“What happened?” I asked immediately I reached the front desk and spotted my mother’s nurse, not even bothering to say hello to anyone. “Is my mother okay?”The nurse steps out from behind the desk and walks over to me. “Your mother developed an infection, but I’ll let the doctor tell you the rest.”“Why? Why can’t you tell me? Is she?” My eyes widened, “is she dead?” I asked, waiting for the ball to drop and change my life forever.“No, of course not. Your mother’s fine. It’s just standard procedure. We’ve been able to stabilize her, but she might still be a bit woozy.” The nurse informed me.I let out a whoosh of air, and finally breathed for the first time since we left the fundraiser. “Can I go in to see her?” I inquired.“Yes, you can.”I was sprinting to my mother’s room before the nurse could even finish talking. I met the doctor in front of the room door.“Your mother developed an infection, and honestly, nobody saw this coming. She passed out, and that was why you were calle

CHRISTIANI had decided to take the day after the fundraising event off, much to the surprise of everyone at the office since I barely took any time off. And I should have known that was a mistake. I had decided to disconnect from the world and just relax in the house with Valerie, and somehow, two hours passed without me checking my phone. That single act came back to bite me in the ass.‘This is what happens when you take breaks’ I thought to myself.Someone had leaked a story to gossip magazines claiming that my marriage to Hazel was staged, and immediately, I knew it was the work of my father. It wasn’t rocket science, anyone could see that he was responsible for this damage.I had to give him credit. He was thorough, making sure to include a set of fake documents showing the agreement of a contract marriage, complete with forged signatures of Hazel and I. The whole thing was stupid, we weren’t even in a contract marriage, it didn’t make any sense. It portrayed me as the exact mon

HAZELI could feel my nerves grow stronger as we neared the hospital. I kept bouncing my knees up and down the whole way until Christian literally snapped at me to stop. I knew that he hated the fact that he had to do this with me, he never stopped reminding me that he’d rather do anything else in the world than have to endure my presence. I had half expected him to react a certain way when I punched his father, but he had done the exact opposite, and even though he obviously hated the fact that he was stuck here with me right now, at least he was doing it. That was all that mattered. When we got to the hospital, a nurse handed me a clipboard that needed to be filled with all my information, but I was struggling to hold the pen with my injured hand.“Give it here, I'll do it,” Christian offered, looking a bit annoyed.“No, it's fine. I’ve got it.” I protested.“This really isn’t the time to be stubborn, Hazel.” he grabbed both the pen and clipboard out of my hands. “Just tell me the a

Christian led me into the restaurant with his hand on the small of my back. My back which was completely bare by the way! The restaurant was Italian, it was over the top, and everyone was dressed like they had some high end fashion show to be at after dinner. The hostess ushered us in without checking for our names on their computer, and I had to admit, the restaurant was beautiful. It had tall arched windows adorned with flowing curtains which she knew would look absolutely gorgeous in the daytime with the sunlight streaming through. The ceiling soared overhead with intricate frescoes depicting scenes from Italian history and mythology, while chandeliers hung like jewels, casting a soft ambient light throughout the room. And the tables were draped in crisp white linens and set with gleaming silverware and sparkling crystal glassware. You just knew it was the kind of place that served miniature portions of food for thousands of dollars. We were led to the back of the room, which meant

The drive to the car was probably the most stressful activity I had done all week. On one hand, I was overthinking every possible outcome from meeting with my ex boyfriend in such an open place. And on the other hand, I couldn't stop my mind from drifting back to Christian. I was worried that he knew something. Way more than he was letting on. I just couldn’t quite place my finger on it. And then there was the issue of the car too. The man had just given me a Bentley! And all I could do was worry and be paranoid about whether or not there was a hidden tracking device or a camera of some sort somewhere in the car. What if Christian was sitting in his living room, comfortably watching me on his enormous TV and laughing at how stupid I was? I shook my head to get rid of the thoughts. I was just paranoid and I had way bigger fish to fry right now. I would worry about Christian later. At exactly 1:05pm, I parked across the street from The Lark and walked over to the other side. I could se