Chapter 25：The Boy Who Cried Wolf

After the marshmallow roasting incident, Will couldn't sleep. Instead he stared at his beautiful wife in the darkness as she curled up facing away from him. All of this effort to get her here and she still didn't trust him.

He should have done more to Billy Lawson than have some of his subordinates down in L.A. travel up to Las Vegas to teach him a lesson. The man was still in the hospital with three different fractures and a concussion. He deserved it.

Even though Will orchestrated the entire cheating incident Billy wouldn't have fallen into the trap if he hadn't been a cheater at heart. If he truly loved Hazel, he would have avoided the temptation.

After feeling secure enough financially to come back for Hazel and keep his promise to travel the world with her the last thing he had expected was to see her in a relationship with another man. Minimal surveillance revealed the truth of the matter.

Seeing her grown up and happy had been wonderful until he realized she was only happy because of a lie. She was happy because she thought it was him.

Honestly, Will might have been willing to go a little easier on Billy Lawson if not for that. If Hazel had truly been in love with someone else he would have had to figure out a different plan. But he couldn't allow her to go on without knowing the truth.

It had been too easy. All he had to do was get one of his people down in L.A. to pretend to be interested. She threw herself at Lawson and he took the bait instantly. He even arranged for the woman to be in Las Vegas the day before Hazel was supposed to be married.

Everything was planned down to the last detail except Hazel's impulsive decision to stand up on a table and announce that she would marry anyone who would take her. Will panicked for a moment, thinking someone would take her up on that offer.

Didn't she know how many sick or dangerous people there were in the world? He did better than most since he was technically one of them. But he posed no threat to the woman he loved. He would do anything for Hazel, anything at all.

He had to act fast in order to prevent her from falling prey to someone else. But pretending he didn't know her had been more difficult than he thought. Especially since he had been dreaming of the moment she would finally be his for most of his life.

Will wanted to hold her tightly and never let go but that wouldn't work with how paranoid she was being about his kindness towards her. Of course he was being kind. She was the only person in this world he actually cared about.

He would be as kind and patient and loving as necessary until she was in too deep to ever leave. He needed her to need him the way she did when they were younger and she couldn't speak. Back then, Hazel had looked at him with the same awe she reserved for the moon.

It had taken all of his willpower not to kiss her senseless when he saw her pick out that crescent moon ring. The moon was how they officially met all those years ago. In all the time they were apart, Will thought of her every time he saw it hanging in the sky.

But he couldn't be reckless. Hazel seemed to be under the impression that this marriage was temporary. That he was simply doing her a favor until she could figure out what to do next after her breakup.

"Dream on, my love," he chuckled to himself.

She wouldn't be getting away from him a third time. Not after how much effort he had put into being able to give her the life she deserved.

Will never truly lost track of her. He knew she ended up with her lousy uncle and that she went to art school. That was how he knew exactly where to find her when he went looking and found her happily walking down the street with that scumbag Billy Lawson.

He should have paid more attention during their years apart. If he had, she never would have ended up in that liar's clutches in the first place.

But he supposed in a way he owed Lawson. Since Hazel was about to marry the man thinking he was Will, it proved to him that she hadn't forgotten their promise. She was still in love with him.

Unfortunately, he couldn't exactly say "Hey Hazel, guess what, it's me, Billy." She wouldn't buy it after what just went down. Having already been lied to, she would be like the villagers in the old folk tale 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf' and not believe him.

Will had to win over her heart as someone else first before he told her the truth. How happy would she be to discover he had come back for her after all? Or on the flip side, how angry would she be that he hadn't come sooner and prevented her from meeting the fake Billy?

He was confident that he could get her to fall in love with him again. He had done it once already when they were children and she had never forgotten him.

Hazel was a simple person. She loved her art more than anything else. So long as he supported her in that and made sure she was comfortable around him as her friend it would be a piece of cake to win her over. He just needed more time.

Hazel, Hazel, Hazel. She had consumed his thoughts since the day he first saw her. He would never forget that angelic smile or how the sunshine made her blonde hair look like a halo. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

Will knew then that he had to marry her someday and now he had. All he had to do now was make sure she would never want to leave.