Chapter Thirty-Seven
Olivia
Las Vegas
Beelining back to the area where the bench was, Olivia worried that the women might be gone, but the two of them were just standing up. Staying a safe distance away, Olivia studied their faces.
She didn’t recognize Heather as her aunt Carol had done, of course, but she had the strangest feeling about the other woman. The hair was completely different, but …
Olivia shuddered. It couldn’t be, could it? Faith was dead. Memorialized by an entire community, Matthew convicted of her murder. Faith couldn’t be alive and well and walking the streets in Las Vegas. It had to be a coincidence.
The women gave each other a hug and started heading in different directions. Olivia followed the one she was suspicious of. And that’s when she saw the way the woman walked. It was exactly what she remembered from Channel 9. That distinctive style: delicate, ballerina-like.
A ripple of pure shock went through Olivia’s body. She thought of calling Jim and Carol, but something told her to handle this on her own.
Falling into the crowd, she followed the woman, who seemed to be making her way to a taxi stand on a side street.
The crowd was not as thick there, but there were still a half dozen people in line for the cabs.
Olivia wondered if she should get into one and follow this woman to wherever her destination was, but the woman walked instead to a Dunkin’ Donuts, where she went in.
Staying at a distance but watching the woman through the big windows, Olivia saw her asking the cashier for something, maybe a bathroom. He pointed in one direction.
Olivia dumped her margarita in the garbage, no longer interested in it.
She leaned against a tree in a darker spot off to the side, waiting for the woman to come out.
Olivia’s body was filled with adrenaline and also a sort of determination.
She just had to see this person’s full face a little closer.
After a few minutes, the woman was thanking the cashier and heading for the front door. Olivia stood taller and waited. This was it.
The woman pushed open the glass door and Olivia stepped forward from the tree to get a clear look. The nose, the chin, all the same as Faith. The eyes were a softer blue and the hair was way shorter and a different color but wow, this was her clone if it wasn’t her.
“Excuse me, are you…?” Olivia ventured, stepping toward the woman. “You look like someone I know.”
The woman glanced at Olivia and her eyes grew wide and frantic. Her head whipped left and right and Olivia thought the woman might bolt.
“Wait! Don’t run away,” Olivia said, and lowered her voice. “I’m Olivia, the Channel 9 intern. You have to be … You’re Faith, right? Are you Faith?”
The woman opened her mouth to speak but her jaw just hung there and no words came out. She shook her head but still didn’t speak. She turned quickly.
“Wait,” Olivia said, and grabbed her elbow. “You really look like Faith. Are you sure you’re not…”
Before she could finish her sentence, Olivia saw tears in the woman’s eyes. That’s when it was confirmed in Olivia’s mind.
“Don’t cry,” Olivia said. “Please, come sit.”
There was a bus shelter a few feet away. It had large advertisements for perfume and jewelry on the side, making the interior private, and no one was sitting there. Olivia gestured that way, but Faith shook her head.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Olivia said gently. “I just noticed you on the Strip and wanted to talk to you.”
A single tear traveled down Faith’s cheek.
Olivia pointed to the bus shelter again, and Faith followed in a robotic state, sitting stiffly on the hard bench and looking at the ground.
Everything felt surreal to Olivia, and yet she had a strange sense of calm. She knew she had to be the grown-up in this situation, not the eager intern anymore. She took a long breath.
“Faith, the most important question is … are you OK?”
Faith lifted her eyes to look at Olivia. For a moment she didn’t say or do anything; then she nodded ever so slightly as more tears welled in her eyes.
“Did you…? Did someone kidnap you? What’s going on here? I’m so confused. I’m so happy to see you alive but I’m so confused.”
Faith shook her head and stayed mute. Olivia sighed. This was not going to be easy. She went for a different tactic, lowering her voice to a whisper.
“Faith, I told you I won’t hurt you and I won’t.”
“Does anyone else know?” Faith finally said in a hoarse, ragged whisper.
“No,” answered Olivia. “Only me. I noticed you on the Strip. Faith, I’m so happy you’re alive! I just can’t believe it!”
“Are you going to turn me in?” Faith asked warily.
“So you weren’t kidnapped?”
There was a beat of silence before Faith answered.
“No.”
Olivia thought about it. Was she going to turn Faith in?
She could break the case wide open right here, right now.
She could stand up and yell for cops, tackling Faith to the ground if she tried to run, screaming for help from the people in line for cabs, handing Faith over to the police triumphantly.
But then Olivia thought of the journal she had read, the life Faith led, the things Olivia and so many others had not known about the public version of Faith.
The death of Faith’s little sister, how that loss had reminded Olivia of what felt like the death of her own mother, who had now decided to live permanently in Paris.
Suddenly it was clear to Olivia that Faith must have, indeed, faked her own death. How? Olivia was not sure. Did it matter? Faith clearly needed to escape. And Olivia appeared to be the only human on earth who knew it.
“I read your journal, Faith. The one in the weather office. It breaks my heart about your little sister. I’m so, so sorry. That still has to be so hard.”
“You read my…?” Faith whispered as she wiped at the tears that were now making their way steadily down her cheeks. “How did you do that?”
“I had a few chances to poke around the weather office.”
“Wow … you are a crafty one. You know, I almost took that journal with me but I figured all of my personal belongings would just go to Hope anyway and they did. They sent them all in a cardboard box.”
There was silence for a few moments before Faith added, “You can’t even imagine the pain of losing Charity. Honestly, I think about it every single day.”
“Did you fake your death because you needed to escape?” Olivia asked softly.
If that was the case, she felt empathy. Olivia had thought once or twice about dropping out of college when the workload became too hard.
After her parents got divorced the pain was so raw she fantasized about having a rabbit hole to disappear into.
She had even imagined taking her own life once or twice, mostly to envision the number of people at her funeral who would say nice things about her.
Faith was quiet for a moment but then looked directly at Olivia and said, “I haven’t told anyone but my sister this. Yes, it was all too much, all of it. I just … I just didn’t even want to be on TV anymore, can you even believe that?”
“I actually can,” said Olivia. “After doing the internship all summer I see what you talent have to go through. Producers never get recognized, in some ways it’s a lot easier being behind the scenes.”
Faith took a long sniff and spoke again.
“Thank you for understanding that. Most people think talent like me have the best jobs in the world. But … you haven’t fully answered my question, Olivia. Are you going to turn me in? Everyone in Detroit thinks I’m … you know … Please don’t turn me in.”
Olivia looked at Faith, a shell of her former “Fair-Weather Friend” persona.
She seemed like a small and very vulnerable woman.
The psychology class Olivia took the semester before the internship came back to her, especially the part about childhood trauma and how that affects us our entire lives.
The professor had said, “If you ever have a chance to help someone who has endured true childhood trauma, please do it. You will be a powerful force for good and change in the world. It’s one of the deepest traumas a person can endure. ”
Olivia made up her mind. She shook her head.
“I’m not going to turn you in,” she said.
Faith’s face registered shock.
“You’re not … but why?”
“After what you’ve been through, consider this an act of charity. And perhaps it’s in honor of your sister Charity too. Go live your life, Faith.”
Faith started crying so hard that Olivia had to hold her to keep her from toppling over. Olivia couldn’t stop her own tears from flowing either and the two women held on to each other for a long time in the bus shelter.
“Thank you, oh thank you, thank you so much,” said Faith when she caught her breath. “I will never forget this kindness, ever. I promise to pay it forward. You are amazing. I’m so indebted to you. What can I do for you? Do you want my money?”
Olivia recoiled. “No, I don’t want your money.”
“Do you want to get into the TV business? I can offer some advice. I would give you a reference but obviously that’s not possible anymore.”
“To be honest, after my internship I’m not even sure I want to be in TV anymore. Certainly not on air. Maybe a producer, like an investigative producer.”
“You’d be pretty good at that.” Faith chuckled through her tears, and they looked at each other. “I can’t believe you recognized me. I tried so hard to hide. I should have worn my glasses tonight, even if they are broken. I’m so stupid.”
“You’re not stupid, Faith. If you want to know the truth, it was your walk. It’s distinctive. Maybe practice a different gait.”
“My walk…” Faith mused. “I hadn’t even thought about that.”