Lucy spends another tense dinner with Nathan after the podcast news, but Nathan still does not confront her about Savvy’s murder or ask Lucy to leave. Lucy interprets his silence as cowardice and assumes their breakup is inevitable, which makes her focus on practical problems like finding a cheap apartment and replacing her lost job. At the same time, Lucy thinks about the romance novels she secretly publishes under a pen name and worries that Ben Owens’s podcast could expose that hidden part of her life to internet sleuths.

On Monday, Lucy tries to manage her stress by running extra miles and then going grocery shopping. In the store, her thoughts keep drifting toward violence, and she imagines attacking strangers with ordinary objects. Lucy explains that these murder fantasies began after Savvy died, when everyone insisted Lucy had killed her and Lucy herself could not remember what happened. Because she still does not know whether she murdered Savvy, Lucy has spent years mentally testing possible methods in the hope that one of them will trigger a memory, and the missing murder weapon continues to haunt her.

While shopping, Lucy gets a call from her grandmother. The conversation starts lightly, with Grandma joking about being old, tipsy, and near death, but Lucy quickly learns there is a request behind the call. Grandma wants to throw a large eightieth-birthday party in Texas and asks Lucy to come home for the celebration.

Grandma pushes for more than a brief visit, explaining that Lucy’s mother has a broken leg and that the family needs help preparing for the party. Lucy dreads the idea of returning to Plumpton, where she was once a successful newlywed before her life collapsed, and she resists the thought of staying with her parents for a full week. Even so, Lucy cannot refuse the one family member she genuinely likes, so she agrees to come, while deciding she will rent a car and stay in a hotel rather than live in her parents’ house.

During the call, Lucy briefly hears the ominous inner voice that urges her toward killing, and she has to steady herself until it fades. After Lucy agrees to the trip, Grandma asks whether Lucy has heard about the podcast about her. The question confirms that the renewed public scrutiny has already reached Lucy’s family and sets up Lucy’s reluctant return to the town where Savvy was killed.