On Friday morning, Tom sees Olivia off at their home. Olivia thinks back to the contract that arrived Wednesday and Nicole’s guidance that the collaboration must remain undisclosed, with the publisher aware but the public kept in the dark. Olivia accepts the secrecy, rationalizing the decision despite her discomfort with working for Vincent Taylor and the resemblance to choices she criticized in others.

Olivia hides the project details from Tom by invoking a non-disclosure agreement, even though none was signed. She acknowledges that this violates Tom’s zero-tolerance stance on lying, rooted in his upbringing with dishonest parents. She also recognizes she has long told Tom and others a false backstory—that both her parents were loving and are deceased—because she intended never to reconnect with either parent and believed the truth was irrelevant to their relationship.

Before leaving, Tom asks if she is packed and asks her to call upon arrival. Olivia feels acute guilt and fleeting regret about taking the job and returning to a place she vowed to avoid, but the contract and advance bind her to proceed.

Driving north along the coast and then east to Ojai, Olivia recalls early childhood Sundays at Nina’s Diner with her father, when he told stories about a hapless boy named Lionel Foolhardy. She contrasts those memories with Vincent’s later fame-fueled deterioration into alcohol, drugs, and tabloid scandals. She clarifies that she does not believe Vincent killed Danny and Poppy, but his addictions and unreliability led to estrangement, compounded by her mother’s abandonment and Vincent sending her to boarding school at fourteen, where she was often left alone during holidays.

As Olivia enters Ojai, she notices new money and tourism supplanting familiar landmarks, triggering memories of childhood scenes with her parents and of Ojai’s sensory details. She remembers Jack Randall, son of Danny’s best friend, Mark, who, like Olivia, grew up under the weight of unspoken trauma. Together, she and Jack secretly researched the 1975 murders, poring over microfiche and anniversary retrospectives that offered scant clarity.

Olivia recounts official and local theories: police suspected a transient killer linked to Poppy’s hitchhiking the prior weekend, with Danny as collateral; locals spread rumors of Vincent fighting with Danny and arguing physically with Poppy. She emphasizes uncertainty hardened by time and her father’s refusal to engage, noting Vincent’s stated alibi—that he was with Olivia’s mother, Lydia, corroborated by a teacher mediating their argument—which satisfied police.

Approaching downtown, Olivia observes that old landmarks are gone and imagines seeing Jack on his BMX from years past. She notes Jack still runs his family’s winery and wonders whether he would recognize her now, as she slips back into town under the cover of anonymity.