CHAPTER 1: STRANGER'S ORDERS

MAEVE’S POVThe first time I called the number, it was a joke. A dare from my roommate, Chloe, after we’d killed a bottle of cheap rosé and were feeling dangerously brave.

“Come on, Maeve,” she’d slurred, pointing a finger at me. “Ms. Corporate Litigation Lawyer by day… secret little phone slut by night. Do it. I bet it’s just some creepy dude in his mom’s basement.”

I was drunk enough to be reckless. I dialed the number she’d scrawled on a napkin—a number she’d gotten from some girl in her spin class who swore it was “life-changing.”

The phone rang, pressed against my ear, the sound...