The Testaments

The novel’s third narrator, Daisy, appears here in another witness testimony transcript. Daisy starts her story with what she thought was her 16th birthday. Neil and Melanie, her parents in Toronto, had lied to her about her birthday, but she can’t be angry with them now, as they are dead.

As a child, Daisy lives in Toronto with her parents who own a used clothing store called The Clothes Hound. Melanie sorts and sells the clothing that comes into the shop, while Neil handles the accounting and stores collectibles in his office. Unbeknownst to Daisy, her parents are not ordinary people. Daisy finds clues: a little glass and metal cube in Neil’s open safe and his collection of cameras that Daisy is not allowed to play with. She describes their home as intentionally nondescript. 

Daisy spent weekends at The Clothes Hound because her parents did not want her stay alone at home, even after she was old enough to do so. When she complained, her parents told her she would understand when she was older.

Daisy helps in the store by sorting clothes and putting price tags on them. From her spot at the back of the floor, she can see people as they come and go.