I entered the hotel room, and the bellboy followed at my heels with the suitcases. Tipping him, I closed the door behind him, trying to ignore the subtle way he had kept glancing at me.

The tiniest frown tugged at his brows as he tried to figure out why I seemed familiar, and he was not the first person to do a second take. Even though I tied my hair into a ponytail, wearing a dark blue baseball cap with oversized sunglasses, something about the shape of my face drew attention.

Tossing the hat on the bed and taking a couple of deep breaths, I released the tension in my midsection.

"What the hell did you do?" Kayla exclaimed. My body jerked involuntarily, adrenaline kicked my heart into high gear, and I resisted my fight-or-flight instinct.

The two of them were not supposed to be there yet, and the concierge hadn't warned me, probably at Erick's request, who loved surprising people, and I hated it.

My hand automatically went to my hair, needing no explanation.

"Mrs. Shetland insists on people being their 'real selves,'" I said self-consciously.

"Did you know that you look exactly like the Collins twins?"

The suspicion in that violet gaze put me on the spot, and although I didn't want to lie to her again, telling the truth would reveal my former untruth.

Kayla didn't do well with lies. When I turned thirteen, I told her I would spend the day with my grandmother, but I went to see a movie with a boy, and she hadn't forgotten it yet.

"Avery!" Erick said, giving me a big old bear hug, as he always did for his sister. Lifting my five-ten frame off the ground like I weighed nothing, even though we were almost the same height.

"Hi, buddy. Excited?"

Although not proud of myself, I took the chance to avoid Kayla's implied question, and the tightness of her mouth revealed she wasn't happy about it.

"What did you do with your hair?"

Eric sneakily pulled the scrunchy from my ponytail and let it cascade loose. "You look gorgeous but strangely like someone else."

I grabbed the scrunchy from his hand and shook out my hair to put it back up. Because Taylor and Ashley mostly wore theirs loose in their videos, I never did.

"Mrs. Shetland apparently insists on 'authenticity,' but some people hide things," Kayla needled.

Our eyes met across the expanse of the white marble floor.

This hotel wasn't my usual style with all this cold, impersonal, perfect, right-off-the-cover-of-a-magazine, black-and-white, modern decor. Erick's brand paid for everything and included my expenses as a thank-you for the work I did for him.

Although it wasn't my first stay in this establishment, either, I'd been there before as Marguerite's "personal assistant," Avery Glass. A little deception we've been using since I turned eighteen, and sometimes traveled with her on her tours.

"With your hair that color, you remind me of Shannon Collins from 'Just Shannon." The social media Queen and OG YouTuber," Erick blurted, catching me off guard, and Kayla's frown turned to a scowl.

"A long time ago, I said she looks like Shannon's twins, Taylor and Ashley, but she told me it was a coincidence."

Kayla's measured tone made me realize we were on thin ice.

"She's a doppelgänger! Why didn't I realize it sooner? Like Superman, she's hiding in plain sight."

Erick hadn't caught on, but Kayla's measured gaze did not shift.

"Wait, who's your mother? Despite knowing you all these years, I keep forgetting Marguerite's your grandmother because you have her surname. Does that mean your father was her son?"

Why did he need to ask that now, after all these years? Kayla's shoulders squared, and our friendship would be over if I lied to her now.

"Avery?" I hadn't even realized how long I'd been silent, but her fisted hands, the stiffness of her shoulders, and that slight tilt of her head were warning enough.

"Shannon and Luthor Collins are her parents. He died when his bike slipped on some ice and fell into the river. Dr. Joanne from 'Just Ask Joanne,' Jason Collins, the photographer, Jessie Collins, the makeup artist, and Taylor and Ashley from 'Twinning LA' are her siblings."

Kayla's measured words were thrown down like a gauntlet.

"Sus, you are dreaming. None of those people ever came around to her house," he dismissed her with an irritated frown, but the way he searched my face conveyed his uncertainty.

"Did you know Marguerite is Shannon's mother? Does anyone? Something happened that made Marguerite adopt Avery. Probably because having five children when your husband just left you, and a fledgling media career, might be a bit much for any mother. Especially since Avery often said she had asthma as a child."

Usually, I admired that intuition, but not so much at that moment.

"Then why only her? Didn't you say Luthor died?" he asked, getting angry on my behalf and not noticing my silence, but she did.

"Having three babies and two other children might be a lot to handle for any single mother, but with one being sick, perhaps it was a load she could not shoulder. Luthor died almost eight years later. He finally decided to take up his familial responsibilities, or maybe because Shannon was a household name by then. Some speculate he was on his way off again when she got pregnant with Jessie."

"Sis, you should write books—"

Erick started to say, but finally noticed the hurt and fury in her gaze and my silence.

"Look me in the eye and tell me that I am wrong, and before I end our friendship, at least tell me why you lied all these years."

Never had I seen her almost vibrate with anger and hurt, but guilt left me with a sense of helplessness and near tears.

"You are not wrong." The words almost strangled me, and you could hear a pin drop in that room. "And I lied to you because..." Tears burned my eyes, pooling, and clamped my throat in a vise. "I wanted to pretend they were not my family. All these years, Shannon pretended she was 'great friends' with Marguerite, but she didn't say anything about me to protect her 'wholesome' reputation. They wrote me off in public, even though we sometimes Skype, but not so much anymore with everyone so busy with their own lives."

The searing ache in my chest couldn't be denied, and moisture leaked from my eyes.

"You became the family secret. By not acknowledging what she had been forced to do, the secret became something that could destroy all their careers. People would crucify them. You felt betrayed, abandoned, and forgotten, and you didn't want to admit it to us because you didn't want us to look at you differently. You didn't want us to treat you with pity or as an extension of Shannon because we both admire her."

Kayla bridged the divide between us and hugged me, unlocking the tears in my chest and holding me as I sobbed.

"I'm sorry, Avery, but you should have trusted us. Me, at least, the verdict on Erick is out."

"Hey!" he protested.

"But I didn't want to force you to lie to him."

Kayla let go of me, and Erick grabbed a handful of tissues from her tote on the table. She'd been crying too, and her mascara streaked down her face.

"You look like a panda, sis," Erick said, and she glared daggers at him.

"Go do some guy thing. But first, get us a bottle of wine, and don't return until midnight."

"This is my suite—"

She raised a dark brow at him, and he lifted his hands in surrender, grabbing his key from the table. Kayla had always been the dominant personality, and although he would never admit it, he was in awe of his little sister.

"Are you still going to end our friendship?" I asked, not minding that my question exposed my vulnerability.

"No, but I am hurt and a little pissed. Let's get comfortable so you can tell me everything and no more lies."

"No more lies. Thank you, you are such an awesome friend."

She glanced at me, and even though the shadows in her eyes didn't go away, we were okay. What would I do without my best friend to share things with and guide me?

***

We had barely seated ourselves when Erick returned with two bottles, glasses, and an ice bucket.

"For the price of this, you two better go surfing with me tomorrow," he said, looking right at me, and there was no recrimination in his eyes. Sometimes I took his steadfast friendship for granted, but I was so lucky to have these two people in my life.

"I can't surf."

He almost dropped the glasses.

"How is that possible? You are best friends with the greatest surfer on the planet, and that must be remedied. At least tell me you own a wetsuit?" He asked, placing the glasses on the table and opening a bottle of wine for us.

"Not modest, are we?" Kayla muttered.

"A wetsuit to do what with?" I asked.

"Scuba?"

"I've never done that either."

He froze as if his mind couldn't handle the information, and a smirk pulled at my lips despite my mood.

"No, that is not acceptable. Our best friend cannot possibly be a bred-in-the-bone nerd who's never surfed or seen the wonders of a reef in person. No excuses. Kayla? Remedy the wetsuit situation. I blame all those holidays with Marguerite. You could have been shark diving with us at the Great Barrier Reef or free climbing on some rock face in the Himalayas. I'll organize everything for tomorrow, but for now, I've got a date; see you later."

"Yes, sir, now scoot," she ordered playfully, and he reluctantly left. "How can he already have a date?" Kayla marveled.

"Does he really think I would climb a rock?" I asked a more relevant question.

"Oh, come on, Avery. How many times have we gone hiking over the years and camped in the mountains? You are no sissy, and it's time you exit your comfort zone."