The Earring

Book 6 Part 8

"You're done with your homework?" Faith asked.

"Yes, Mom," Teresa teased.

"Do you mind walking to school tomorrow?" Faith asked. "I need to be somewhere early in the morning." She had decided that if she waited until after dropping Teresa at school, she might miss Kyra. She wanted to catch her on the way to breakfast.

"No prob," Teresa said.

Faith was in the lobby of the Hilton at 7AM. Unless Kyra used room service or wasn't a breakfast eater, she assumed she was there early enough to waylay her. At ten minutes before 8, Kyra hurried out of the elevator. She was looking at her wrist, fastening her watch. Faith caught up with her and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Can I buy you breakfast?" she asked.

Kyra's mouth settled into a straight line.

"Look," Faith said, "please let me offer an explanation. I know you don't owe me anything, but I know you're a woman of mercy. I've been to your group."

"Okay," Kyra said. "You can breakfast with me. It's free to patrons of the hotel. It'll cost you something. I've got a conference in 30 minutes."

Once they had gone through the line and were seated at a table, Faith plunged right in.

"I know what I did was wrong. I should have told you who I was, but when I tried to contact you on your MySpace account to find out if you were the right Kyra, you restricted your space."

"When Aaron told me his fiancé's name, I thought it was probably the Faith who tried to contact me. I just didn't know Faith and Angelica were the same person."

"That's my middle name."

"I know. Aaron told me."

"I was going to tell you who I was at the coffee house, but then you invited me over for dinner. I figured I'd do it there."

"So why didn't you?"

"You told me Shandra was in kindergarten. Aaron's child would have been in the first grade. I didn't figure it mattered if you knew who I was if you aborted Aaron's child. I couldn't think of any other reason why you'd contact him," Faith said. "I'd also gotten caught up in my own charade. I really wanted to write the book. If I'd told you, you probably would have left me home."

"You didn't feel bad about being at the meeting under false pretenses?"

"I felt like a voyeur. The meeting was a good thing for me, though. It helped me to understand what Aaron was going through. It gave me the compassion I needed to forgive him. It also gave me a lot of material for my book. I am writing the book. I'm about halfway through."

"Well, I'm glad you got something good out of it." Kyra's voice had a sarcastic edge.

"Like I said. I was wrong, even if something good came from it."

Kyra looked at Faith for a few seconds. Faith thought she saw pain in the depths of her eyes.

"Until I walked into your house, I thought we'd really connected," Kyra said. "I thought you were a kindred spirit of sorts."

"We did connect," Faith said. "I liked you. I hated deceiving you, but every time I thought about telling you who I was, I just couldn't do it. I was afraid to."

"What were you were afraid of?"

"I don't know." Faith looked down at the table and started brushing crumbs into a napkin. "I guess in the back of my mind, I thought you might still have feelings for Aaron. I was afraid that if you knew who I was and that I'd deceived you, you might decide to make a play for Aaron."