Chapter 1 - Mystery Ring

It was supposed to be a romantic night, the night my boyfriend finally proposed. As I stood under the fireworks, wedged between my boyfriend and my sister Natalie, I grew annoyed again at the fact that she and her best friend had invited themselves along on our romantic Vegas getaway. I pictured the ring I had accidentally found in my boyfriend’s backpack the week before. His hand was fiddling with something. Is that a ring box or are you just excited to see me? As the grand finale of fireworks began, he turned to me. “Hazel?” “Yes?” “Will you…,” he hesitated, looking behind me. “Uh, will you excuse me?” He pushed past me to where Natalie stood. He got down on one knee. “Natalie, I know this is crazy, but…will you marry me?” “Oh my god,” Natalie and I both said at the same time. Natalie burst into tears. “Yes!” My brain struggled to comprehend what my eyes were seeing: my boyfriend putting what should have been my ring on my sister’s finger, my sister happy-crying and pulling him in for a kiss, my hands shoving my boyfriend’s arm with all the strength I could muster. “What the hell?” I yelled, looking back and forth between him and Natalie. “Hazel, I’m sorry, I just…” he started. “Oh yeah? You’re sorry? Get bent.” I flipped them both off and turned, hot tears streaming down my face. I ran as fast as I could through the crowd. I wanted to get as far way from them as I possibly could. “Hazel, wait!” my boyfriend called after me, but it was too late. I was already gone. They say hangovers don’t last forever, but drunk memories do. I was struggling to believe that as I awoke that next morning, disoriented, my head throbbing. Closing my eyes against the sunlight that was filtering through the curtains, I reached over and fumbled around the nightstand, hoping to God I’d left my aspirin there. I groaned and pulled the comforter over my head. Suddenly I heard the shower start in the bathroom. “Babe?” I called out. “Have you seen my aspirin?” I pulled the blanket down and rubbed my eyes. This is not my hotel room. The realization shook me. And those are not my boyfriend’s clothes mixed in with mine on the floor. “Oh, god.” Did I have a one night stand with someone? I tip-toed past the bathroom door, grabbed my purse, and slipped out into the hallway. I wasn’t sure how I had gotten there, I realized…I would need to call a taxi. My phone buzzed from inside my purse. I pulled it out. There must’ve been 50 notifications on there. Texts from my family, missed calls from the same, voicemails. I did not have the caffeine in me that I needed to deal with any of it. I started to put my phone back in the purse when it began to ring. “Mom” flashed across the screen. After a moment of hesitation, I pressed the accept button. “Hello?” “Hazel, where have you been? We’ve been worried sick about you.” Sure they had. “I’m fine, Mom.” “Your sister is very upset,” she continued. I balked. “She’s upset?" “You didn’t congratulate her on her engagement. You just walked out on her and her fiancé after the proposal.” “You’ll excuse me if I’m not thrilled that my sister is marrying my boyfriend,” I snapped. “Don’t you take that tone with me. It’s not her fault you can’t hold onto your men,” Mom snapped back. I was fuming. “Okay Mom, nice talking to you.” I hung up before she could reply. My parents always favored my sister. It didn’t matter that my sister stole my boyfriend from me. It was still somehow my fault. I jammed my phone into my purse and that’s when I finally noticed it: a giant ring on my left hand. It's incredibly big and shiny. I think it must be a toy. But where did that come from? Two days later, I walked into work at ten til 8. I kept my head down and made a beeline for my desk, avoiding everyone I passed. I wasn’t ready to answer any questions about my vacation. Once I got to my desk I pushed the power button on my computer. My best friend Maria spotted me from across the room and practically ran over to me. I sighed. I opened up my email on my desktop. 102 unread messages. That’s what I got for taking a week off work. “It’s going to take me a week just to get caught up on all these emails,” I sighed. “I guess I should go do some actual work too.” She gave me a hug. “I love you, we’ll talk more later, okay?” I nodded and she went back to her desk. My eyes scanned the newest emails first. I didn’t seem to miss anything too important, just some memos on parking and meeting notices and…wait, what’s this? My eyes stopped on a subject line that read “TRANSFER NOTICE.” I clicked on it. I scanned the entire email quickly - too quickly - and then had to read it two more times before I understood. My heart sank. Our CEO was being transferred to another branch, and I was his assistant. Tears welled in my eyes. First my boyfriend, and now this? My whole life was here. My friends, my career, my favorite hairdresser, everything. I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t want to lose my boyfriend to my sister. Didn’t anyone care what I wanted? Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Elena strutting towards me. Elena, who had been vying for my job as the assistant to the CEO ever since she started here. She was gorgeous and could have anything and anyone she wanted, but insisted on taking the one good thing I had away from me. Her boobs reached me ten minutes before she did. “Hey there, Hazel,” she smiled. Her friendliness made me wary. “Elena,” I said. “I heard you’re leaving us soon,” she jutted her bottom lip out. Spare me. “Yeah, I just saw the email,” I said. “That’s too bad. Ah well. I guess I’ll be the new CEO’s assistant. I hear he has much better taste than the last one.” My cheeks burned. Suddenly, I heard footsteps behind me. Elena and I both turned. My mouth fell open. Walking towards us was perhaps the most handsome man I had ever seen. He was tall and dark and slender, his pinstripe suit hugging him tightly in all the right places. “Excuse me, everyone,” he said. He had a commanding way about him. Everyone instantly turned their attention to him. “My name is Logan. I am your new CEO. We’ll be having a meeting in the conference room, five minutes. Everyone.” He turned to exit. “He doesn’t have to ask me twice,” Elena said, heading towards the conference room. I sighed. Now what? Minutes earlier，Logan stood in his office, awaiting the arrival of his personal assistants. Finally, the door opened and two men walked in. He pulled a picture from the inside pocket of his suit. “I need you to help me track down this woman,” Logan said. “She’s my new wife.” The woman in the photo is wearing a giant ring.