Summary

Part II begins with Chapter 6, “The Counterlife” (109), set in 2009 in a Florence, South Carolina medium security prison. Jonathan Alkaitis was sentenced to 170 years for fraud. He tries to keep himself busy but thinks often of the people whose lives he ruined, including Olivia and Faisal, the latter of whom is now dead. He imagines a “counterlife” (115) in which he fled the country before being arrested. Perhaps he would have gone to Dubai and stayed in a lavish hotel. Alkaitis is interviewed by a woman named Julie Freeman, who is writing a book about his investment scheme. She asks about Vincent, and Alkaitis said he does not know where she was. Claire, his daughter, has never visited him in prison; she is the one who called the FBI and reported him. Alkaitis reflects briefly on his trial, in which he plead guilty to 12 different...