In late March, Trig attends the Straight Circle recovery meeting in the basement of Buell Street Methodist Church during miserable weather. Although the group is officially Narcotics Anonymous, alcoholics also come, and Trig is there because he feels an emergency need to avoid drinking. Normally quiet in meetings, Trig briefly shares that he is badly shaken, signaling that something serious has happened.

After the meeting, Reverend Mike, a recovering opioid addict known for his intense involvement in recovery culture, stops Trig outside and asks questions. Trig gives as little away as possible, saying only that he has learned he lost someone he knew and that the man died in lockup. Privately, Trig knows the truth is harsher: the man was murdered in prison, shanked in a shower on Saturday.

Instead of joining others for coffee, Trig goes to the public library and sits in the Periodicals Room to think. Holding a newspaper he barely reads, he reflects on how successfully he has separated his current sober identity from the man publicly known three years earlier under his real name. He values becoming someone new, but the reinvention also burdens him, especially as thoughts of his father keep returning. On March 24, Trig tries to force himself to forget.

Thirteen days later, on April 6, Trig returns to the same chair and reads a Sunday feature tied to Buckeye Brandon's reporting: a murdered prison inmate may have been innocent. After also listening to Brandon's podcast several times, Trig accepts the story as true despite Brandon's sensational reputation. The revelation pushes Trig toward a drastic response.

Trig argues with himself about what he is considering. He recognizes that acting would be crazy, irreversible, and would require total commitment, echoing his father's ruthless mantra about pushing through without flinching. Even so, he wonders what it would feel like to carry out the horrors he imagines. He decides he needs more time, both to understand his own intention and to create distance between the news and whatever acts of amends or vengeance he may commit.

By the end of the chapter, Trig fixates on loss, guilt, and restitution. A remembered newspaper headline about a recovered dog—FOUND!—sharpens the contrast with what Trig believes he has lost. He is left thinking not only about the dead man, but about what he himself did and the amends he feels compelled to make.