We Will Love Again – Episode 24
Alaina stared at the security report in Joey’s hand. The message showed her address, her login, and a timestamp from minutes earlier. Every visible detail accused her.
“I didn’t send anything.” She moved toward her desk, but Joey blocked her path. “My computer was locked while I spoke with Mrs. Preston.”
“Your credentials were used,” Joey snapped. “Do you understand what this could cost us?”
Abigale folded her arms. “She’s been distracted ever since Mr. Preston arrived. Maybe she decided to sell the information before the acquisition eliminated her job.”
The suggestion was cruel enough to sound plausible to frightened employees. Evonne added that she had seen Alaina near the restricted files earlier that morning.
Noah looked at Alaina. Weeks ago, he might have accepted the evidence because it matched the woman he believed her to be. Now he saw the same pattern that surrounded her late arrival: accusation, convenient witnesses, and no benefit to Alaina.
“Nobody touches her computer,” he ordered. “Aaron, preserve the access logs and security footage.”
Joey blinked. “Shouldn’t we suspend her?”
“Not before an investigation.” Noah’s gaze swept across the room. “Triple AI does not convict employees through office gossip.”
Alaina heard more than corporate policy. For the first time since his return, Noah had chosen to believe her before she could prove herself.
Aaron examined the workstation while the staff waited. The email originated from Alaina’s account, but the login had been routed through another device on the internal network.
“Someone cloned her active session,” he explained. “This wasn’t sent from her computer.”
Abigale’s confidence faltered. Noah noticed. “Check every device,” he said. “And nobody leaves the building.”
Evonne protested that they had meetings, but security sealed the exits until the review was complete. Joey paced while his carefully managed company exposed fractures he had ignored.
Alaina stood apart from the others. “You didn’t have to defend me,” she told Noah quietly.
“I defended the evidence.” His answer was restrained, but their eyes held. “Don’t make it into something else.”
Aaron returned with the device identifier. The leak had been sent from a tablet assigned to Abigale, though she insisted anyone could have used it.
Noah ordered a formal inquiry and revoked her access. He did not enjoy Alaina’s vindication; he was furious that he had once treated the same woman with equally careless suspicion.
While collecting the leaked attachments, Aaron found a second document hidden among them. It was not corporate material but a scanned financial statement retrieved from Alaina’s personnel folder.
The page listed years of hospital debt, payments continuing long after her mother’s death, and no deposits from Peter or any wealthy partner. Noah read the numbers in silence.
At the bottom was the date Alaina’s mother died—three weeks after Noah left for Oxford. He looked at Alaina across the office and realized she had endured the funeral and the debt alone while he was learning to hate her.
