Dear Diary,

It has been a big year for Abigail, Riley and I. For starters, Riley had gotten two new books published, based off the adventures that he had with Abigail and I. One of the two had even appeared #3 on the New York Times Reading Challenge. The other, sadly, got hardly enough reviews on newspapers and magazines to produce a threequil. Fortunately, Riley never gave up, and he has been writing and editing another book for months now. He, as well has Abigail and I, hope he will get a second chance.

Although, sadly, not everything that happened throughout the year had been good. Rileys girlfriend for six months had dumped him just a few days ago, and he hasn't seemed to have gotten over it yet. Sometimes he would just lock himself up in his room all day and not even answer to anyone when they called or even came up and knocked on the door. Once, I was so worried that I barged into the room without Riley's consent and found him sitting formalling on his bed and staring at the wall on the other side of the room. Everyone has been worried about him; but everyone also seems to have their own problems.

The third big thing for this year is the wedding. Yes, Abigail and I are engaged. Luckily, our wedding is almost fully prepared, and we have three months until the big day. Abigail has been fretting and worrying about everything from the colour of the flowers to the length of the lace on her gloves. She isn't the only one who is excited. Since the day that I got down on one knee and said my little speech about our time together with our future plans, and Abigail said yes, I have been smiling 24/7, no matter what annoyed me throughout the day.

Last but not least, me. I have had a tough year. Beside worrying about my younger colleague, and preparing for the year, I have had much more on my plate than the other two. Of course, they care about me, but they both seem to be caught up in their own perfect little world; forgetting that I even exists. Since I had been given the terrifying news of my inoperable cancer, I have been trying to live his life to the fullest – which, for me, is spending as much time with Abigail as I possibly can. The only problem is, she doesn't know about it, and she has grown suspicious. Even Riley has promised not to tell Abigail about my cancer, even if that means lying to her about how tired I looks in the morning. She had, unfortunately, over-dosed me with coffee in hopes that I would be more active and cheerful. Abigail sadly thinks the stress of the wedding has brought on my depression.

After all, we have had no signs of bad omens, according to Riley, so they're wishing and hoping for the best. All is well, for now.

- Ben

"No, no, NO!" Abigail screeched into her mobile phone. "Medium-dark pink flowers? I asked for light-medium maroon flowers!"

Ben rubbed his temples. He was starting to get a headache from all of this yelling, but he was in no position to tell Abigail to keep it down. He was undoubtly sure that it was her time of the month. He did not want to get on her bad side right now!

"I don't care if they look similar! Did I ask for similar? NO! I asked for them to be the exact same as I saw in the store last Monday. EXACTLY. THE SAME. Do you understand me?"

Riley sipped his cup of coffee and then poured some hot water into the coffee that he was preparing for Ben. "Why did I even accept the offer to live here…" He shook his head to himself and wondered. Of course; they needed him. Without him, who would make their morning coffee and eat their left-over pizza when they were full?

He actually enjoyed being their puppy; not only for the free pizza and rent.

He brought the two cups of coffee and carefully placed them on the table. "Here ya go, Ben."

Ben smiled and took a sip from his cup. He sighed.

"How can you say that? How dare you tell me to try a different colour! How do you know that I won't want to puke after seeing it?"

Riley motioned to Abigail that her coffee was on the table, and she quickly put her hand up as fast as lightning, telling him to wait.

Riley sighed and flopped on the couch next to Ben. "This is going to be a tough year."

Ben just nodded, sipping his coffee again and not saying anything.

Riley wondered if Ben regretted popping the question to Abigail. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just tired."

"Okay, if you say so."

"Ugh!" Abigail groaned loudly as she pressed "end" on her phone. To Riley, she sounded like a lion. He was starting to get scared of her.

"Abigail?"

"What?" Abigail snapped at Riley.

"Don't you think you're overreacting a little bit? I mean, they're only…"

"They're only flowers? ONLY FLOWERS?"

Riley was quite shocked that Abigail knew what he was going to say. Perhaps she knew that he was getting annoyed by her complaining.

"I want this wedding to be perfect! Why is everyone ruining it?"

There was a sound coming from outside.

"What the heck is that?" Abigail asked curiously.

"I'm pretty sure that's someone knocking on the door…" Ben sipped his coffee again.

They hardly got any visitors, so it was a very rare occasion to actually hear someone at the door.

"Is someone going to get it?" Abigail turned at Riley and Ben, who just stared back at her.

"It's your house." Riley shrugged.

"I'm tired…" Ben complained.

"I'm your fiancee!" Abigail said quietly, obviously quite hurt.

Ben sighed again and went to the door.

"You're waring him out, Abs." Riley shook his head.

"Oh, shut up, you!"

"Uhm, yes." Ben said to the two strangers at the door. They looked very… formal. Very elegant. This was also something that was unusual to the three. "He's here; yes."

"I think they're talking about you…" Abigail softly whispered and nudged Riley.

"Hello, Mr Poole." A woman with shoulder-length mahogany hair, who was dressed in black greeted him.

"Uhmm…" He bit his lip. What the heck was going on? "Hello…"

"We're agents for the FBI, and we ask you're permission for you to come with us for questioning," The woman told him.

"Marnie, you don't really believe that we need to ask permission for this type of thing, do you?" The man next to Marnie chuckled. "This is how we do it." The man lunged at Riley and pushed him up against a wall, hand-cuffing him before he even knew what was going on.

"Don't, Meg!" Marnie begged her partner. "You don't know if he's guilty yet."

Meg? Riley thought. I've never heard of that name for a guy.

"His fingerprints are all over the glass at the National Museum of Petrology!"

"The NationalMuseum of Petrology?" Riley muttered to himself. He had never heard of that place. "Is that in New Jersey?"

"Quiet, you!" Meg pushed Riley out the door, guiding him to the vehicle as Ben and Abigail watched knowingly.

"You see her hair?" Abigail whispered to Ben. When he nodded, Abigail told him, "I want my flowers to be that colour."

"I'm afraid you will have to attend the questioning, just in case you have anything to do with the burgulary." Marnie told them. She smiled fakely and tried to usher them outside of their mansion.

None of them knew anything about the burgulary, or about the museum.