“What the fuck, Archer? I think you broke my nose! This doesn’t even have anything to do with you!” Noah said from behind his hands.
“You fuck with my brother, you fuck with me!” Archer growled at him.
Noah went into his kitchen and grabbed paper towels to clean himself up. “You guys are fucking crazy. The family will be really impressed when they hear about this shit. Who fucking cares that I made up those texts? I fell in love with Addison fast too. She has that effect, but it’ll wear off quickly when she doesn’t make you the priority. All that girl cares about is her fucking horse. She’s lucky I didn’t cheat on her sooner.”
Welp. I tried. I tried to exercise restraint, but a guy could only take so much. Archer made eye contact with me and nodded. I stepped up and slammed my fist into Noah’s jaw, followed by another blow to his ribs, before stepping back, allowing him to fall to the floor at my feet, clutching his side, his nose still bleeding from Archer.
I knelt down so I was eye level with him. “That will be the last time that her name is in your mouth. If you contact her again or make up any more shit to hurt her, I will fly here over and over again to beat your ass.” My voice was low, menacing. I stood up and looked over at Archer. “Let’s get out of here.” Archer nodded, following me to the elevator.
Still lying on the floor of his apartment as the elevator doors began to shut, Noah yelled out, “Good luck trying to prove that the texts were fake. She’s never going to take your wordfor it after everything.” And after that final parting, the doors closed, and I slammed my fist into the side of the elevator. My knuckles were bloody and beginning to bruise from all of the impact.
Archer put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “We will get the proof. Let’s call Mom and Dad when we get back to Harper’s. We have a consulting firm with certified fraud examiners on retainer for both companies. Granted, we use them to safeguard VRA Media and Frederick Developers, not our personal lives, but I’m sure when you tell them everything that Noah has managed to do, they can help out. You know that Dad never liked him and Mom always just tolerated him for her sister.” He chuckled.
I released a heavy breath and nodded. “That’s a good idea.” And for the first time in weeks, I had a little bit of hope. Hope that I could prove to Addison that the texts were fake. If I could get the proof for her, then I could focus on groveling and earning her trust back for all the other stupid bullshit that I withheld from her. This was just the first step. I looked over at Archer. “Thanks for breaking his nose, Arch.” I held my fist out, and he bumped his fist against mine.
“Hate that little shit. It was as satisfying for you as it was for me. Have you been back at the gym boxing again? That right hook was impressive.”
I laughed while stretching my fingers on the hand I’d used to slam into Noah’s face. “I’ve got a bag in my home gym. With everything that’s been going on, it’s been a good way to release some stress. Let’s just say that picturing Noah’s face hasalso been a helpful way to increase the intensity of my workout. Felt good to get the real thing this time though.”
After getting back to Harper’s place, we sat down and caught her up on the events that took place at Noah’s apartment, which left her stunned and, I was pretty sure, a little turned on by the way she was looking at Archer when she heard that he broke Noah’s nose.
We set up Archer’s iPad to FaceTime our parents, and once both of them came into camera view, our mother clapped her hands excitedly. “Wow, both of my boys! What a treat!”
“Hey, Mom. Hey, Dad,” Archer and I said in unison.
“Well, boys, to what do we owe the pleasure?” my father asked as he propped his arm up on the couch behind my mother.
Archer looked over at me, a silent communication exchanged that he would start. I nodded. Archer cleared his throat. “Can we use the guys at PLM and Associates to extract data from a phone?”
My dad tilted his head in confusion. “Whose phone? And what for? I’m going to need some more information here, son.”
This time I spoke up. I updated my parents on everything that had transpired over the last several weeks with Addison and Noah. They listened to the timeline of events, never interrupting, just taking it all in. When I was finished, I looked up at them to gauge their reactions. My mother looked sad andconcerned, while my father looked pissed as hell.
My mother spoke first. “Dean, first, as your mother, I would be remiss if I didn’t say I am disappointed in you for withholding all of these truths from Addison. You know how much we love her. She is just a gem and deserves honesty at all times. Second, I will speak with my sister about this because this is absolutely unacceptable behavior from Noah. I don’t have any issues with you using PLM to obtain proof that those texts were falsified, but that’s more in your father’s wheelhouse.”
My father nodded. “Yeah, Dean, I agree with your mother about both your behavior and Noah’s. But I’m also not going to lie and act like I’m not proud of you for kicking that little shit’s ass.”
My mother snapped her head toward my father. “Victor! Ugh, you boys are such brutes.” She shook her head, but I saw the small grin she tried to hide.
My father continued, “Anyway, so it’s my understanding that Noah’s phone is a Frederick Developers–owned phone. He uses his company-issued phone for both business and personal use. I’ll have the Frederick Developers HR team confirm this, but if that’s the case, as I suspect that it is, then we can have them obtain his phone to hand over to PLM for a collection. PLM can extract all the data from his phone and sift through it to see how those texts came to be with your number attached to it. From what I’ve seen over the years, he likely used some sort of application to achieve this.”
A sense of relief flooded my veins, and I felt the tension in my shoulders ease. There was a way. There was actually a way thatI could prove my innocence. “Jesus Christ, it’s insane to me that he went to this much trouble to fuck with my relationship.” I scrubbed my hand over my jaw.
My father chuckled. “I’m not shocked. He’s always been jealous of you boys. Throw his ex-fiancée, who dumped him, into the mix, and that’s like throwing gasoline onto a fire. Give me a couple of weeks and I’ll get this sorted out.”
I nodded. “Thanks, Dad. I really appreciate your help.”
He smiled, the wrinkles surrounding his eyes the only thing that showed his age. “Happy to help. In the meantime, start working on your plan to win that girl back. Addison is a keeper, son. I’ll get you the proof, but the rest is on you.”
I ran my hand over the back of my neck. “I know, you’re telling me.”
My father’s phone started ringing on the couch next to him. He glanced down at the screen to see who was calling. “All right, I’ve got to take this. I’ll be in touch.”
My father disappeared from the camera view, leaving only my mother. “You boys behave.” My mother narrowed her eyes at us before a warm smile spread across her face. Our childhood wasn’t the typical loving home with super-involved parents, but our parents showed their love in a different way. They had our backs, and they were there when we needed them, no matter what. Right now, I needed them, and they showed up like they always did.
After saying our goodbyes, I leaned back against the couch in Harper’s apartment and turned toward Archer. “Well, now we wait?”
Archer nodded. “Now we wait.”
