Chapter 7 ARE YOU PRETENDING

Just then, Hazel got to his door with Vivian.

Hazel looked at Vivian, whose lips curved slightly upwards, like someone who has done something evil and this expression confirmed hazel's suspicion.

Her gaze went back to the Pheonix stone and under close inspection, she immediately noticed there was a problem with the stone. However she wasn't that sure but with the contract about to be signed, she need a way to stop it. After much thinking, she walked towards Ryan with a smile.

"Mr Ryan, your medicine is ready"

Luke quickly moved forward to stop her. "Miss, master Ryan is busy right now, please come back later", he said but Hazel ignored him and continued to move forward.

She accidentally dropped the tray in her hand and all the medicine spilled into the stone. Vivian was caught off guard by this sudden turn of events. She could not believe the poisoned medicine would be wasted on the stone and she quickly blame Hazel.

"Why are you so careless? Look, you've ruined master Ryan stone"

"I'm so sorry", Hazel said and quickly picked up a cloth and wiped the stone while apologizing to Ryan.

"I'm sorry, I got your stone wet. Let me clean it for you...oh, what's happening?? The color of the stone is fading!"

Ryan's gaze was fixed on Hazel. In fact, he had noticed her the moment she stood at the door.

The fragrance emanating from her was so strong that he could smell it even from three meters away. He observed her every move until now.

"Wait! Don't move", Luke noticed something was wrong. The color of the Phoenix stone was fading and the white tissue in Hazel's had turned brownish- green.

"Master Ryan, look, the Phoenix stone is artificially made. It's a fake one", Luke exclaimed and Ryan's mouth curled into a wicked smile. He slammed the table angrily, " How dare you cheat me with a fake Phoenix stone?? Are you tired of living??, He roared and they all shuddered in fear.

" Mr Ryan, it's not like that. We actually brought a Phoenix stone precisely the original one but it seems someone must have tampered with it. I mean, the original stone looks exactly the same as this", Mr Charles try to explain.

" Throw them out, confiscate the deposit and cancel the deal."

" Yes sir", Luke bowed and the business men were dragged roughly and thrown out.

In just a moment, everything changed. Vivian was stunned as her carefully planned trap failed miserably. Not only did it not harm Hazel but it seemed to have helped Ryan avoid business losses. She quietly slipped away unnoticed

Ryan stood up and slowly walked up to Hazel, scrutinizing her from head to toe. Before him stood a young beautiful woman with a light makeup, her tiny waist accentuated by her flowing gown. She's not only clever but also smart and intelligent.

He was pleased and smiled slightly.

"When did you realize that the stone was fake?", He questioned and Hazel blinked her watery eyes pretentiously.

"The stone is fake? I, I didn't know! I just accidentally spilled the medicine."

"Are you pretending??"

"No, no, I'm not pretending. I really didn't know. I'm sorry, I accidentally spilled your medicine. I'm afraid I'll have to prepare another one for you"

Ryan's curled up slightly as he looked at her with a glint in his eyes. He reached out to touch her delicate chin but she was quick and turned around, escaping from his office.

Ryan watched her back and felt a slight itch in his heart as if a feather was gently teasing him.

"Hmmm...sir, after investigating miss Hazel's background", Luke stated, " she's the eldest daughter of the Anderson's family and they have a family jade shop that has been prosperous in the past. However, in recent years, due to poor management, it has been struggling to survive"

"If she comes from a jade business background, she must definitely know about jade but why then is she pretending in front of me....this girl! What's she hiding??", Ryan creased his brow.

"Master, don't forget...the new bride who married in cannot stay for long. This has been the rule from onset", Luke reminded him but Ryan's eyes didn't agree to that.

"Don't you think she's more interesting than other women? Let her stay, I want to see what other tricks she has up to her sleeve!"

Luke face was quite worried. Master Ryan is playing with fire again.

After leaving the office, Hazel hurried back to her large bedroom. In the bowl on the tray, there was still half a bowl of unspilled medicine. She took out the olden days carved silver hairpin from the drawer and dipped it into the remaining medicine for few seconds. When she took it out, the end of the hairpin had turned black.

As she had suspected, someone had poisoned the medicine.

(...story continues)