We Will Love Again – Episode 12
By afternoon, Alaina’s belongings had been moved to a small desk outside the office Crazy Maple had prepared for Noah. Her coworkers passed often enough to make their satisfaction impossible to miss.
To them, she had been demoted from senior writer to billionaire’s assistant. To Alaina, the real punishment was proximity. Every time Noah opened his door, she caught the scent of his cologne and remembered a younger man who could afford none.
He kept her moving. She assembled reports, revised schedules, fetched documents, and answered questions Aaron could have handled more efficiently. Noah framed every demand as part of the acquisition.
Alaina complied without complaint. The steadiness frustrated him. He wanted some flash of the woman who had once dismissed him, proof that his memory had not been built around a stranger.
At lunch, Abigale handed Alaina a list of drinks for the team. “Since you’re doing errands now.” Several names had complicated alterations, chosen to delay her.
When Alaina returned, Noah was waiting beside her empty desk. “I asked for the licensing files twenty minutes ago.”
“I was sent for coffee.” She set down the carrier, breathing hard from the rush. “I didn’t receive your message until I was downstairs.”
Abigale approached with concern. “I told her Mr. Preston was waiting, but she insisted the coffee came first.” The lie was small enough to sound believable.
Noah looked at Alaina. Five years ago, she had deceived him without faltering. He told himself that history justified every doubt. “My requests take priority.”
“Understood.” Alaina retrieved the files without defending herself. Her silence disturbed him more than an argument would have.
Later, Noah found her correcting a production budget that had been miscalculated by someone else. “Is this part of your job too?” he asked.
“It becomes my job when nobody else fixes it.” Alaina continued working. She did not mention that an error of this size could cost a junior employee her position.
Noah studied her bent head. Nothing about this woman resembled the social climber who had left him for Peter. Even her refusal to complain looked less like pride than habit.
“You could have had a different life,” he said. The words carried more meaning than the budget between them.
Alaina’s hand paused. “We all live with our choices.” She had chosen her mother’s final years and Noah’s freedom. She would make the same choice again, even knowing how much it would hurt.
“Do you?” His voice hardened. “Live with them, I mean. Or do you simply run whenever the consequences arrive?”
She looked up at last. “I stayed exactly where I was needed.” It was the closest she had come to revealing the truth, and fear followed immediately.
Before Noah could press her, Aaron entered with the revised evaluation calendar. The review would require late nights for the next several weeks, and Noah approved it without looking away from Alaina.
At the end of the day, he gave her access to a private number reserved for senior staff. “If I call, you answer. It doesn’t matter what time it is.”
Alaina accepted the card and slipped it into her bag. Hours later, long after she had fallen asleep, her phone lit the darkness with Noah’s name—and the clock read 1:07 a.m.
