Sweet Tooth

In his letter, Haley explains that he has put the apartment in Serena’s name. He describes the painful process of cleaning the apartment and folding her clothes. Haley mentions the period of writer’s block near Christmas, which Serena tried to help him through. He mentions that she did not help much, but he was inspired by events soon after. He describes being approached by Max, who told him everything about Serena, MI5, and Sweet Tooth. Max pretended to like Haley’s writing, while also framing Serena as a cunning trickster and claiming that she had been deeply in love with him. Haley recalls being angry at everything and, after the meeting with Max ended, he rented a hotel because he needed to be alone. In the hotel, he reflected on his relationship with Serena. He hated her in that moment and hated himself for being tricked, so he drank whiskey and wrote an angry letter to her. When he woke up in the morning, he realized that his writer’s block was gone: A spy story had delivered itself straight to him. In the hotel room, he sketched out their entire relationship in the form of a novel. He decided not to post the angry letter, particularly when he realized that he was not the protagonist of his novel. Rather—he made Serena the main character. For the next few months, he led his own double life, loving Serena and trying to write about her at the same time.

Haley’s letter continues as he implores Serena to stay in his kitchen, reading the letter. He describes asking for a second meeting with Max, in which Max was even more open about the workings of Sweet Tooth. Later, Haley says, he learned from Shirley that Max intended to break up the relationship between Haley and Serena to extract revenge against Serena. Max was the person who told the press about Haley, the Foundation, and Serena. Haley detests Max but learned a great deal about him over the course of three meetings. He learned about Sweet Tooth, about Tony Canning, and the name and address of Shirley Shilling. Haley met with Shirley and learned even more about Serena. Haley even accompanied Tony’s widow on a trip to the country cottage. He talked to Lucy and Luke, listened to her father’s sermons, and met with Jeremy. Haley describes all this to show how seriously he took the matter. He wrote the bulk of the novel in a frenzied few months, up until the point when Max’s leaked story appeared in the press. He played along, pretending that he loved her so much that he could never suspect her, but transcribed her exact actions. He knows that his status as a writer is doomed and that the whole Sweet Tooth operation was doomed from the beginning. All the time that Haley spent living inside Serena’s mind, he says, has only made him love her more. They are both so wrapped up in deceit and love that they cannot leave one another. He asks her to marry him and says that the novel’s manuscript is on the table. Due to the people involved, he knows that it can only be published in the 21st century so as not to incriminate anyone involved. In the meantime, he will take a teaching position in London while Serena works in Shirley’s store. Haley plans to spend a few days in Paris to avoid the press. When he returns, their future is up to Serena. She can either burn the only manuscript, or she can agree to marry him and they will publish it in the future. The letter ends with Haley telling Serena that it is up to her.