50 pages • 1 hour read
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Content Warning: This section of the guide contains graphic depictions of violence, including sexual violence and violence against children, as well as discussion of suicide and suicidal ideation.
Amanda White uses a baby bottle sterilizer to clean a gun in her kitchen. She feels fundamentally changed by the recent murder of her six-year-old daughter Jess and her husband Luis’s death by suicide a week later. Amanda leaves her apartment and follows her target onto a crowded train. She plans to shoot the man as the train doors open at 79th Street then drop the gun and disappear in the ensuing panic. As she counts down the seconds until the train arrives in the station, the man, Wallace Crone, looks up and recognizes her. He grabs her and begins screaming for police. Amanda drops the gun into a stranger’s bag. As police intervene, Crone insists that he didn’t kill Amanda’s daughter.
Manhattan real estate agent Ruth Gelman sits across from her husband Scott, sensing his judgement as she finishes a bottle of wine knowing that they’re trying to get pregnant. Scott makes plans to meet up with his friends, as he has every other Friday since before their marriage.