After realizing the footage shows Vincent, not Danny, burying the cat, Olivia debates confronting Vincent or withdrawing from the project. She resolves she cannot ethically write the memoir without outside fact-checking and recognizes she must retract the chapter she already filed describing Danny burying the cat.

Reviewing her contract, Olivia identifies a loophole: the agreement restricts the ghostwriter, Olivia Dumont, but locals know her as Olivia Taylor. She decides she can talk to people in Ojai as the estranged daughter returning home, satisfying both the publisher’s constraints and Vincent’s demands. She calls her boyfriend, Tom, to say she has figured out a way forward without revealing details.

As Olivia speaks with Tom, Alma announces that Olivia’s father wants to talk, and Tom overhears. Confronted, Olivia admits she previously told Tom her father was dead, calling it a complicated truth she has not shared with anyone. Tom, who had made honesty a nonnegotiable, feels betrayed and questions whether the book and her work struggles were also lies.

Tom ends the relationship, saying he cannot be with someone he does not trust. Olivia tries to call and text, promising to tell him everything, but Tom reiterates by text that lying is a nonstarter and refuses further contact.

Olivia spends two days in grief, alternating between crying, sleeping, and unsuccessfully trying to reach Tom, while telling Alma to keep Vincent away because she has personal business. On the third day, a series of increasingly urgent emails from her editor, Nicole, forces Olivia to reengage, reminding her that she must finish the memoir or risk losing the project to John Calder.

Although tempted to confront Tom in person in Los Angeles, Olivia recognizes he will not change his mind and remains in Ojai, acknowledging that the relationship is over while recommitting to the work.