still looked for Paige is (maybe) because she checked with the rehab center, and Paige still hasn’t arrived. Luther shot Ingrid first instead of Aaron and claimed it self-defense because he saw that Ingrid killed Aaron.

Since Aaron and Paige are siblings, Ingrid killed her own son. Ingrid used to be a cult member and got pregnant by the leader. When Ingrid gave birth, she was informed that it was a stillbirth. Ingrid was sent to rehab, where Paige was sent to.

Simon decided not to tell Ingrid that Aaron was her son. This will be the last secret he keeps from her.

The End of Run Away by Harlan Coben.

Purchase Run Away by Harlan Coben via Amazon: https://amzn.to/3sb6ili