Character Analysis
We only see Peter Coleridge's father briefly, in the courtroom at the trial, and he never once speaks in the whole book. But he is the one person in the book who seems to see through Evie's guilt and pain as she lies about her relationship with Peter, and he's the person who is suffering the most from his son's death, so Evie feels a horrible connection to him in the courtroom as well. She tell us:
He had a way of looking at you, like he could get the full measure of you in one long glance. Peter must have inherited that. Now I faltered as his father took me in, and I felt afraid. (33.125)
Even though Evie and her own family may act like nothing happened, she will always have that image of Peter's father and his disappointment and judgment. He knows she lied when she took the stand, and it will haunt her.