HAZELI had never been more confused in my life than I was at that moment. Neither had I been so scared of the look in Christian’s face. It wasn’t anger. It was pure betrayal. I couldn’t even imagine all the things that were going on in his head as he looked from that file to me. And all my words fell on deaf ears. I had gone into his office to pick up my book, and I hadn’t even been in my room since I went straight to the home gym from there, until I walked into him in my room, holding that file and looking at me like I had lodged a knife in his chest. “How could I have trusted you?”Those words kept resounding in my head over and over again, even as I staggered to my bed to sit down. I didn’t need to think that hard to understand why Christian had looked so hurt. It was just as Mia had said— the whole stealing of corporate information. He thought it was about to happen all over again.I called Mia, and the second she answered, the tears came pouring down again.“Hazel? Are you okay

I went back home from my jog, expecting to hash things out with Christian. I had sent him a text earlier, but he didn’t respond. I wasn’t expecting him to anyway, and I would much rather talk about things face to face. “Is Christian home?” I asked Tina as I went into the kitchen to get a glass of water. “Yeah, he didn’t go upstairs yet, so he’s probably in his office.”“Okay thanks,” I smiled at her, already walking toward Christian’s office. The door was slightly open and I was about to push it open and take a peek in when I heard voices. “You brought this upon yourself, you did! Don’t you dare try to blame Hazel for anything.”I frowned at the mention of my name, and inched closer to the door so I could hear better. Christian sounded angry, and I wondered who he was arguing with. It was probably not a good time to try to have a conversation with him, not when he sounded that way.The next thing I heard was the unmistakeable sound of Chloe’s voice, saying I had slithered my way i

HAZELMy best friend held me tightly in her arms while I cried all night, and even long after my sobs died down into the occasional sniffle, she didn’t let go. And when I woke up the next morning with swollen eyes and a puffy face, she ran me a bath and made us breakfast. And then repeated the cycle again this morning. Christian had been blowing up my phone, and I turned it off. He had shown up here yesterday, but Olivia managed to convince him that she hadn’t seen me either. Maybe he believed her, or maybe he didn’t… it didn’t matter, because he did what I wanted and left. I drove down to Olivia’s apartment after standing on the bridge and staring down at the water for almost an hour. I was unable to cry then, unable to think, and just overall completely numb. Then it got really chilly and I knew I had to leave. With nowhere else to go to, the only viable option was my best friend's place. And when she opened the door with a concerned look on her face, the floodgates were opened onc

CUSTODY BATTLE— DAY 2.HAZELThe next couple weeks that followed after our first court date were hell, to say the least. Text messages and calls from random numbers blew our phones up. It was so bad that we had to change our phone numbers. We barely left the house for fear of being pounced upon by the press, and Christian even worked from home. But thankfully, we had a great support system. Christian’s entire family drove to our home almost every single day, as did Olivia. I called mom and explained what was happening, and why I wouldn’t be visiting her as often as I usually did. She tried to make me feel better, but there wasn’t much she could do from the hospital, and that was one more thing I cried myself to sleep about. Sarah helped fill in the void a little bit though— my mother in law was truly the best and I couldn’t be more grateful. Overall, we just tried to make things as normal as possible at home for Valerie, so she wouldn’t notice a thing. Christian even got her the tiny

I dashed into the hospital still dressed in the black dress I had worn to court. “Hazel, slow down or you’re going to fall.” Christian warned behind me, increasing his pace to match mine.I ignored him and headed straight for the elevator. I had tunnel vision right now and the only thing I saw was my mother. I could barely even hear Christian or any other sound around me. It all became background noise. Mom wasn’t in her room. I looked around frantically. “Where is she?”“Hazel…” Christian tried to pull me to him but I pushed away from him.“Where is she? Oh my God. What if… what if she’s—”“Hey, let’s calm down okay,” Christian said, trying to pacify me. “I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation.”“I don’t even know what’s going on… why would they keep me in the dark like this?” My heart was beating extra hard, and a thousand scenarios crossed my mind. My blood ran cold, and I started shivering. If my mom wasn’t in her room, it only meant one thing right? I recalled the urgency in