Penitence

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of animal death, child death, illness, substance use, child sexual abuse, mental illness, and death. 

One of the sheriff’s deputies drives Nora to her hearing. On the way, he accidentally hits a coyote. It is badly injured but not dead. He shoots it, explaining to Nora that he’s being merciful. Without blinking, she tells him, “I know.”

The narrative flashes back to 2000. Angie has been flying back and forth between Colorado and New York, helping her mother care for her father. He is in remission and doing better, but it’s been a difficult illness. 

She arrives back in New York to find the apartment a mess and Julian passed out in a pile of work files with several liquor bottles on the table. This has been the pattern each time she leaves town, and she is sick of it. 

She is exhausted from her dual life and worries constantly about her parents. She has reconnected with a high school friend, David, who has been checking on the restaurant while she is in New York, and she is grateful for that. 

Julian is consumed by his pro-bono work, and Angie feels a growing distance between them.