Tit For Tat Chapter 21
Noah said quietly, “Sloane had access to the Cole family visitor system back then. She anonymously sent those screenshots to my mother, implying that something was already going on between you and Adrian.”
“The Bennett family’s financial crisis was the real reason for the broken engagement, but those photos made my mother’s decision quicker and gave her an excuse to humiliate you.”
I stared at the pages, a chill spreading slowly up my spine.
Three years ago, Sloane had used a selectively cropped photo to push me toward Adrian.
Three years later, she had used an old engagement photo and an edited video to try to drive me away from him.
She thought she was fighting over a man.
But her real expertise was in controlling how other people saw a woman.
Noah looked at me.
“I need to be clear about something. Those photos didn’t decide everything for me.”
“I knew you deserved a chance to explain, and I knew I should have walked out of that office to see you.”
“I didn’t.”
“So I’m not going to pin all the blame for what happened three years ago on Sloane.”
I looked up at him.
At least on that point, he understood faster than Adrian had.
A third person’s malice doesn’t erase your own choices.
I put the materials back in the envelope.
“Does Adrian know yet?”
“The investigation team will give him the report today.”
I nodded.
“Then let him see it for himself.”
Noah was silent for a moment.
“You don’t want to throw the evidence in his face yourself?”
Outside the window, a black car had pulled up to the curb.
I recognized it as Adrian’s.
He was sitting in the back seat, not getting out.
Through the glass and the bustling street, he was just a blurred outline.
I looked away.
“What hurts him most now isn’t how I might retaliate against Sloane.”
“It’s realizing that the rain he used over and over to prove his love for me was a storm someone else helped create.”
“And that later, he copied her methods with his own two hands.”
“She edited the photos. He hit send.”
“She decided what people saw. He decided what I had to endure.”
“The more he remembers how heroic he felt back then, the more pathetic he’ll feel now.”
Noah looked at me for a long time.
“You’re sharper than you were three years ago.”
I lifted my coffee cup.
“I’ve always been sharp.”
“I was just too busy putting my edges away for all of you.”