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“So, I called your room this morning.” Lauren said nonchalantly as she dropped down next to me on the couch. “You didn’t pick up.”

“I must have been in the shower.” I lied.

I continued to type and upload my latest photo as I spoke. Despite the negativity surrounding the content of the video, my Twitter followers had more than doubled since it had been released. Of course, this also meant that I was receiving more than double the amount of death threats and soul-destroying comments than I had been before. Eddie, however, was loving the exposure that all of the attention (both positive and negative) was generating for the Fan Connection concept. I suppose the destruction of my self-esteem was a small sacrifice, given that he had been nice enough to let me continue with the assignment.

“Alone?” Lauren winked suggestively as I finished typing and turned to face her.

“Yes. Alone.” I tried to give her a no-nonsense look, but I knew that I was blushing.

“Come on, Amy! I’m dying for some dirty details!” Lauren pleaded. “I know you guys have ... gotten together by now.”

I looked quickly around the dressing room to confirm that we were alone and dropped my voice to a whisper. “Only twice.”

“Twice? That’s it!”

Lauren and I both jumped at the sound of Nick’s voice. He strolled into the room and threw himself down onto the couch across from us. He grinned devilishly at me and nodded as if waiting for me to continue. “You can keep talking. Lauren would have filled me in later anyways.”

“I would not!” Lauren shot Nick a horrified look. “Amy, seriously, I would NEVER tell Nick!”

“But we’re getting married.” Nick pouted. “Doesn’t that mean that you have to tell me everything?”

“Girl talk is never repeated.” Lauren stated seriously.

I nodded vehemently to back her up as AJ, Brian and Baylee walked into the room.

“Who’s having girl talk?” AJ asked as he wedged himself between me and Lauren. He patted both of our knees and smirked. “I’m an excellent listener.”

“You’re a dumbass.” Nick retorted. He waited until Brian had taken a seat next to him on the couch before turning in his direction. “Only twice so far, eh?”

“Jesus, Nick.” Brian flushed pink and glanced over at Baylee who had already immersed himself in a book in the far corner of the room. “Let’s not talk about this now.”

“But we can talk about it later?” Nick prodded. “This is a new side to you, Bri. I like it.”

“How did the interview go?” I asked, quickly changing the topic. “I’m assuming that the reporter asked about the video.”

The guys had decided that they were going to go ahead without Cassandra’s input and speak with a representative from the Huffington Post. Although I had acted like I was okay with the idea, I was legitimately terrified about the upcoming repercussions.

“It went well.” Nick shrugged. “We told the truth.” He gave Brian a sideways glance and indicated that he should continue.

“I told the reporter that Leighanne and I are in the process of finalizing our divorce and that I already have a great new lady in my life.” Brian picked up where Nick had left off. “You said that it would be okay if I named you, so I did ...”

I nodded and gave him a small smile. “I hope you cleared my name in regards to the video.”

“Of course!” AJ cried. “Cass was out of her mind about wanting to blame you. As Nick said, we told the truth.”

“Do you guys hear someone running?” Lauren suddenly interrupted. She motioned frantically for us to be quiet.

It did, in fact, sound like someone was full out sprinting down the hallway. As the footsteps drew closer, we could hear them echoing through the corridor in time with rapid breathing.

“Could it be Kevin or Howie?” I asked.

“They should still be speaking with the Huffington reporter. Kevin wanted to explain some of his behaviour in the video ...” AJ trailed off as Jason burst into the room at full speed.

The five of us stared at him in surprise as he came to a sudden halt by practically colliding with one of the two vending machines that were situated next to the door. He looked a bit frantic as he struggled to catch his breath and shook his iPad in our direction. Even Baylee had lowered his book and was staring at him in confusion.

“Girls ... familiar ...” Jason wheezed as he placed one hand on the vending machine in an attempt to steady himself. He thrust his iPad at Nick who took it from his hands and looked cautiously at the screen.

“Facebook?” Nick gave Jason a confused look.

Jason nodded as he continued to struggle to catch his breath. He grabbed a bottle of water off of a table and downed it in one loud chug. “Cassandra’s page.” He supplied.

“What is it?” I asked, hurrying over to the other couch in order to peer over Nick’s shoulder. AJ and Lauren followed my lead as Brian also leaned in to get a better look.

“It’s just a picture of her with three other girls.” Nick continued. “The caption says: ‘Drinks with my girlies in Toronto!’ I don’t get it. What are we supposed to be looking at?”

I was about to agree with Nick when the realization hit me hard in the face. “Wait a minute!” I cried, tearing the tablet out of Nick’s hands. I zoomed in on the blonde woman sitting to Cassandra’s left and gasped. “This is the girl who took Jason’s phone!”

“Let me see that!” AJ demanded. I handed him the iPad and he began tapping at the screen to get a better look. “The blonde does look somewhat familiar ... I don’t recognize the other two though”

“It’s her. I know it’s her!” Jason affirmed. His breathing had finally returned to normal and he was, once again, able to speak properly. “That’s her friend, the brunette on the right. I chased those women for blocks. I would recognize them anywhere.”

“It’s definitely her. I remember seeing you talking to them. The blonde one was all up in your face about something.” I supplied.

“Yeah. She was pissed off because I couldn’t find her name on the list.” Jason replied. “Probably because she had given me a fake name in order to distract me.”

“So, the girls who took your phone are friends with Cass.” Brian spoke out loud as he quickly connected his thoughts. “Cass was the one who decided that Jason and Amy would be the ones to shut down the VIP event in Toronto. She was also the one who decided that AJ and Nick should accompany them to the venue.”

“Shit!” Nick yelled, interrupting Brian’s train of thought. “I know who the third girl is!” He jabbed at the second brunette in the middle of the picture. “She was the girl who was hanging off of me when Jason’s phone was stolen and all hell broke loose.”

“No wonder Cass was so quick to let Nick and I go to that VIP ... her friends needed at least one of us to be there in order to create a distraction.” AJ mused. “That little bitch!”

“I had everything in that phone.” Jason interjected. “Whoever had access to that phone would have had access to the password for Amy’s fan club account ... among other things.”

“Oh my God!” Lauren breathed. “I can’t believe that I never put it together! Think about the video; about how it was filmed. You can see Amy and I the whole time. The only people who were behind us during the taping were Cass and Jason ...”

“Cass had her phone out during the entire taping, but I didn’t really think anything of it.” Jason jumped in. “I mean, why would I have been suspicious? We all walk around with our phones glued to our hands, but she must have been recording the fight without me realizing it.”

“With access to Amy’s password, Cass could have easily uploaded the video under Amy’s account using any random smart phone with an untraceable pay-as-you-go plan.” Brian concluded. “That’s why nobody has been able to trace the IP address to an actual person.”

“Jason told us this morning that the video was likely uploaded in Nepean. That’s practically halfway between Kanata and Ottawa.” I explained. “Cassandra could have effortlessly left the venue, driven to Nepean, uploaded the video, ditched the phone, and made it back to the hotel in Ottawa without anyone paying any attention.”

“How the hell do you know where Nepean is?” Nick asked, rather incredulously.

“I took Howie’s advice.” I shrugged. “I Googled it.”

“I was going to Google it myself.” Nick whined. “I just didn’t have time.”

“We’re off topic!” AJ put an end to Nick’s whining. “We may have established that Cass is responsible for the video, but we still need to figure out why she did it. I mean, what’s in it for her?”

“Cassandra posted the video!?” Howie’s shocked voice cut through the air as he and Kevin entered the room. “What the hell have we missed?”