Faye grabs her hand, and for a moment everything is right with the world. It’s all that matters. But then Naomi realizes that if this really, truly is her sister, she let Naomi believe she was dead for years. Let her think she suffered a violent, tragic end and it took Naomi almost dying to uncover the truth. Her younger sister has a hell of a lot of explaining to do.
Naomi scrutinizes Faye.How could you?she thinks. As if the words are painted on her face, Faye casts her eyes away from her stare, cheeks flushing red as she swallows.
“Naomi, I…” Tears fall from her reddened eyes again as she stumbles over what to say. She picks at her nails as she looks from Naomi to the floor and back again.
Naomi inhales, trying to organize all of the questions swirling around her mind like a tornado. “How could you? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I did, in a way,” Faye says defensively. “All my clues that led you here.”
Naomi scoffs. “So what, did you get arrested on purpose in the hopes I’d look into it? It’s not like I’ve been obsessing over Harlow Hayes these past few years, dissecting her music. If anything, I avoided anything and everything to do with her—with you.” She pinches the bridge of her nose with her only unbroken fingers, head aching, before throwing her hand out as she addresses her sister. “If anything, the clues nearly convinced me she—you, whoever—was a narcissistic serial killer. That was more plausible. One just doesn’t assume their dead sister is Harlow-fucking-Hayes all of a sudden!”
Face flushing red, Faye crosses her arms and rolls her eyes, jutting her bottom lip out in a pout. A face Naomi is all too familiar with.
Naomi’s throat burns as she grows hot with anger. “You let me think you overdosed and burned to death in a freaking drug den! Do you not see how fucked-up that is?”
“Shhh!” Faye says, eyes wide as she looks at the door.
Naomi gives her a challenging look. As if Faye has the gall to shushherafter what she’s done.
“I know it’s fucked-up, believe me, I know!” Faye says in a harsh whisper, eyes brimming with more tears. “I never meant… things just got so out of hand so fast and then… it spiraled out of control… then it was too late and I didn’t know how to… didn’t know where to start.”
“Hmm, I don’t know, maybe try the beginning?” Naomi snaps.
Faye’s face is as red as a beet. “This is why I never tried, I knew you’d get angry!”
“Of course I’m fucking angry, holy shit, what is wrong—”
“A lot is fucking wrong with me, okay, is that what you want to hear!?”
They bicker back and forth just like they used to. As if the past three years never happened. Naomi knows her sister, though—knows she needs to tread carefully, no matter how angry she is. If she doesn’t, Faye will retreat, close in on herself. So she softens her tone.
“Please,” Naomi sighs, reaching out for Faye’s tense hand. She relaxes. “Just try to explain.”
Chapter 44
Faye looks around the room, making sure no one is close enough to hear before she speaks. “So you probably remember how I’d been really struggling. Getting rejection after rejection. Depressed that maybe it was never going to happen for me…”
Naomi nods.
“Well, soon after, I got a call from Sam Brixton asking to meet.”
“Sam contacted you?” There he was again, the common denominator in all this.He’s involved, no question, but how much?
Faye nods. “Yeah, he’d watched one of my covers of Harlow online and said he wanted to talk. But the catch was I had to keep things confidential, so I did. I didn’t want to get my hopes up again or jinx anything. So I met him and he offered me an opportunity I couldn’t really refuse.”
She looks down, picking at her cuticles. The same bad habit as Naomi.
“He was looking for someone to stand in for Harlow because apparently she had started to become ‘increasingly difficult to work with,’ and they needed someone to keep up appearances while she ‘took a wellness break’ at the end of 2021.” Faye puts air quotes around the last phrase.
Naomi recalls the timeframe, when Harlow was rumored to be in rehab. A few months after the VMAs. After Jade’s death.
“They didn’t know how long she’d be gone for,” Faye continues. “Nor did they truly know what the full extent of my role would be, probably just radio interviews and recordings, plus some music video work or appearances where they could get away with using a stand-in. Our figures and features were already pretty similar, we were the same height, same skin tone. All I’d need was a few good prosthetics, maybe a wig, good makeup…”
Naomi remembers the TikTok about Harlow being an imposter, how the user had noticed Harlow’s—Faye’s—prosthetics. And people calling him crazy in the comments.
“At first, when I realized he was offering me the chance to be Harlow’s double, I thought I was being pranked, like I was on some reality show. But then I realized it was the opportunity of a lifetime. That maybe if I impressed him with this job, he’d want to sign me as an artist. So I said yes.”
Naomi sighs at her sister’s naivety.
