15. Hazel

Chapter 15

Hazel

Y esterday was a strange day for many reasons. Not only did Ian and I make it through an entire day without decapitating each but I actually kind of enjoyed being around him. It left me with an odd feeling in my stomach. And since I didn’t know what to do with it, I chose to just ignore it.

Whatever was growing between Ian and I could never be allowed to come to light. I was probably only feeling this way because I was spending more time with him than usual. It was affecting my ability to reason the way I normally did. Normal me would never find Ian sexy just because he reversed a car.

Normal me would never find him sexy at all.

“Maybe the stress from Emily’s case was weighing down on me more than I thought,” I said out loud as I massaged my temples. “Speaking of Emily…”

I reached for the wedding ring that sat on my bedside table. I still thought it was a waste of time but there was nothing to lose by looking into it. Maybe Ian was right. Maybe we might find something new.

That was the fourth time I was admitting to Ian being right. It wasn’t a lot, but it was certainly a lot more than usual. On any other day, I would never admit he was right even if he was.

I grabbed my laptop from the table and walked into the living room. After pouring myself a glass of orange juice, I sat on my couch and began my deep dive into Emily’s life. I’d searched before but maybe it would be different now that I knew exactly what I was looking for. I was looking for details on a possible husband which at least helped me know where to look.

I started on social media platforms, looking through as many as I could find to see if Emily changed her name at any point. Two hours and four glasses of juice later, I finally found something.

It was a post made by one of Emily’s old schoolmates. They went to high school together, and the woman shared a picture of their yearbook, laughing at the silly final words they’d all written. She also tagged Emily to the post which was how I was able to find it.

The name there was Emily Myers, but the name Olivia gave me was Emily Warren. It proved that Emily had changed her name at some point in her life, but it didn’t prove that she’d done it because she got married. Maybe she simply chose to adopt another name. It could be her mother’s maiden name or something.

I continued my search but this time I was looking for Emily Myers. That was the name Emily had when she was in high school. The search opened up a can of worms and before long I’d discovered something crucial to the case.

Emily was married. I found a post congratulating her on her marriage to a man named Fred. A deeper dive into the account tagged on the post revealed that Fred’s last name was Warren. She and Fred were married, and they’d been married for at least three years.

How did I not know this?

I opened Emily’s social media page again and scrolled as far back as three years. I hadn't come this far in my last search because I thought there wouldn’t be anything relevant here. Now that I knew when she got married, I knew I needed to go deeper into her timeline. And then I saw it.

A wedding photo.

I immediately recognized Olivia. And even though I’d only seen Emily in photos, I was able to recognize her too. They both looked younger here. The brown-haired man who held onto Emily looked thrilled. It was as if he couldn’t believe his good fortune.

I zoomed in on the picture so I could see Emily’s ring better. The image became blurry but there was no doubt about it, this was the same ring we’d found in the hotel room. I grabbed the ring and held it up against my laptop screen so I could compare. It was definitely the same ring. The diamonds were located in the same place.

“Ian was right,” I muttered, making it the fifth time I’d admitted that in one week.

I kept scrolling through Emily’s page. I found it strange that her most recent posts made no mention of a husband. Anyone who checked her page wouldn’t know she was married unless they scrolled down a few years. Why would she do that?

Something might have gone wrong between them. They may be separated, which would explain why there are only a few traces of Fred on Emily’s page. I looked at their wedding picture again. They seemed so happy. It was hard to imagine their relationship might be over.

Still, I knew that marriages weren’t easy. Several things could have made them split up.

I scrolled up from the wedding post and took my time reading each post after that. I was trying to figure out if there was a deeper meaning to any of her posts. Things seemed perfectly blissful until eight months ago when Emily started posting about never truly knowing someone.

It wasn’t hard to link that to her husband. She was likely talking about him. Her posts were cryptic, but the underlying meaning was clear. Fred had betrayed her trust. After a while, she stopped posting about it altogether.

Then I saw a post that she captioned, Finally free. I assumed that was when her relationship with Fred truly ended. Maybe she filed for a divorce. From Emily’s remaining posts, it seemed like she’d moved on but something didn’t add up.

Why would a divorced woman still carry her wedding ring around, especially when she was traveling to a different state? Why bring it with her?

Was she still attached to it, attached to Fred? They were married for three years, and who knows how long they dated before that. It would be understandable if she was still attached to him.

Another part that didn’t make sense to me was how I didn’t find any of this during my initial investigation into Emily’s life. I realized that I didn’t find it because I wasn’t looking for it. I would have never looked for it if Ian didn’t encourage me to.

This was the first real break in the case, and it was all thanks to him.

I didn’t have time to dwell on my newfound appreciation for Ian because something else came to mind. Olivia knew about Emily’s marriage to Fred. She was there at the wedding, smiling with them. But when I interviewed her, she didn’t mention a husband. I asked about it and she said they weren’t married. If Emily was divorced, then technically Olivia didn’t lie because Emily wasn’t married.

Still, a husband was the type of thing you mentioned when being asked about your missing friend. Why did Olivia not say anything about it?

It was all so strange, and my mind was racing with possibilities. I needed to share this with someone and the only person I could think of was Ian. We were working on this together and I wouldn’t have made this breakthrough without him.

I dialed his number and waited for him to pick up.

“Hazel?”

“Hi, I didn’t know you had my number,” I said.

“I didn’t know you had mine.”

“Jade gave it to me,” we said in unison and laughter followed.

I spoke first. “I have something that I have to tell you. It’s about Emily. Can we meet at Stacey’s?”

“Sure. What time?”

“In about…” I paused to check the time. “…thirty minutes.”

“All right, I’ll be there.”

I knew he was already heading out now. Disgustingly punctual as always. I shut my laptop and got ready to leave.

As expected, Ian was already there when I got to Stacey’s bakery. “Are you always on time?” I asked.

“Are you always late?”

I checked my watch. “We agreed on thirty minutes so I’m only one minute late.”

“Late is late.”

“Whatever.”

“You two are back again,” Stacey said as she walked up to us. “Is this becoming a regular thing? Should I reserve this table for you two every day? Do you want a nice little lovebird special?”

“Please ignore her. That’s what I plan to do,” I said while turning away from Stacey.

Ian didn’t take my advice. “What does the lovebird special entail?”

“I’m so glad you asked that, sir. The lovebird special, as the name implies, is a special dessert we prepare to bring lovers closer to a—”

I interrupted her before she could finish that sentence. “Please go away. Don’t you have a pastry shop to run?”

“I love my pastry shop but messing with you is way more fun.”

Despite what she said, Stacey left us. I turned to Ian, and I saw that he was laughing. “I’m glad you find this funny.”

“I do.”

“Anyway, I found something. Something big.”

Ian instantly sobered up. “What is it?”

“Emily is… or was married.”

“What?”

I told him everything. From how I discovered Emily had changed her name and how I found the post that revealed her husband’s name was Fred. I also told him about the wedding photo I saw where I confirmed that the ring belonged to Emily. I told him that Olivia was in the photo which meant she knew about the marriage but she conveniently left it out when I spoke to her. I included details about the cryptic posts Emily made and why I think they hint at her divorce.

It took a while before Ian said again. He had this look on his face that told me he was thinking deeply about something. “Wow, that’s a lot.”

“I know.”

“So, Emily was married.”

“She might still be married, actually. She had the wedding ring with her, and she hasn’t changed her name so it’s possible. I only made assumptions based on the posts.”

“Hm. What about this Fred guy? Anything on him?”

I shook my head. “Not really. There are no posts on his social media pages. Not a single one.”

Ian blew out a breath. “That’s tough. I thought this…”

His voice trailed off and his eyebrows drew together. I saw the moment when raw anger shot through him. His green eyes turned from calm to lethal and his mouth was set in a grim line. Ian sprung to his feet.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

He didn’t answer me. He just walked to the table in the corner and grabbed a random man by his arm, yanking him out of the booth and nearly lifting the small man off the ground.

“Hey! What the hell are you doing?” the man asked.

Ian reached inside the booth and brought out a camera. “I’m reclaiming my privacy. What right do you have to come in here and take pictures of me? I’m not some display at a museum!”

“I can do whatever I want with my own damn camera!”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah! You can’t control what people do.” The man sounded confident, but I could see the fear in his eyes. I could also tell from the small winces he let out that Ian was crushing his arm.

“Then maybe I should just break the camera. If I can't control you, I can at least control this.”

Ian lifted the camera, and he was about to throw it on the ground when I spoke up. “Ian, no! Don’t break his camera. It will only give him something against you. It’s not worth it. He’s not worth it.”

“You should listen to your little girlfriend. She clearly has the—”

He stopped talking when Ian increased the pressure on his arm. His words were quickly replaced with groans. Ian sighed and released him. Then he tossed his camera to him. “Get out.”

“This is a public place. I can—” “Get. Out.”

Ian didn’t need to say it again.