"You'd better look at this before Barbara and Anika see it," Angela said, sending me a link from her phone.

"What is it?" I asked, but the tightness of her lips and the paleness of her face made me open the link.

~In an interview with Avery Glass, Marguerite Ronan's PA, currently engaged to tycoon Connor Shetland, it has become clear that the struggling writer has been having problems with her failing author career since her son, Declan Shetland, died in 2014. Glass, who eerily resembles the Collins twins after a series of surgeries at the behest of Connor Shetland, spoke at length about the author and her family.

~Over the next few episodes, we will reveal the author's struggles with depression, getting free of her grandmother's shadow, and finding a more contemporary voice for a modern-day audience. We will disclose the twisted dynamic between her and her daughter-in-law, former sculptor Anika Shetland, that now has to work for her mother-in-law because Declan Shetland died without a will.

~Join us each day this week as we see the royal dame of literature for the sad woman rehashing her grandmother's manuscripts and running her family with an iron hand.~

"I didn't talk to these people! I haven't left the house, and everything I do on the house computer is available on the network!" I said, completely taken off guard. "This has to be Chante."

"Chante doesn't have access to this kind of personal information."

I didn't need to turn around to know that familiar scowl would pull at his brow; the distance had returned to his voice and the tightness.

"And where exactly would Avery learn that Declan died without a will?" Barbara asked, coming around the hedge from where she probably heard everything. Someone had printed out the article for her, and she read it with a frown.

"Only someone in this house could have the information here, and these remarks are pertinent to the work Avery has been doing with you," he bit out as I got to my feet and faced him as Angela walked away, giving us some privacy.

"Topics we discussed at meals and during social situations with the staff around. Information someone could pay to acquire."

"The staff has been around for years, and we've never had a problem."

"Conner!"

"No, Aunt Barbara. Conner has made up his mind, and I should expect nothing less. I'll pack my things."

"Is that your solution to everything? Pack your bags and threaten to run off?" he asked.

"I am not threatening, Connor. The car I ordered came yesterday. I am packing my things and leaving, and I will not be insulted and mistrusted every time something goes wrong."

"I don't mistrust you, Avery. I just don't understand. Why you, how did they come about this information, and why is it so oddly intimate?"

"To make you believe it, Connor. Because you are the boss, no matter what others think. You consider Margaret's decisions, but ultimately, you decide. You were suspicious of my motives from the start, and you were lulled into trusting me when nothing happened, but then, at the first little bump, you reverted back to form. I am done. Barbara's near ready enough that a few Skype sessions can conclude our work."

"Wait, Avery. The emails were sent from inside your room," Bradley said as he came walking over with printed papers in his hand. "From your computer and during the day."

"There you go, I'm guilty, case closed." I didn't spare the sarcasm as I started walking toward my room, close to tears and needing to get away from them.

"The log-ins were done with your password, Avery. There is no denying it."

The hostility in Bradley's voice broke me. I could live with Connor being mad at me until he figured it out, but Bradley? That hurt.

"Avery wouldn't do this," Barbara insisted mutinously.

"Evidence is evidence, mother," Bradley said.

"You have evidence that someone logged into her computer with her keycode during the day. The keycode for that computer is taped to my bloody office drawer," she insisted.

"I talked to the reporter at this little internet site. She described Avery to a t. She knows what Avery's room looks like, and she knows things about this house only we would know."

I walked faster to avoid the cold sound of his voice, but he was intent on following me.

"Yet she thought Avery was really engaged to Connor and didn't realize that Avery's surname isn't Glass?" Barbara asked, out of breath from trying to keep up with us.

"A choice Avery made to give everything credibility."

"But why would she do it when it might expose her mother? She would never do it!"

"Then you tell me what the hell happened?" He asked.

"What is the ruckus about?" Anika asked, and I avoided her, going straight for the side door as Bradley vented his suspicions.

"Give me those papers," Anika said, following me into my room when I just wanted to cry in peace as I started opening drawers and packing my bags.

"Unless Avery can be in two places at once, considering the twins are not here, I don't see how this is possible," Anika said, slamming the papers down on my table.

"What do you mean?" Connor asked.

"At four of the times logged on this sheet of paper, Avery was in my studio with me, helping me make shitty pottery. We were together for hours. In fact, on this particular day, Mother joined us. This whole thing is a scam, and Avery had nothing to do with any of this. She's being framed, and both of you tried to steamroller her. Conner, I can understand, but you, Bradley? You've been in her corner since the beginning."

"Then who did this?"

"Anyone with access to mother's office. Go round up the staff."

"I am sorry, Avery," Bradley said, pulling his hand through his hair.

"Please leave my rooms," I didn't want to speak to him, and I didn't want to see him. His distrust hurt in ways I didn't expect. He'd become my best friend so quickly, but it took little to turn him against me, and that with no proper reasons.

"Avery, I was just so hurt, I reacted—" he started to say, but I turned on him.

"I can't listen to you right now, Bradley." He nodded and left as tears started streaming down my face.

"I'm sorry, Avery. You understand how protective I am of my mother, but I don't expect you to forgive me. I should have figured this out before jumping to conclusions. If you hate me, I deserve it." Connor said, and I dared not look at him without sobbing. He left, Anika closed the door, and I broke down when Barbara hugged me.

"We will figure this out, Avery, and we will make them pay," Barbara said like a mother bear protecting her cub, rubbing my back and soothing me.

"Thank you for believing me," I said to her, "And thank you, Anika, for defending me."

"The least I could do after nearly getting you killed," she said, sitting down at my computer and going through the logs herself.

"Now, let's get you cleaned up and these bags unpacked," Barbara said, but I grew still, and she didn't misread my expression.

"You are still leaving," Barbara realized with resignation.

This time she didn't try to talk me out of it, but she looked so sad that I almost changed my mind.

"They were just protecting Barbara, Avery," Anika reminded gently, glancing at me.

"They condemned me on very little evidence, Anika. You hated me but didn't doubt me for a second."

"Guys tend to react on evidence, not feelings. I knew you were innocent before I even found the evidence. You are my friend and should never have been my enemy."

"How would you react if you had the evidence they had?" Barbara asked reasonably; after all, they were her sons.

"I would have reserved judgment until I had all the facts."

"Are you sure?" She asked, and I couldn't, in all honesty, say "yes."

"Either way, my being here has become a problem and a threat to my family. Avery Glass can disappear, Avery Ronan can't, and I won't mess everyone's lives."

"At least wait until we find the culprit, so we at least know our enemy, and for heaven's sake, stop being so damned self-sacrificing," Anika said with a glimpse of her irritable former self.

"What is there you will not do for this family?" I asked her, motioning toward Barbara, and she glanced at me uneasily.

"Nothing."

"Who do you think did this?" Barbara asked.

"Chante, without a doubt," Anika said, printing something.