Tears run down Naomi’s face as Harlow stares at her through the screen, the exact same way Faye did that day. Naomi lets out a sob, covering her mouth with her hand as she listens to the opening… with the same exact lyric change.
She shakes her head, tears soaking her hand as her brain refuses to accept it.
Harlow could’ve copied it, must’ve seen Faye perform it somewhere.
Naomi wipes her face with her sleeves and forces herself to breathe. She jumps up from the couch and rummages through the photos in the plastic bins she brought back from Aunt Mary’s basement. She finds a photo of Faye, posing seriously for the camera. Naomi remembers that photo. Faye wanted to pretend she was a pop star getting a photoshoot done, so Naomi played photographer as Faye posed away—this one making it into the pile of Faye’s favorites.
Naomi pulls it out of the plastic casing and searches for the fan video that opened her mind to the imposter theory in the first place. She finds it and skips through all of the explanation, pausing on the part she’s looking for—two photos of Harlow with a red line splitting the image down the middle. Naomi waits until red circles and arrows start to appear over both noses, arms, hair, teeth, and freckles before pausing the screen again.
Like before, she’s convinced the two Harlows in these photos are not the same person. She just never imagined the one on the right could be Faye. Because why would her mind ever go there? It’s fucking ludicrous.
Despite every logical part of her brain telling her she’s lost her mind, Naomi holds up her photo of Faye, comparing it to the photo on the right of the screen. While the nose and cheeks are definitely different, there is no denying that it’s her sister’s smile and eyes.
Naomi huffs out a few breaths, feeling lightheaded. Her eyes land on theApotheosisalbum cover on the floor below her wall of “evidence.”
She forces herself off the couch and picks it up, studying the back track list, looking at the bolded letters and numbers that a fan pointed out.
A date: March 14. Faye’s birthday.
Naomi looks up, scanning the papers on the wall for other numbers. A shaky gasp escapes her as she spots the sums noted in the article about Harlow’s GoFundMe donations: $1,596 and $31,498. She thought they were random numbers at the time, but they weren’t at all. They were fucking birthdays.
Their birthdays. January 5, 1996 was Naomi’s and March 14, 1998 was Faye’s.
“What the fuck,” Naomi screams, dropping down to the floor, feeling like she might hyperventilate.
She picks up theApotheosiscover again, this time looking at the front. She holds it up to the light, which illuminates the different layers in the album artwork from skyscrapers and ocean and roses. But it’s the trees that stand out to her, and the small, barely noticeable faded yellow door at the bottom of one of the trunks.
Heart pounding, Naomi thinks of the lyrics to the yellow door song and wonders what other clues from Faye she missed.
She frantically opens the lyric posters ofApotheosisandLegacy, eyes darting across the text.
Happiness is long drives with you by my side
Now those are gone forever, alone I ride
I’m sorry for my words but yours cut like a knife
When you were ready to abandon me, walk right out of my life
An imposter with good fortune, a pretty face that turned the key
I don’t even recognize the real me
I do, Naomi thinks, a mixture of fury and desperation overwhelming her. She forces herself to breathe as she continues to scan the lyrics, her stomach twisting in knots as phrases jump off the page, slicing at her heart like jagged little razors.
Splintering wood, started a fight
Eight stitches on a cruel September night
To the reckless girl I used to be
I promise, I’ll leave you a worthy legacy
Scribbles on my shoes, Tears on my face
A bond that can never be replaced
We’d sing it’s us against the world
