They recorded the whole day through; they were on a roll and couldn't find a place to stop until well after midnight. Jem let the others go ahead of her, and stopped Rio on the way out. "Can we talk?"

He looked at the door and then back to Jem. "Jem, I really wanted to talk to Jerrica tonight before bed."

"I know you did." She said and straightened to her full height, edging her chin up a notch trying to look confident, hoping that if she looked confident, she would feel it as well. "And I'm right here." She said on the exhale.

Rio smiled and put a hand on her cheek. "Jem. You're tired. It has been a long week. Go on home."

"No. Rio. It's me Jerrica. And you are right, it has been a long week, but we do need to talk. Let's go to my office." She said and strode out of the recording studio ahead of him, not giving him a moment to question or comment.

Rio stood alone in the recording studio confused and bewildered. "What in the hell just happened here?" he wondered out loud. Looking at the empty doorway, and hearing the clicking of her heels growing fainter he took off at a jog to follow her.

"Jem! Wait!" He chased her into Jerrica's office. She went behind him and closed the door, strode more confidently than she felt towards the couch, kicked off her shoes, and sat down with one leg tucked up underneath her.

"What is going on?" he asked hands firmly planted on his hips. She sighed and ran a hand through pink bangs.

"Sit down Rio. We have a lot to talk about."

"I don't want to sit down." She looked down and nodded.

She avoided eye contact, because she didn't want to see the anger and hatred in those eyes that had loved her and reassured her through so many things, things that would have broken her if it hadn't been for his comforting and loving embrace-touch-look. "I'm Jerrica." She repeated and forced herself to look him in the eye.

"There is no way you are Jerrica." He argued. "I've seen the two of you together."

"I am Jerrica." She sighed and tried to think of a way to get him to see her through the make up and the hair, she wanted him to be able to see through the disguise, and to actually see HER. "Remember when you first started helping my dad? Remember how I would wear that blue dress and prance around the work room? Remember that?"

"I remember Jerrica doing that."

A calm had settled over Jerrica. Rio would either flip out and never speak to her again, or he would hear her out, and he would love her to the end. Either way, there wasn't anything she could do about it, and that realization filled her with a sense of calm, a sad sense of calm, but calm just the same. "I would wear that blue dress because I thought it made me look older." She pulled some of her hair and began to twirl it around her fingers as she spoke, staring off into the distance like she could see the memory playing on the wall in front of her, like a movie. "Then I saw you and Aja together, and she never wore dresses, always overalls or jeans, she was such a tomboy back then." A smile played on her lips. "So I quit wearing that blue dress, any dress, and I started wearing overalls, and jeans, because I thought that was what you liked. But that wasn't it either." She leaned back against the arm rest of the couch. "I finally quit trying, and that was when you noticed me. Just when I thought I had lost you, when I quit chasing you, you came to me. Remember?" She finally looked at him for the first time since she began speaking. His eyes were intense, and his face was angry.

"That doesn't prove that you're Jerrica. Jerrica could have told you all of that."

She licked her lips, it was time for the big guns. "You have a scar on your right inner thigh." His face went slack.

"You couldn't know."

"No. I couldn't, unless you had told me, or Jerrica had told me, or unless I've seen it. It's pretty high up on your right inner thigh, it's jagged and raised. It tapers off just above your knee. Your dad gave it to you before you left home." Rio's mouth went dry. No one knew about that scar, no one but Jerrica, and he had only told her because they were intimate, and she asked, and he hadn't wanted there to be any secrets between them. But apparently she hadn't felt the same.

"Jerrica swore she wouldn't ever tell anyone that."

"And I haven't." She paused. "And I won't. Ever. No matter the outcome of this conversation, I will never tell another living soul about it."

Rio's mind raced, raced so fast he had to sit down. As he sagged into the chair he questioned ,"Jerrica?"

She nodded. "It's really me Rio." Rio's body sizzled hot with anger, his brain clouded with confusion, and his heart heavy with sadness—the woman he'd loved, trusted, valued above all others had lied, kept the biggest secret of her life from him. And he hadn't even noticed. He hadn't even realized that the two were one in the same. Some of that anger, some of that confusion, some of that sadness was reserved for himself.

Taking advantage of Rio's confused and angry silence she began to explain, "I became Jem so I could save this music company." She gestured to the building surrounding her. "I became Jem so I could save my girls, so I could have enough money to feed and clothe them. I never…." She sighed. "I never wanted to lie to you."

"Do the others know?"

"Yes. Kimber, Aja, Shana, and Raya know. Kimber, Aja, and Shana helped to create Jem.

Betrayal was a new ingredient to the feeling stew that was simmering just below the surface. "What? Wasn't I good enough to tell? Why wasn't I brought in on this from the jump?"

"It all happened so fast." She pushed hair from her face. "We had to make Jem, had to put together a song, and get ourselves ready in less than 24 hours. I just forgot to call. That was what happened Rio. It was a simple mistake, and then it snowballed into what it is right now. And I've hated every single second of this deception."

Rio shot to his feet and loomed over her. "You forgot to call? Seriously? That's your explanation. You have got to be kidding me."

"Rio…"

"No. Now it's my turn to do some talking." He began to pace, and her eyes followed him like a prey animal watching the hunter stalk them. "You could have told me any time you would have liked. After the first time you sang, right before you left for the first concert. You had PLENTY of time to tell me this mammoth secret! It's been over two years! Two years Jerrica! And you are just NOW telling me this? Why not wait until I married you and had children with you…and then go…'oh, by the way honey I have to go perform….you see I'm Jem.' Why not then?"

"Rio don't be unfair."

"I'm not being unfair. You've been unfair. I love you Jerrica Benton, I always have. And you don't love me enough to trust me." He threw his hands up. "I thought you trusted me." He said more quietly, and Jerrica's heart ached.

"Rio." He put his hand up silencing her.

"I'm going to go home. I need to think this through. I need space. It's my turn to take a week away from my life." He moved so fast to the door that Jerrica didn't have time to jump up and stop him. He threw open the door, it bounced against the wall, and he was gone.