I hold up the bar and contemplate hitting him again, but he doesn’t appear to be conscious, and I know in my heart I don’t have the stomach or the willpower to kill a man … Even him … Even if I could justify it to myself and the world, I could never look at myself in the mirror the same way again. Jake would never look at me the same way, and how could my child?

I scramble around on the floor, trying to find something to help me figure out what to do. The pain in my ankle is ...