I opened the door, my bags all ready to go, and froze.

Not again!

"I was just about to knock. Are you going somewhere?" Chante asked sweetly, wearing a little black number that barely reached her crotch, tall boots, and the bodice pushed her assets up so high that I didn't know where to look.

"What are you doing here?" I asked with more aggression than intended.

"A little birdy told me there was trouble in paradise," she said with a self-satisfied smile.

"Avery? Where are you?" Connor asked from the connecting hallway.

"In the foyer, love," I called out, hoping my use of the word love warned him that something was up.

He walked into the room, did a little double take, and, just like before, visibly stiffened.

"Everything's ready if you want to move your bags to my room," he said, and I almost asked, "What?"

"What are you doing here?" Connor's question directed at Chante allowed me to pick my chin up off the floor as I caught on to his ruse.

***

Anika had invited some friends over for the weekend, so I decided to leave a day early to give them a little more space, which led to me standing in the foyer waiting for Bradley to help me load my stuff.

"Anika invited Shalindra, who in turn invited me. I'll be spending the weekend," she said sweetly as the driver came in carrying an alarming number of suitcases.

"Already moving in together? I heard you were moving out," she needled.

"She's just using my spare bedroom until Wednesday when Anika's friends leave," Connor corrected, gathering two of my bags.

"Where's the ring?" she zeroed in on my naked finger.

"Being resized," he lied with the ease of a player. "Come on, Avery. I set up my laptop for that conference call with your grandmother."

"Anika's out back," I said, following Connor out the door.

"What the hell," he said before we were barely out of earshot. What nerve to come here as if she were invited, knowing Anika hates her and after what she tried to pull?" he fumed.

"More to the point, how did me going home end up with me moving in with you?" I whispered back.

"You can't leave now. Everyone still thinks we are engaged; we had those podcast people retract their story after we had it verified that their reporter lied about meeting with you. You can't leave me at that woman's mercy for five whole days; one of us won't survive it!" he bit out as we made it inside his suite and shut the door.

"Did you forget that Bradley will be taking your spare room this weekend?" I asked.

"He can bunk on the pull-out couch in my study."

He looked so unsettled that for a moment, I thought he would go back out there and confront her.

"I don't understand why Shalindra would do that—I was under the impression that she was Anika's closest friend?" I asked.

"She's an influencer, and Chante is a well-known and powerful woman. She probably found some way to blackmail Shal."

"This brings us to point number two. Your sister's friends are Youtubers, influencers, Instagrammers, Tiktokkers, and social media powerhouses; me being here and looking like the Collins twins will not end well."

"Half of them probably came here in the hopes of seeing this woman I had remade in the image of others," he bit out.

"Precisely, this will be good for neither of our reputations." I didn't like being alone in his room with him.

"What's going on? I thought you'd be gone already?" Bradley said from the door, duffel in hand.

"Chandre invited herself over in the hopes that Avery would be out of the picture and she could weasel her way back in. I left her under the impression that Avery would be using my spare room for the weekend, and the ring's being adjusted," Connor said, backing me into a corner.

"And what kind of say did Avery have in this?" he asked with a little furrow between his brows, earning back a few points in his favor.

"Her verdict's still out," Connor admitted.

"If she sleeps in here, Chante's going to make it look like you two are doing the tango. I know that wouldn't concern you, brother, but it would bother Avery."

"That's why I said I'd bunk in here with the three of you," Anika said, looking thunderously unsettled as she entered the room with a duffle and a pillow.

"Let me guess, Chante just took over your entire weekend?" I asked.

"Got it in one."

"Anika, the bitch, would have been convenient right now," I teased, and she almost laughed.

"Can I hide in here with you?" A blond-haired woman asked, staring behind her like she was being pursued by the devil as she rushed into the room and slammed the door shut.

"Come in, Tara. You know Bradley and Connor, and meet Avery Glass," she introduced. Tara was a former gymnast turned actress with a YouTube channel and an insane Instagram following.

"She looks just like Taylor and Ashley," Tara breathed, and I wanted to hide. "No wonder Queen Chante's freaked out. She has all of their 'wholesome goodness,' and she's just as beautiful as they are."

Tara Mason had no filter, and she came across as genuine as she appeared to be on her channels.

***

Someone opened the door and almost shoved Tara off her feet, but only Bradley's quick thinking saved her as another woman quickly entered the room and shut the door.

"Well, the traitor of the hour," Anika said with more than a bite of her former attitude. Shalimar Kahn slowly turned to face us, oddly looking like she was about to burst into tears.

"It isn't my fault. We were in the same dorms at Uni, and she has pictures of me drunk one night that would kill my parents. She drugged me and blackmailed me into scoring an interview on my show, and she hasn't stopped doing it since."

I loved her accent just as much in real life. She was born in the US, but they lived in India for ten years when she was younger before moving back.

"This has got to stop, Connor." I grew up watching Shalimar's vlogs, and I kind of felt like I knew her. As mad as I was at her, I should have been angry at Chante instead.

"She's Canadian!" Tara crowed.

"And she looks just like Ashley and Taylor."

"That's going to get old very fast," I said grumpily, sitting on the armrest of one of Connor's couches.

"You should have thought about that before you had yourself turned into a Collin's Twin," Tara said.

It wasn't a snipe, just an honest opinion, and for a second, I almost laughed.

"I am the Beauty Queen, and that woman has not had a knife near her pretty skin, and all of that came prepackaged. So she's either one of the twins in disguise, or she's—" Shal shrugged, at a loss for logical explanations.

"What? A doppelganger?" Tara asked.

"You and your sister look more like twins than some twins; thus, it is possible." Shal speculated.

"You have nice friends," I told Anika, and she grinned. "You were wondering how they fared with Anika the Ice Bitch?" she asked, and I shrugged.

"We knew her before she turned into the Snow Queen," Shal said, not phased at all but distracted from the topic of conversation.

"Where the hell are you? You are not leaving us alone with Chante and hiding with the guys!" Someone shouted, and with a sigh, Shalimar opened the door.

Seven other women streamed into the room, and it looked like a photo shoot for vogue.

"This isn't going to work," Anika said, rubbing her hands over her face.

"Nice going, Shalimar; you ruined our whole weekend. I couldn't believe the old gang would be back together again when Anika called, and you dragged along the Golden Harlot."

Grayson Temple, British Comedian, voice actor, and influencer, was never afraid of giving her opinion.

"Bloody hell, she looks just like Taylor and Ashley," Shalimar, Tara, and Anika parroted along with her.

"She doesn't like hearing it," Tara needled.

"Then she shouldn't have done it," Grayson said.

She frowned, walked right up to me, and unexpectedly honked my hooters. I almost slapped her, but she looked at me like she wanted to see beneath my skin.

Her red hair, porcelain skin, and green eyes were kind of intimidating from half an inch away, and I almost fell backward from the armrest.

"Are you Taylor because nothing about you is fake?" She was so sure of herself that there wasn't any doubt in her voice, my eyes automatically went to Connor, and he raised a brow at me.

"Why the hell are you all hiding from me in here?" Chante said, flinging open the door.

She spotted Connor, smirked, and walked right up to him.

"You have not even properly greeted me," she drawled sexily, and he tried to retreat, but with thirteen people in the room, it wasn't possible.

"Back up, lady. If you want to greet my future husband properly, extend your hand," my voice could have flash-frozen water, and Anika Bluetooth high-fived me behind Chante's back.

The woman froze in her tracks and turned on her heel.

"Are you still here, honey? Why don't you admit he dumped you after that searing kiss with me because you can't stir his blood like I can?" she purred.

"Oh, honey, slut is a dime a dozen; classy gets earned." It was a line from one of Margeurite's books, and just about the only person in the room that didn't seem to know that, was Chante.

"Ladies, as much of a guy as I am and appreciate having such exquisite beauty around, go play somewhere else," Conner said, having recovered his equilibrium, the sparkle back in his eyes.

I would have been content to chill with the guys, but Tara and Shalimar each grabbed a hand and pulled me outside with the rest. Why could I not escape this house and these people? My eyes met with those of Connor, and among all those women, he only had eyes for me.

I suspected that amongst these sharp, witty, and rather intuitive women, things were about to become a lot more complicated for me.