After the incident in the park, Simon is arrested by Officer Hayes and taken to Mount Sinai West Hospital to be treated for his injuries, which include three broken ribs, two broken fingers, a concussion, and 23 stitches. He calls his brother-in-law, Robert Previdi, who arranges for a top litigator, Hester Crimstein, to represent him. Hester meets Simon at the courthouse and instructs him to say only “not guilty” when the judge asks for a plea.

In court, Simon follows Hester’s advice, and bail is set at $5,000. Afterward, Hester helps him sneak out a back entrance to avoid the media. In her car, she shows him a YouTube video of the punch, which has already gone viral with titles like “PROSPERITY PUNCHES POVERTY” (26). The video, which now has hundreds of thousands of views, portrays Simon as a rich bully attacking an unhoused man, and the comment section is filled with outrage.

When Simon arrives at his apartment building, he finds it surrounded by news vans and protestors incensed by the viral video. Hester arranges for Simon and his wife, Ingrid Greene, who works as a pediatrician, to stay at a discreet apartment owned by her law firm. Simon learns that his son, Sam, will stay with a friend, while his younger daughter, Anya, is too upset to speak with him and is staying with a neighbor. The principal of Anya’s prestigious school calls to ask that Simon and Ingrid step down as co-chairs for an upcoming charity ball benefiting unhoused people.

Alone with Ingrid, Simon confesses that he had been secretly searching for Paige for months. Ingrid is furious that he went behind her back, reminding him of their agreement to let Paige go. She maintains that they can’t force their daughter into rehab and that Paige must choose to save herself.

Three months after the Central Park incident, Simon is back at his office at PPG Wealth Management. The assault charges against him have been dropped. His meeting with a client is interrupted when a police detective, Isaac Fagbenle, arrives unannounced. Simon immediately calls Hester, who instructs him not to speak to the detective until she arrives. However, when Fagbenle clarifies that he’s investigating a murder that took place in the Bronx, Simon waives his Miranda rights.

The narrative shifts to Chicago, Illinois, where private investigator Elena Ramirez meets with a wealthy prospective client, Sebastian Thorpe III. Thorpe wants to hire her to find his 24-year-old son, Henry, who has been missing for three days. Henry has a history of drug arrests and has run away before, but Thorpe is worried because his son sent an uncharacteristic text message stating that he was “heading west with a few friends” and would return in two weeks (52)—whereas previously, Henry would simply disappear without any message.

Elena reveals that before the meeting, she had her tech expert try to “ping” Henry’s cell phone to find its location. She informs Thorpe that the phone was untraceable, which is highly unusual even if the device is turned off. Convinced that Thorpe’s gut feeling is correct and that something is wrong, Elena takes the case.

Detective Fagbenle begins questioning Simon, confirming that Paige is not the murder victim. He then asks Simon for his alibi for the previous night. Simon states that he was home with his daughter Anya, only leaving for two brief dog walks. Hester then arrives and takes control of the interview.

Fagbenle reveals that Aaron Corval was the murder victim. Simon maintains that he has had no contact with either Aaron or Paige in the three months since the incident in Central Park. Shortly after, Hester receives a phone call from her own investigator. She pulls Simon out of the room and tells him that based on the new information she just received, the police cannot possibly suspect him of committing the murder.

In Massachusetts, two assassins, Ash and Dee Dee, who first met in foster care, surveil their target, Kevin Gano. As Kevin, a recently unemployed father of two young girls, works in his garage, Ash enters and confronts him at gunpoint. By threatening to harm Kevin’s daughters, Ash ensures his cooperation. He then shoots Kevin in the right temple, killing him instantly.

Ash carefully stages the murder to look like a suicide. Because Kevin held his screwdriver in his right hand, Ash places the gun in that hand and fires a second bullet into the ground to ensure gunpowder residue, making the wound consistent with a self-inflicted shot by a right-handed person. He uses the dead man’s thumb to unlock his phone and sends a final text to Kevin’s wife saying, “I’m sorry. Please forgive me” (73). Ash then calmly exits the garage and leaves with Dee Dee, confident the police will rule the death a suicide.

Simon and Ingrid take their dog for a walk in Central Park. Simon tells Ingrid that Aaron’s murder was exceptionally violent: His throat was slit, and three of his fingers were amputated. Believing that the police won’t prioritize finding Paige, the two decide to investigate themselves. They travel to the squalid apartment in Mott Haven in the Bronx that Paige and Aaron shared.

The apartment is sealed with crime-scene tape, but a neighbor, Cornelius, lets them inside with a spare key. He tells them that he last saw Paige two days before the murder, fleeing the apartment with a bruised and bloody face. Believing that Aaron was responsible, Cornelius went to confront him and found him passed out with freshly scraped knuckles. Cornelius believes that Paige ran to her local drug dealer, a man named Rocco, and tells the Greenes that finding him is their best chance of finding their daughter.