Paula plays on the living-room floor with her children, Willow and baby Timmy, trying to be present and not obsess about the "fourth death" predicted by the psychic. Timmy, who has a head cold, babbles what Paula believes is "swim"—evidence of secret extra swimming lessons she's been giving him. She resists the urge to take him to the pool but feels compelled. Her sister Lisa texts her a link to Dr. Donnelly, a psychotherapist Paula saw as a teenager, suggesting she reach out via telehealth.

The chapter flashes back to Paula's history with OCD. At seventeen, she became terrified at a pedestrian crossing that she might accelerate into people. She developed an elaborate ritual of exiting the car at every crossing. Lisa witnessed it, told their parents, and Paula was referred to Dr. Donnelly. He diagnosed her with obsessive-compulsive disorder, explaining that her brain took intrusive thoughts—about running people over, stabbing family members with knives, jumping from heights—seriously and made her feel responsible. Through exposure therapy, including holding a knife to family members' throats and driving close to her father, she learned to manage the condition. Her family was wholly supportive, and treatment worked for two years.

Back in the present, Paula convinces herself she doesn't need Dr. Donnelly anymore. Her phone rings with an unknown number, and she answers, hoping for a lead. After the funeral at St. David's where the psychic didn't appear, Paula and Eve had started a Facebook page investigating the psychic's identity, with Paula messaging people who post leads and Eve monitoring TikTok. The caller, Suzanne, tells Paula she may have encountered the psychic fifty years ago on a cattle station in Queensland. Suzanne describes a shy, pretty woman with ice-blue eyes who read her palm and told her she would leave—which Suzanne took as encouragement to leave her unhappy marriage. Suzanne says reading an article about a "Cherry Queen" jogged her memory: the psychic's name was Cherry.