Chapter 1 A Chance Encounter

The sun cast a golden hue over the sprawling gardens of the Sinclair estate, where elegantly dressed guests mingled under billowing white tents. Crystal chandeliers hung from the trees, casting a mesmerizing dance of light across the lush surroundings. It was a scene straight out of a fairy tale, a realm of affluence and opulence that whispered promises of dreams come true.

In the heart of this enchanting spectacle stood Yazmin Collymore, her eyes aglow with a mix of awe and anticipation. Her long, raven-black hair cascaded down her back. She had a pair of piercing sapphire eyes, as deep and mesmerizing as the ocean. She was indeed pretty, wearing a short black sleeveless gown with heels.

Although it wasn't Yazmin's wedding, she was sure she was way more happy then the bride herself. Why shouldn't she be? This was the one wedding planning gig that could change her life.

She had planned many celebrity weddings but the Sinclairs were powerful and influencial which had made her sometimes wonder why their only son would be getting married to a nobody like Freya Hugnes.

Freya was from a humble background and the bride to be married into the Sinclair family, Yasmin had only met her once. She had tried her best to impress Freya the first time they had met for a wedding dress fitting but the bride never really showed much of a reaction. Yazmin had seen the longing in her eyes, like she wanted to be somewhere else and with someone else, doing something else.

Yazmin had asked her why she had that kind of look on and why she never for once smiled during the dress fitting and Freya had told her she was just conflicted. Yazmin had told her to follow her heart, because it didn't matter what others thought. Freya's wedding was going to change her fortune for good and that was all that mattered.

As she discreetly navigated through the crowd, her mind raced back to the early days when her father's tragic accident had shattered her world. He had died from a car accident six years ago and they had ended up losing all his properties to Yazmin's greedy uncle, Dean Collymore.

After that, Yazmin and her mother and sister had to move to a very tiny apartment. Struggling to make ends meet, Yazmin had picked up shifts at different places for years until she finally got drawn into the world of wedding planning by a friend. And so far, she had been doing great, unless something goes wrong at this wedding. It would be the end of her career.

"Yaz!" She heard someone call her name among the crowd. She slowly turned to the direction and she was surprised to see Molly, her best friend who she had begged to attend the wedding but had declined because she said rich people disgusted her.

"Hey! You came?" Yazmin's voice rang out in excitement as she held Molly's hands.

Molly smiled at her and Yazmin could feel that familiar comfort in her smile. Molly's smile was enough to light up a room and that smile had led her to be voted 'Most likely to marry a billionaire' in their high school year book. Besides that, she was a beauty to behold.

Yazmin watched Molly bring out a pair of glasses from her her bag. She smiled as she handed it over to her, "I came to drop it off, your mum said you would need it" she said.

Yazmin collected it from her and examined it, she had expected it to be broken because it had been missing for a few days but as usual, her mom had found it.

Yazmin's lips curled into a smile, "Thanks, Molly. Where did mum find it? I've been looking all over for it,"

"In a big bag in your kitchen, I think," Molly replied, exchanging glances with her.

"You mean 'the bag of multiple stuffs'?" She asked almost bursting into a laugh.

Yazmin's mother had this bag in the kitchen that had been there since they moved in. Yazmin and her little sister Janelle had always called it 'the bag of multiple stuffs' because the bag seemed to always have everything, even stuffs they didn't need. Their tiny apartment itself, contained a lot of stuffs they didn't need.

It hadn't always been like that, full of junk and unnecessary items. When they moved in five years ago, it actually looked pretty normal-a tiny apartment with a little clutter, nothing out of the ordinary.

But after Yazmin's mom was diagnosed with cancer two years ago, Yazmin's mom started not being able to let go of things. That would mean it started two years ago. Since then the problem had only gotten worse. They had hoped it would stop after her cancer had miraculously disappeared months ago but it never stopped.

Yazmin and her sister had to move all the unnecessary stuffs to their basement when the house could no longer take the load. Now, their basement was fillled floor to ceiling with stuffs. Stacks of plastic bins, filled with old papers and receipts and clothes they no longer used and toys and tangled jewelry and journals and Christmas decorations and old candy bar wrappers and expired makeup and empty shampoo bottles and broken mug pieces in Ziploc bags.

Sometimes, Yazmin would fantasize about them moving to another house. Then they'd have to pack up the stuff they wanted to take with them into moving boxes. And if they had to pack stuffs into moving boxes, that meant they'd have to sort through all the stuffs in the house and get rid of some of it. And that sounded wonderful.

Yazmin had already found the perfect house, all that was left was for the wedding to come to an end and for her to receive her huge paycheck.

Molly tapped her, jilting her back from her thoughts, "I have a very important appointment, I gotta go now" she said and stormed off before Yazmin could say anything.

Yazmin sighed as she watched Molly disappear into the crowd. She glanced at her wristwatch, ten more minutes before the wedding started.

As she made her way through the crowd into the VIP lounge, she couldn't help but think how lucky Freya was. She was getting married into the Sinclair family, the most influential family in the whole of North Carolina. Even Sin City was named after the Sinclairs. She couldn't help but think how happy Freya would be once she got married.

Although, she had heard rumors that Freya's groom, the only son of the Sinclair family was cold and heartless, she had dismissed it as a mere rumor from their rivals. Rumors also had it that he was ridiculously hot. Yazmin hadn't met him even once and she wasn't looking forward to it either.

She stood in front of the door that read, "VIP Dressing room". She slowly knocked, once, twice, but there was no response. Slowly, she tilted the door knob and it opened easily revealing an empty dressing room.

Yazmin stepped into the room, her eyes scanning every corner for Freya. She was nowhere in sight. She felt her heart slowly start to race but she reassured herself that Freya probably stepped out for fresh air.

But as Yazmin turned to leave, something on the dressing table stole her attention – a plain white paper, lying there as if waiting to be seen. Yazmin's instincts, honed by curiosity, walked to the table and grabbed the paper.

As her eyes blurred thorough the words on the plain sheet, Yazmin felt a lump come to her throat. She held her breath, going through the words again, she read out:

"Yazmin, I had to do this. I don't want to get married to Blaine Sinclair. I love someone else and I thought I could be able to get more money off Blaine if I married him. But your advice for me to follow my heart gave me a change of heart. I'm sorry I had to run away. Thanks for your help, Yaz"

The fragment of advice Yazmin had offered to Freya the other day echoed in her mind, a well-intentioned nugget of wisdom that had inadvertently altered the course of the day.

With a heart pounding, Yazmin could see her world crumbling down. A realization struck her like a lightning bolt, in that moment, the world around her seemed to blur as a singular thought crystallized – the Sinclair wedding, the apex of her career, teetered on the edge of disaster.

As the loud wedding bells rang, Yazmin's determination hardened. She couldn't let this be her legacy – a shattered dream, a reputation tarnished. With a resolve as unyielding as her father's spirit, Yazmin took a step forward, ready to alter the trajectory of fate and save the day.

Little did she know, this step would plunge her into a world of complexities and challenges beyond anything she could have imagined, setting in motion a series of events that would forever intertwine her destiny with that of a cold and enigmatic billionaire.