Content Warning: This section describes psychological distress, attempted death by suicide, murder, and trauma.

Cass Anderson has promised her husband Matthew she won’t take Blackwater Lane on her way home from a party because it’s too dangerous at night, but she does anyway when a raging storm makes her feel unsafe amid the traffic on the main road. Along the secluded lane, Cass sees a car stopped on the side of the road. As she drives by slowly, the woman in the car looks at her. Cass stops to see if the woman needs help, but the woman doesn’t signal her in any way, so Cass eventually drives on. At home, Cass sees a text from her best friend Rachel asking if she got “the gift for Susie” (7). Cass doesn’t remember any conversation about this. She’s been worried about the possibility of dementia since her mother was diagnosed with it at age 44. When her mother died recently, Cass inherited a fortune she never knew her mother had. She goes to bed hoping she’ll remember about the gift the next morning.