“Hazel, please answer me.”

Roman Woods' voice came through the speaker, strained with panic instead of the confidence of the CEO that usually defined him.

“I know what those photographs look like, but I swear they don't tell the truth. Please don't cancel our wedding before you hear me out.”

Hazel Brooks stared at the screen on her laptop in silence.

The photographs had already spread across every social media platform. Roman lay asleep in a hotel bed while Mandy Carter smiled beside him wearing his white dress shirt, and every image looked convincing enough to destroy years of trust.

Hazel didn't know who Mandy was, but the post immediately went viral due to the affair of CEO of Woods corporations before his wedding. Beneath the post, the comments multiplied by the second, each one more cruel than the last.

“Hazel?” Roman pleaded when she still refused to answer. “Please say something.”

She finally drew a slow breath, although it did nothing to ease the burn in her chest.

“What exactly do you expect me to say?” she asked quietly, her voice trembled. “Should I pretend those photographs don't exist, or should I congratulate the woman who decided to announce your affair the night before our wedding?”

“I never had an affair,” Roman insisted, and she could hear him pacing as he spoke. “Mandy got me drunk after the charity gala. I blacked out, and when I woke up she was already gone, I don't even remember anything. Hazel, I never cheated on you baby please!”

Hazel closed her teary eyes for a moment.

Roman had never given her a reason to question his loyalty before today, and that was what made the betrayal hurt even more. She wanted to believe him with every part of herself, but the entire country had already seen the evidence, and she had nothing except his word to fight against it.

“You're asking me to ignore something the whole world has already seen,” she replied, struggling to keep her voice steady.

“I'm asking you to trust the man you've loved for three years.”

“I want to trust you,” Hazel admitted, her eyes filling with tears despite every effort to remain composed. “Please, Roman... tell me you have something that proves she framed you because I need a reason to believe this isn't real.”

The silence stretching across the line answered her before he finally spoke.

“I don't have proof yet,” he confessed quietly. “But I'll find it.”

Hazel lowered her head and sobbed.

The hope she had been clinging to slipped away the moment those words left his mouth.

Before Hazel could gather her thoughts, the bedroom door opened and her sister Olivia stepped inside carrying a tablet and another phone that had not stopped ringing since dawn.

“Hazel, I'm sorry to interrupt,” she said gently, placing the tablet on the bedside table. “The venue manager has called six times, the florist needs an answer before they begin setting up, and reporters have gathered outside the apartment building. Someone leaked the story overnight, and every news station is waiting to hear whether the wedding is still happening.”

Hazel looked toward the window.

She could not see the reporters from her bedroom, but camera flashes occasionally reflected against the neighboring buildings, reminding her that the worst day of her life had already become someone else's headline.

Roman's voice broke through the silence before she could respond.

“Please don't make a decision while you're angry,” he urged. His breathing sounded uneven, as though he had not slept all night. “Give me one day, Hazel. I'll find Mandy, I'll find the hotel staff, I'll prove she planned this.”

“You're asking me to not postpone a wedding that starts in less than twenty-four hours because you might find proof,” Hazel replied, her voice cracking despite her efforts to stay calm. “Do you even hear how impossible that sounds?”

“I know how it sounds, but it's the truth.”

“The truth should have reached me before those photographs did.” Hazel gritted her teeth.

Roman fell quiet for only a moment before speaking again, his voice softer and tired than before.

“I love you, Hazel. None of this changes that.”

A tear slipped down her cheek, and she brushed it away before it could fall onto the engagement ring she was unconsciously twisting around her finger.

“I loved you enough to trust you without question,” she answered. “Now every person who was supposed to celebrate our wedding tomorrow has already seen those photographs, and I don't know how I'm supposed to stand in front of them pretending nothing happened.”

Olivia lowered her eyes, giving Hazel as much privacy as the moment allowed, but she quietly unlocked the tablet and turned it toward her.

“I think you should see this before you make any announcements.”

Hazel reluctantly looked at the screen.

Every major news outlet had picked up the story.

Roman's photograph appeared beside hers beneath headlines questioning whether one of the city's most anticipated society weddings had collapsed overnight. Comment sections overflowed with strangers dissecting their relationship, while entertainment pages replayed Mandy's post as though it were breaking political news.

Then Hazel noticed something that made her stomach drop.

Someone had shared the scandal on the official page of Brooks Weddings.

The comments were even crueler there.

Several clients demanded refunds before anyone from her company had the chance to respond.

Others questioned whether they should trust a wedding planner whose own wedding had fallen apart on the eve of the ceremony.

Years of hard work, sleepless nights, and countless successful events were disappearing beneath thousands of opinions from people who had never met her.

Hazel stared at the screen until the words blurred together.

This was no longer only about her broken engagement.

Everything she had spent years building was beginning to collapse with it.

She slowly slipped the engagement ring from her finger and closed her hand around it before looking up at Olivia.

“Please call the venue,” she whispered. Although tears continued to gather in her eyes, her decision no longer carried any hesitation. “Tell them the wedding is cancelled.”

Olivia searched Hazel's face, silently hoping she might change her mind, but all she found was heartbreak. She nodded once before leaving the bedroom to make the call, while Roman's voice echoed desperately through the speaker.

“Hazel... please don't do this.” He kept begging and pleading.

Hazel disconnected the call and searched for the contact that had been pulling her out of this mess for years. When the call connected, she heaved a sigh and voiced out.

“P-please can you arrange an urgent appointment with therapist Reeve before I do something stupid?”

There was silence for a moment.

“Yes, Dr. Reeve is available right now.”

The receptionist at Hartley Wellness Center opened the door before Hazel could knock.

"Dr. Reeve said to bring you straight in," she whispered, her eyes soft with concern as she took in Hazel's swollen eyes and the hoodie she had thrown over her pajamas.

Hazel nodded without speaking.

Inside, Reeve stood by the window with his hands in the pockets of his dark trousers. His white shirt was rolled to his elbows and his expression was calm and unreadable, but his gaze behind his rimmer glasses fixed on her the moment she entered.

"You came," he said quietly.

"I didn't know where else to go," Hazel admitted, her voice hoarse from crying.

He gestured toward the familiar gray sofa where she had spent so many hours over the past two years.

"Sit down."

Hazel sank onto the sofa and clutched her phone in both hands. The screen lit up again. It was Roman Woods.

She stared at the name until it stopped ringing.

"You haven't been sleeping," Reeve observed, sitting across from her with his notebook closed on his lap.

"I haven't slept since midnight," Hazel replied, her eyes filling with tears despite every effort to remain composed. "Mandy posted those photographs and by morning every person I know had seen them. The venue called, the florist called, my clients started canceling. I canceled the wedding, Dr. Reeve. I canceled everything."

Reeve observed her closely thoughtfully, his expressions remained neutral. Hazel’s phone rang again with Roman’s call.

Reeve glanced at it but said nothing.

"Do you want to answer it?" he asked.

"No," Hazel said quickly, her hands trembling as she turned the phone face down. "I can't. He keeps saying he was framed, that Mandy got him drunk after the charity gala and he blacked out. He says he doesn't remember anything. But he has no proof. He has nothing except his word."

"And his word is no longer enough for you?" Reeve asked carefully.

"It should be enough," Hazel whispered, her chest burning with every breath she took. "He never gave me a reason to doubt him before yesterday. Three years, and I never questioned his loyalty once. Now the whole city is calling me the wedding planner whose own wedding collapsed overnight. I feel like everyone is laughing at me."

Reeve heaved a sigh,"You survived humiliation before, Hazel," Reeve said gently. "This is not the first time the world has felt cruel."

"I know," Hazel admitted, her voice cracking. "That's what scares me. After my last relationship, it took me two years to feel normal again. I had panic attacks, I couldn't work, I couldn't leave my apartment. You saw me then. I can't go back to that darkness. I can't survive another failed relationship after everything I endured in the past."

Her phone vibrated against the wooden table. Hazel flinched and pushed it further away.

"He's not going to stop calling, is he?" Reeve asked.

"He says he loves me," Hazel replied, tears slipping down her cheeks. "He says none of this changes that. But how can he love me when he let this happen the night before our wedding?"

Reeve leaned forward slightly, his elbows resting on his knees. His voice remained even and patient, the same tone he had used when she was at her lowest two years ago.

"Roman has become another wound you cannot afford to keep reopening," he said quietly. "Every time you answer that phone, every time you listen to an explanation without proof, you are tearing it open again."

Hazel looked up at him, her eyes red and pleading.

"So what should I do?"

"You should end the relationship completely," Reeve advised, his gaze steady on hers. "Clinging to someone who has already broken your trust will only drag you back into the darkness you escaped years ago. You worked too hard to get out of it, Hazel. Don't let anyone pull you back in."

The words settled heavy in her heart because part of her knew he was right.

Her phone lit up again. She stared at it until it went dark.

"I don't know if I have the strength to tell him," she whispered, shaking her head.

"You do," Reeve urged her. "You ended the wedding. That was the hardest part. The rest is just making it clear."

Hazel closed her eyes for a moment and pressed her palms against her knees to stop them from shaking.

"Okay," she whispered. "Okay, I'll tell him tonight."

At evening, the sky over Seattle had turned a dull gray when Hazel returned to her apartment building. Reporters had finally left, but a black Range Rover she knew too well was parked by the entrance.

Roman stood beside it.

His suit was wrinkled and his hair was disheveled, as though he had not stopped running since morning. The confident CEO she knew was gone. He looked exhausted and desperate.

"Hazel," he said when he saw her, his voice strained with panic. "Please, just five minutes. Don't do this without hearing me out."

"You shouldn't be here," Hazel replied, her voice seething now. She clutched her bag tighter against her chest.

"I know where you went," Roman insisted, taking a step closer. "Olivia told me you went for therapy session. But he doesn't know what happened, Hazel. He wasn't there. I've already told you Mandy got me drunk after the gala, she poured me another drink when I said no, and I blacked out. When I woke up, she was gone and those pictures were already on her phone. She framed me please trust me!" He almost begged.

"Then where is your proof?" Hazel asked quietly, tears gathering in her eyes again. "You said this morning you would find proof. Do you have it now?"

Roman's jaw tightened and his shoulders dropped slightly.

"Not yet," he confessed. "But I will. The hotel staff is refusing to talk, but I will find her, Hazel. I swear I will."

Hazel shook her head slowly, although it broke her heart to do it.

"That's what you said this morning," she replied, struggling to keep her voice steady. "I waited all day, Roman. I wanted you to have proof. I wanted to believe you. But you came here with the same story and nothing to show for it."

"It's not a story, it's the truth," Roman pleaded, his eyes searching hers desperately. "I never cheated on you. I never touched her. Please, Hazel, don't end us over a lie."

"We already ended," Hazel whispered, her voice cracking. "The moment those photographs went viral, we ended. I can't marry someone the whole world believes cheated on me the night before our wedding. I can't build a life with someone I have to defend to my own clients. It's over, Roman. Officially."

The silence that followed felt heavier than the whole situation.

Roman stared at her as though he could not process the words, his chest rising and falling unevenly.

"Don't say that," he said finally, his voice low and rough. "Don't say it's over like you mean it."

"I mean it," Hazel said, although tears streamed down her face as she said it.

Roman took one last step forward but did not touch her. His eyes were dark with determination that made her take a step back.

"Then hear this," he said quietly, his nostrils flared. "I will never stop fighting for you. I know you still belong with me, Hazel. And I will prove that you are only mine. And I will keep coming after you, whether you like it or not."

He turned and walked back to his car without looking back, and Hazel stood frozen on the sidewalk until his taillights disappeared.

Terrified by the determination in his voice, she pulled out her phone with shaking fingers and typed a message before she could change her mind.

“I finally ended it with Roman. He came to my apartment. He said he will never stop coming after me Dr. Reeve. He frightened me.”

She pressed send to Reeve.

Alone in his office, Reeve read the message on his desk. The city lights reflected against the glasses he wore as he stared at the screen for a long moment.

Then a small, almost faint smirk appeared on his face, he held up the phone and kissed the screen.

Three weeks had passed since Hazel canceled the wedding, but she had never found the peace she hoped for.

She had blocked Roman's number, deleted their photographs, and returned his suits that still hung in her closet. She had hoped that ending the relationship would end the nightmare. It did not. If anything, the situation with Roman got more reckless.

On Monday, she found a bouquet of white peonies on the reception desk of Brooks Weddings with a handwritten card tucked between the stems.

“Please talk to me. — R” She had thrown it away without a single thought.

On Tuesday, the same black Range Rover was parked across from her office building when she left work at seven. Roman sat inside, watching the entrance. He did not approach her. He just watched until she disappeared inside a cab. Hazel made sure to not give him any sort of hope. She thought maybe he was getting the reality check.

Still on Wednesday, he was outside her apartment again.

Hazel stared at him from her bedroom window, her heart pounding against her ribs, as he stood beneath the streetlight with his hands in his pockets, looking up at her floor.

Her phone buzzed with a text from an unknown number.

“I know you saw me. I just wanted to make sure you got home safe. I miss you.”

She blocked the number and closed the curtains, but her hands would not stop trembling. When Roman saw she was not responding to any of his new numbers, he decided to deliver messages a different way. By Friday, the flowers had become letters.

Olivia placed a thick envelope on the kitchen counter without saying anything. Her normally cheerful expression had been replaced by concern.

"Another one?" Hazel asked quietly.

"He asked the security guard to give it to you," Olivia replied, her voice low. "He said it was important."

Hazel opened it with shaking fingers.

Inside were three pages in Roman's handwriting, the words rushed and uneven.

“Hazel, I swear on my mother's life I never touched her. I hired a private investigator. The hotel manager finally admitted Mandy checked in alone. This may lead to something. Please give me one more chance.”

She folded the letter and threw it into the trash. Reeve had told her to stay away from this mess for the sake of her well being, he told her not to read her book backwards. Hazel closed her eyes for a moment.

"He was near the cafe you like," Olivia said after a moment. "The one on Fifth. You never told him you go there after work, right?"

"No," Hazel whispered. "I never told him."

At night, the intercom buzzed at eleven forty.

Hazel froze on the sofa when she heard his voice. It was slurred and raw, as though he had been drinking for hours.

"Hazel, open the door," Roman said, his breathing heavy against the speaker. "I know you're awake. Your light is on."

"Roman, you need to leave," she said into the intercom, her voice shook. "You are scaring me. Please leave."

"I wouldn't have to scare you if you would just listen," he pleaded, and then his voice cracked. "I brought proof. I brought the hotel receipt. Just open the door for five minutes, baby."

Hazel did not open the door. She knew the receipts were not enough, they would lead to nothing.

A second later, the hallway cameras she checked on her phone showed him outside her actual apartment door, not just the building entrance. He had followed someone. Hazel's eyes blew wide.

He started knocking softly at first, then pounder harder.

"Hazel," he yelled, his fist hitting the wood. "Please."

When she still did not answer, he tried the handle wildly.The handle jiggled.

Hazel's breath stopped.

"Roman, stop," she whispered through the door, her back pressed against the wall. "You can't come in."

"I just want to talk," he insisted, his voice rising. "You are my fiancée, Hazel. You were supposed to be my wife yesterday. You can't just erase three years and lock me out like a stranger. I refuse to let you go no matter what happened. OPEN UP!!!"

He hit the door with his shoulder and Hazel shook like a leaf. The hit on the door was hard enough that the frame shook and a picture on her wall rattled.

Hazel screamed. "Leave me alone!" she cried, tears streaming down her face as she slid to the floor with her knees pulled to her chest. "Please leave me alone!"

The door kept pounding relentlessly. That was when security arrived. Two guards pulled him away from the door while he kept shouting her name down the hallway.

"I love you! I am proving it, Hazel! I am proving that you're mine!"

Hazel stayed on the floor long after his voice faded, her whole body shaking so hard she could not stand.

The following morning, she went to the police station once again. She had been here twice in the past three weeks with no leads so far. Nobody was serious enough to listen to her.

She sat on a hard metal bench for forty minutes with a folder of screenshots clutched in her hands. Her eyes were swollen and her hair was still tied in the messy bun she had slept in.

When her name was finally called, the officer at the desk did not look up from his computer.

"Ms. Brooks, what can we do for you?" he asked.

"He came to my apartment drunk last night," Hazel said quietly, placing the printed messages on the desk. "He followed someone into the building, he tried to open my door, he hit it with his shoulder. He appears everywhere I go. Outside my office, near my apartment, even at a cafe I never told him I visited. He sends flowers, letters, and messages from different numbers."

The officer finally glanced at the papers, then at her face, then back at his screen.

"Did he physically assault you?" he asked.

"No, but—"

"Did he make a direct threat to your life? Did he say he would hurt you?"

Hazel swallowed hard.

"He said I still belong with him and that he will never stop coming for me. He said that while trying to force his way inside my apartment. I was terrified."

The officer typed something slowly.

"Ms. Brooks, I see Mr. Woods is the CEO of Woods Corporation," he said, his tone changing slightly. "Are you sure this is not just a bad breakup? Sometimes men have a hard time letting go. Have you tried talking to him calmly?"

"I reported this because I am scared," Hazel replied insisting, her eyes filling with tears despite every effort to remain composed. "He is scaring me."

The officer sighed and slid a form across the desk toward her.

"We can file a report for your record," he said. "But unless there is physical harm or a clear verbal threat to harm, there is very little we can do. Ms. Brooks. I would advise you to avoid provoking him."

Hazel stared at the officer first, then at the form, “p-provoking him?” Her hands were trembling so badly she could not hold the pen.

She figured that Roman’s attorneys had already called before she even arrived.

She left the station feeling smaller and more trapped than when she had entered.

By two o'clock she was sitting on the familiar gray sofa in Reeve's office. The tea he had given her sat untouched on the table and her knees were pulled tightly together as though she was trying to make herself smaller.

"He tried to break into my apartment last night," she repeated now infront of Dr.Reeve quietly, her voice hoarse. "He was drunk. He jiggled the handle, he hit the door with his shoulder. He kept shouting that I belong with him. The security had to remove him. I thought the door would break, Dr. Reeve. I really thought he would come inside."

Reeve listened without interrupting. His notebook remained closed on his lap.

"I went to the police this morning," Hazel continued, tears slipping down her cheeks. "They did nothing. They said unless he hurts me, they can't do anything. I know his lawyers had already called. His influence... nothing comes of it. I blocked him everywhere, but he appears anyway. He knows places I never told him I go. I no longer know how to make him stop."

Reeve leaned forward slightly, his elbows resting on his knees, something else flickered in his eyes when she cried.

"You did the right thing by coming here," he said quietly, his voice low and even. "You are safe here, Hazel. You know that, right?"

Hazel nodded quickly, wiping her tears.

"This office is the only place I feel safe anymore," she whispered.

A faint, almost invisible smile touched the corner of Reeve's mouth at her words.

"Have you noticed a pattern in his behavior?" he asked.

"What pattern?" Hazel asked.

"He does not accept rejection, but he does respect power," Reeve said, his tone patient and clinical again, although his eyes remained fixed on her. "He stopped calling when the wedding was still technically on, but he started again the moment you canceled it. He knows a fiancée can be won back. A single woman can be pursued."

Hazel frowned. "What are you saying?"

"I am saying that Roman may never accept a breakup," Reeve explained, his voice dropping slightly. "Men like him see a breakup as a negotiation. But he will eventually accept a marriage. Pursuing a married woman would destroy both his reputation and his company. His board would never allow it."

Hazel stared at him, her lips parting slightly.

"A marriage?" she whispered.

"A temporary one," Reeve clarified, watching her reaction closely. His expression was perfectly calm, but his fingers curled slightly against his knee, as though he was holding something back. "A legal arrangement, not an emotional one. Long enough to create a boundary the law and the press will respect. Long enough to make him understand you are truly gone and let you be."

The clock ticked loudly against the wall.

Hazel could hear her own uneven breathing.

"Are you saying I should marry someone else just to get rid of him?" she asked, her voice barely audible.

Reeve held her gaze.

"I am saying you have tried everything else," he replied calmly. "And you are no closer to peace than you were three weeks ago."

Hazel stared at Reeve in disbelief after he calmly asked, "Have you ever considered marrying someone else... just long enough to make him let go?”