We Will Love Again – Episode 18
Alaina faced Noah across his temporary office, caught between two impossible choices. Refusing an introduction would deepen his suspicion; arranging one would place the truth within his reach.
“Peter lives his own life,” she said. “I’m not summoning him so you can interrogate him about a relationship that ended years ago.”
Noah came around the desk. “You said your personal life wasn’t relevant. Yet every time I mention him, you act as if I’m approaching a state secret.”
“Because you’re using company resources to investigate a private citizen.” Anger gave her courage. “You wanted to punish me, Noah. Congratulations. You have. When will it be enough?”
The use of his first name struck through him. Beneath her frustration, he heard genuine exhaustion. Revenge had once looked clean from a distance; up close, it had become a series of injuries neither of them could explain.
“It will be enough when your story makes sense.” He lowered his voice. “You left me for money, but you don’t have money. You chose Peter, but you didn’t marry him. You despised my ring, but you kept it.”
Alaina’s eyes brightened before she looked away. “People are allowed to make mistakes.”
“Which part was the mistake?” he asked. “Leaving me—or keeping the ring?”
A knock interrupted before she could answer. Aaron entered with a folder and paused at the tension between them. “I have the background report you requested.”
Alaina’s face hardened. “You actually did it.” Disappointment landed more heavily than outrage. The young man she loved had respected her even when they disagreed; the billionaire before her treated privacy as an obstacle money could remove.
Noah accepted the folder but did not open it. “You can go.”
Alaina walked out without another word. Through the glass wall, he watched her return to the small desk he had assigned her, shoulders rigid beneath the weight of humiliation.
“You should know,” Aaron said quietly, “there’s no evidence Peter and Alaina were ever a couple.”
Noah looked down at the folder. “Absence of evidence doesn’t prove anything.”
“Maybe. But he moved to Seattle less than a month after your breakup. Alaina stayed home with her mother. Different addresses, different lives, no shared accounts, no social history.”
Each fact removed another support from the memory Noah had trusted. The sports car remained real. The intimacy he assumed between its passengers did not.
“There’s something else,” Aaron added. “Peter returned to town several times while Alaina’s mother was ill. Hospital visitor records list him as a family friend.”
Noah opened the report. Peter had not carried Alaina into a life of luxury. He had visited a hospital while she remained exactly where Noah had once wanted to stay beside her.
“Set up a meeting,” Noah ordered. His voice was controlled, but the page trembled faintly beneath his hand.
Aaron hesitated. “I already reached him. Peter agreed on one condition.” Noah looked up. “He’ll speak to you only if Alaina is in the room.”
