"You bastard." Nicole said as she stormed into Mike's office, nearly knocking over his secretary along the way.

"Mr. Mizanin, I tried. But—"

"It's okay." He said, standing. "Close the door behind you, please."

He waved Nicole into a chair, but she stood stubbornly still. "What's wrong, Nicole?"

"You're Michelle."

"What?"

"You heard me, you creep. Go ahead, try to deny it."

A flush crept up his face. "Nicole, listen."

"You are, aren't you?"

"There are reasons I had to do it."

"Oh, my God, you are." She began pacing. "All this time. How stupid could I be?"

"You weren't stupid, Nicole. No one knows it, not even anyone in this office."

"Have you been sleeping with anyone in this office?" She asked sarcastically.

"Of course not."

"You lied to me. You made a fool of me."

"No! I never meant to do anything like that. The Michelle thing had nothing to do with you."

"It had everything to do with me when you used her as your excuse to accuse me of stealing from you."

"It wasn't like that."

"It was exactly like that. Here you sat pretending to be the conciliatory underling, apologizing for her every step of the way, then turning around and making my life hell under her disguise."

"Look, let me come over later and I'll explain everything."

"That'll be the day. Don't you come within a mile of me ever again?"

"Don't do this, Nicole. Hear me out."

"I hope I never hear your voice again as long as I live."

"Nicole, I love you."

Her laughter was embarrassingly hysterical. "Right. Funny way of showing it, you jerk."

If she didn't leave, she was going to burst into tears, and there was no way she'd give him that satisfaction. She dug through her briefcase and pulled out the file. "There's your proof, you idiot. Do what you will with it. But from now on, I talk only to John Cena about this case."

He started to walk around the desk.

"No! You come near me and I'll scream my bloody head off." An involuntary sob slipped through. She nodded at the file. "You've got what you wanted from me. Now leave me alone."

"Nicole—"

She headed toward the door. Right before she flung it open she said. "You know, Mike, you make an ugly woman. And right now you make an even uglier man. It turns out you're a pretty ugly human being."

"Nicole, its Aubrie. Please call me. I know you're hurt, but you have to understand all this before you judge Mike so harshly. He had reasons, good reasons why he couldn't' tell anyone about this."

Nicole sat on the sofa in her darkened living room, clutching a pillow to her chest, listening to about the tenth message from Mike and Aubrie. She didn't want to hear it. Nothing could justify his deception. Nothing. And she wanted to lick her wounds in private.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Gabby squawked.

"Thank you, Gabby." She whispered. "Me too."

God, what a fool. She'd fallen for all of Mike's bull, hook, line, and sinker.

"Nicole, I'm your friend." Aubrie said. "I hope you know that. I've hated that we haven't been able to tell you."

Her friend? That was the last straw. She snatched up the phone. "Aubrie, listen to me and listen good. You aren't my friend. You're as much of a fraud as he is. Do you people get your jollies making everyone look like fools? Don't ever, ever call here again."

"Nicole, Mike loves you. And I….I truly value our friendship."

"You know, it takes a lot of nerve to say that. Last I looked it up, part of the definition of friendship included honesty."

"Okay, don't forgive me. But please give Mike a chance."

"You know, it just occurred to me. He's such a coward that he lets his fake sister and his real sister do his talking for him."

"He has no idea I've been calling you."

"Right."

"Nicole, he called me at home and told me what happened. I almost didn't recognize his voice. He's out of his mind over this."

"You know, Aubrie, right now I don't give a damn. Good-bye."

"Wait!" was the last thing she heard before she hung up.

"I have to tell John, Mike. Nicole's going to tell him eventually and I don't want him hearing it from her.

Her heart broke for her brother as he sat on their sofa, bent over, head in his hands.

"Go ahead." He said. "It doesn't matter any longer."

"It does to the company."

"I'm calling a meeting tomorrow and announcing it."

"You can't do that! It's too soon! What if your backer calls in the final note?"

"It'll be a blow but not a final blow. Today was a final blow."

"Oh honey, I'm so sorry."

"I know. Go find John, Aubrie. I don't want him hearing it from Nicole either."

"Give her time. She'll come to understand."

"No, she won't. I broke a trust."

"You did what you had to do."

"As soon as things started getting personal with us. I should have told her. At least then she could have made an informed choice. As it was, our relationship happened so fast and I was too afraid of losing her. I deserve this. I deserve how she feels about me."

"You listen to me. You have the biggest heart of any man I've ever known. You pulled off this Michelle gig far longer than anyone should have to because you were looking out for Gramps and me and Rose Cosmetics and its employees. You would never intentionally hurt anyone. Nicole will realize it eventually. Just give her time to simmer down and time to remember how she feels about you deep inside."

He shook his head. "Go to John, Aubrie. Salvage that, at least."

"What's wrong, Aubrie?" John asked. "You call me in the middle of meeting, tell me it's an emergency and to meet you at my house and now you're pacing my carpet bare. Talk already!"

"I want you to understand something."

"Well, if you want me to memorize your walk, I've got that one down. Otherwise, say something."

She stopped and faced him. "Several years ago my brother tried to get financing for a new business."

"Okay."

"He was turned down."

"Okay."

"Because he was a young man."

"It's a hard sell in his business."

"But someone called a...a…venture something, approached him and said he'd be willing to put up the money if Mike could get a woman to front for him as head of the company."

"Why would that matter?"

"Who knows? I know nothing about business."

John sat there for a second. "Okay I'm starting to get it. So he enlisted Michelle's help. She's merely a figurehead. No wonder Mike does all the work."

"Not exactly."

"What then?"

"Mike isn't a twin, John."

"Then who's…ohhhhhhhhh. You're kidding, right?"

She shook her head. "He made her up. He didn't want some other woman acting as the head of the company and then somehow coming back and trying to actually take it over." She waved. "Mike didn't' want to take any chance with the business."

"Are you saying…Mike has been playing Michelle all of these years?"

She nodded, mute. Her eyes were so distressed; John wanted to pull her into his arms. But there was more to this. "Okay, so he fooled us all. Good for him. It worked."

She stared at him. "You're not mad?"

"I'm mad at myself for not catching on."

"I have a theory that people see what they are told to expect."

"I saw through you. I saw through Nicole."

"What can I say? We're bad at this."

It was like he didn't hear her. "I'm irritated that he didn't confide in me. I should have known the complete story so I could give him the best advice possible. But mad that he did what he had to do to achieve his goals? No, I'm not mad at him."

Unfortunately, that was something of a lie. He felt a slight bite of betrayal. Nothing nearly as hard-hitting as when he and Randy learned their boss had set them up, then tried to kill them. That was a little more extreme, and it had knotted his gut. Not like Krista's betrayal, because even after what she'd done, he was devastated more for their child. This kind hurt in a different way. It had settled in his chest.

"Are you mad at me?"

"A little."

She ran around the coffee table and sat down grabbing his hand. "I wasn't trying to deceive you, John. I swear. It was just…he's my brother. And the company means so much to him."

"From what he told me, Rose Cosmetics has been turning a profit for a while now. Much sooner than expected, and that's even with reinvesting in expansion. Why'd he keep it up?"

"He wanted it to stay that way until he had the loan paid down. Then he was going to announce that Michelle was retiring and he'd be the new CEO. It would be a smooth transition. No one would panic because he's been running the company so long anyway." She grabbed a shaky breath. "And he was so close. And then all of this stuff happened with Apple Day and that set him back a little because he was determined to figure out how his competitor was getting hold of his company's innovations."

John sat there for a while, chewing on it. He finally looked into her worried eyes and laughed, more at himself than the situation. "Looking back on it, it all makes sense. You know, he's a really unappealing woman."

Aubrie tried to smile but it wasn't ready to work its way into full-blown humor, by the looks at her.

"And I could never get the two of them together. It was one or the other. How stupid was I?"

"He wasn't playing you for a fool. I swear."

"No, that's not Mike's style."

But truth didn't seem to be in Mike's style either. Or Aubrie's right now. And here was the woman he would have sworn would tell him anything he asked her. But for weeks now she'd been keeping up this ruse with him. Perpetuating it, even. She'd also lied about her relationship to Mike. He'd found out by a slip of the tongue that they were brother and sister.

Then there was Mike allowing him to pursue Aubrie as a suspect, when he knew damn well it was a dead end. And there was Aubrie, who'd wasted his time by putting on that show with Nicole dressed as a man and making him wonder if she wasn't the one infiltrating Rose Cosmetics.

John shook his head, trying to equate the Aubrie he knew so intimately, who talked openly about herself, to the one who made excuses for Michelle's absences at any given moment.

"He truly respects you and your work." She said, slicing into his darkening thoughts.

"He'd have canceled my services long ago if he weren't happy. I'm not sure that equates to respecting me."

She collapsed back on the sofa. "So you are angry."

He looked for a word that worked better. He couldn't' find one, because he wasn't certain what he was feeling right now.

"Don't give him grief."

John barked a laugh. "Trust me; I'm not letting him off easy. He did leave out some key things that might have helped us a long time ago."

"John?"

"Yes."

"Please he's going through a lot."

"Such as?"

"Nicole found out."

He whistled. "Mike finally told her?"

"No, she figured it out."

"Ah damn I bet she didn't take it well." How am I taking it? He didn't have an answer. He needed to think.

"World-recorded understatement." She looked down. "She hates me too."

"Nobody could hate you."

"Pencil her in as number one."

"I wish I could help."

"It's going to get worse. Mike's making the announcement tomorrow to his employees."

"Tell him to stick to the 'Michelle's retiring story'."

"Are you kidding? How fast do you think Nicole would unveil him, so to speak?"

"She doesn't seem like the vindictive type."

"I hope not. But Mike wants to bare his soul, I guess."

"So, Miss Aubrie, bare your soul to me."

"What do you mean?"

"How many more family and personal secrets are you hiding?" he'd been teasing but he knew instantly what a huge mistake he'd just made.

Her face turned beet red and she jumped from the sofa. "How dare you say that?"

He held up his hands. "I was just kidding." But he realized with sudden clarity that that wasn't entirely true. This news wasn't' digesting well.

She stared at him and then shook her head. "No, you weren't."

"Maybe not. I don't know. What are you expecting me to say? 'No problem, Aubrie. Let's go make love and forget the whole thing'"

"No, I realize you have to sort it out. I'm just hoping that once you do, you realize it was utterly innocent."

"It's personal fraud."

She sucked in a hard breath. "That's low."

"So's lying."

"Oh and you, Mr. Spy Guy, have always told the lily-white truth."

"That's different. It wasn't personal; it was professional."

"What Mike did was for professional reasons, too."

"Mike, right. That I semi understand."

"But not me right? And now you believe that you can't believe a thing I say. As reasonable as you seemed to be about the situation, you just extrapolated."

"Is that a big sociology term?" Well, that came out sounding sarcastic.

"Look it up." That came out even more sarcastic.

Then he decided to become defensively dumb. He resented her dishonesty more than he'd first realized. And it was building out of control. "You have to admit, there's a pattern here."

"For totally different purposes!"

He needed time to think. And he wasn't thinking right now. "I was teasing. Forget I said it."

"I don't think so. And right now would not be a good time to keep this conversation going. I did what I thought was right, which was making certain you learned it all from me first."

"I appreciate that. Aubrie, your nerves are raw and my nerves are raw and you just clunked me over the head with a hammer. Let's just forget it and watch cartoons or something."

"Good night, John."

How did this turn so bad so quickly? He thought he'd been acting fairly reasonably, considering she'd been keeping secrets from him for a long time. "Running away, Aubrie?"

"Getting fresh air. It's becoming stale in here."

He stood up. The haze finally blew. "How dare you throw this in my face as if it's my fault? Or Nicole's, for being angry? As far as I can tell, out of all of us, Nicole and I are the only two who have been completely honest."

"Then you and Nicole are perfect for each other."

Panic seized him. "Aubrie, wait. I didn't mean that."

"Yes, you did." She said, her voice quavering as she almost sprinted to his front door. Right before she turned the knob, she said. "Just don't forget that you have secrets you haven't shared either. I figured you would talk to me when you could."

"It's not the same thing."

"Isn't it? I wouldn't know."

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