Page 64 of Reclaiming Love

“Keep a look out in that direction in case he comes back early.” Melissa pointed to her right, towards the street, knowing his jogging route well by now. “He’ll come from that way. The minute you see him, you call me but that’s only in an emergency, if he comes back early. I’ll be back well before he shows up.” She took a hold of Heather’s shoulders. “Stay alert—no getting distracted by your cell.”

Heather looked as though she was going to throw up. “You don’t have to do this, Melissa. Whatever it is he has of yours, shouldn’t you just ask for it back?” It was a late, last minute plea by Heather to drum sense into her. “Or tell the police?” Heather looked panicked. “I don’t understand why you’re doing this.”

“I’ll be fine. Try not to be so scared.” Melissa tried to reassure her. She couldn’t believe it herself that she was doing this anymore than Heather was. But Heather wasn’t the one with a sordid recording of hers lying around for Matt to hold against her as a threat. “I have to do this. I’ve got no choice.” What would she tell anyone? Who would she tell? Nadine? The head of IT? The police? It wasn’t serious enough for her to go that route. And yet it wasn’t something she wanted anyone to ever find out about. Especially not her parents or anyone at work.

Heather looked weak, as if she’d bolt at any second if she had a chance.

Melissa squeezed her friend’s shoulder as if trying to gain some conviction herself. “It’ll all be over before you know it.”

And with that Melissa hurried across the road and disappeared through the main door to his apartment block. Soon she was in his hallway, heading toward the apartment door. The urge to turn around and go home was strong, but she forced herself to move forward. It was now or never.

When the door opened, her heart stopped. Until the other guy, whose name she couldn’t remember, came out. “Hi.” He smiled and rushed past her, leaving the door for her, not thinking anything of it.

Pure, miraculous luck.

She breathed a sigh of relief. So far so good. Filled with boundless energy, she scurried into the apartment and, seeing that the coast was clear, she tiptoed to his room.

The only sound to be heard was the beating of her heart.

Melissa felt a sense of dread as she stepped once more into the tawdry room where he’d used her. Solid as steel, she blocked the images of that last day from her mind and focused on the laptop which lay on his desk, as expected, facing the bed. She stole upon it, and moved the mouse. Then nearly fainted when it asked for a password. She closed her eyes, trying to remember. She’d barely caught the last few letters the other day.

Ah.

It was worth a try. She typed MELISSA.

And got in.

She glanced at her watch quickly. Ten minutes had shunted by. She wanted to be out of here in another ten, to avoid the risk of bumping into him.

Frantically, she searched through the file folders, her legs restless, her heart going ninety. She worked her way through the directories and looked through the most recently used files and folders.

There were a lot of images here. She couldn’t help but look through them. And her breath hitched in her throat. Images of other girls stared back at her. Girls like her, past girlfriends perhaps? Their poses were similar, and they were in similar stages of undress, posing provocatively. Some were worse, but unlike her, many of these girls seemed to be smiling. She moved on fast, pointing and clicking the mouse with frenzied madness, even as she rushed through some photos that almost bordered on pornographic.

She stopped, went back to a photo she’d closed. She recognized the girl as someone who worked at the Zimmerman Group too. Melissa paused, felt her chest tighten as she glimpsed more photos of this girl who was almost naked in some of them, and seemed happy about it too. She swallowed, feeling sick to her stomach. Even though the girls in the photos looked happy, she felt wrong for seeing their intimate images when she had no right to.

She immediately closed the photos and moved on, speeding up as she searched frantically for hers. She didn’t dare look at her watch, now relying on Heather’s call if there was trouble. She still hadn’t found anything of hers and she wasn’t leaving until she did.

There were no names on the folders, only some sort of coding system. And then she realized they were dates. She quickly hovered over the folders, looking for something named appropriately for the past few months.

And then she came across it. A folder full of her images.

They were the same images she’d seen him delete that last time.

Perplexed, she looked through them all. She’d seen him delete them. She’d stood by his shoulder and watched him delete them, before he’d made her…

Tears started to fall down her face as she stared at images of her staring back at her. He obviously had a backup somewhere.

Then her eyes fell on a different file. A movie file. Her hairs prickled along her arm as she tentatively clicked on the file.

He’d filmed her...with him…that last time. She stared at the ghost of her lying on the bed, tears streaming down her cheeks as he moved over her. She’d turned her head that day, and she’d been facing the laptop.

The camera was here somewhere…she froze in place…was he filming her now? Would he know she’d been here? Did he have it switched on all the time? Or only for “performances”? Panic poured over her and she quickly copied the entire folder to her memory stick.

Pull yourself together.

Then she deleted it from his laptop. Remembering, she emptied the recycle bin on his computer. She noticed he had a few external devices connected, a USB stick for one and a couple of other external drives. His whole desk was a jumbled mess of wires and cables and all sorts of hardware boxes of all sizes lying haphazardly around. She wouldn’t have the time to go through everything—and she wouldn’t be able to come back. Nor did she intend to.

Just then her cell phone vibrated. “He’s on his way back. Get out.” Heather was hysterical. Melissa glanced at her watch and her heart leapt. She’d been here longer than she should have.

She looked around, and her gaze fell upon a pile of CDs lying on his desk. She had no time to check through them now. So she took them. Slipping them into her blouse, she shivered as the rectangular plastic box smacked cold against her bare skin.

She leapt from the room and quickly scuffled along the hallway, her heartbeat racing like a rocket on takeoff. Her eyes fixed on the front door ahead. A few more steps and she’d be through the kitchen.

But she heard the key turn in the door and she held back a scream.

Any second now, Matt would walk through the door.

“Melissa?” She turned around and stared at Noah’s startled face.

The door opened and one leap was all it took for her to push past Noah and dive head first into the only open door she saw.

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