Page 80 of Reclaiming Love

“I had no idea he would tape it…”

Noah kept his voice steady and looked her straight in the eyes. “He’s a bastard. And I can’t believe I live with him.”

“That day when I broke into his room and found the photos, the ones he’d told me he’d deleted, I took them all and copied them to my memory stick. I wasn’t thinking straight; I kind of figured I needed to have them maybe as proof of what he’d done if it ever came to it. But I gave that memory stick to my boss by accident.”

Surprise jerked his whole body. “Your boss saw it?”

Melissa hung her head in shame. When she looked up, her lower lip trembled.

“What happened?”

“She said we couldn’t let him get away with it. But she didn’t want me to have to show my images as proof of what he did.”

He nodded in agreement. Her boss seemed to have Melissa’s best interests at heart.

“He doesn’t even know yet, that Nadine knows,” said Melissa.

He doesn’t yet know what I’ve done to his files,thought Noah. Soon enough Matt Elliott was going to get back exactly what he deserved. Noah looked forward to that moment with glee. He blew out a soft breath, stroked her cheek with his thumb. “That’s why your boss sent you home early?”

Melissa nodded.

“I’m sorry for what he did to you. I wish I could make it better for you. I wish I could have walked through that door before he made you do it.”

“None of that can be changed now.”

“Can’t it?” he asked.

She looked at him puzzled.

He sat back, taking his hands away, putting a little distance between them. “I wrote some code that will mess up his multi-media files,” he confessed proudly.

The frown on her face deepened. “You did what?”

“I created a program that will infect all of his images and movies—tonight, while he’s sleeping. I would have already done it but I figured it was best to do it while he slept, you know, as a way of reducing suspicion.”

“When did you do that?” she asked, her voice quiet.

“Earlier this afternoon.”

“Why would you do that?” He could see her connecting the dots slowly, her suspicions already aroused. “Why would you delete his movie files?”

She knew.

Noah looked away. “Because I saw the footage.”

She gasped, her hand on her chest. “You saw that?”

He shifted his gaze to her and nodded. She stared down at her hands, and that was when he leaned over and put his arms around her. The fresh smell of her hair, and the lemony smell of her, so soft, and pliant, and warm, made him want to stay like this.

She pulled away first, clearly not wanting to talk about it. “He’ll go crazy when he finds out.”

“He won’t.”

They still held hands, even as she knelt back to sit on her heels. “He’s not stupid.”

“Neither am I,” Noah told her.

“I wish I could erase that footage from your mind,” she said quietly.

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