Summary

Chapter 16 begins nine months later, on the day of Ryan’s scheduled release. Tony is on a midday date in a bar, having “recharged [his] addiction,” when he gets a call that Ryan has been released (208). The narrator describes Tony’s guilt: He’d turned in the pregnant girl, he’d watched a man die, he’d broken his sobriety, he’d betrayed his son” (209)

After Tony leaves the bar, he buys a few foods he thinks Ryan would like and sets to cleaning the house. He tries to remember what Ryan was wearing during the trial, but cannot remember; instead, Tony remembers how Maria had looked when she had threatened to take the children and leave. As Tony is leaving to pick Ryan up from the train station, he runs into Tara Duane. During their conversation, Tony realizes that Jimmy’s involvement...