We Will Love Again – Episode 33
Joey turned at the sound of Noah’s voice, anger collapsing into caution. Alaina remained beside her half-empty desk, surprised that Noah had defended her decision instead of using the studio’s crisis to keep her close.
“I wasn’t blaming her,” Joey said. “I was explaining the timing.”
“You called her selfish.” Noah’s tone stayed even. “Those are different things.”
Alaina stepped between the argument before it expanded. “I’ll finish the handover by Friday. That gives the team enough time to redistribute the active projects.”
Joey reluctantly agreed. He had no legal reason to refuse, and Noah’s presence removed whatever pressure he might otherwise have applied.
As Joey walked away, Alaina closed the box. “You didn’t have to speak for me.”
“You’re right.” Noah accepted the criticism without retreating into defensiveness. “I should have given you space to answer.”
The immediate correction disarmed her. The Noah she remembered had always learned quickly; the man who returned had used that ability to conquer markets. Now he was applying it to something less measurable.
“Why are you here?” she asked.
“The board froze the acquisition.” He explained the conflict review and his decision to remove himself from negotiations. “Crazy Maple may need another investor.”
Alaina glanced around the office. Despite everything that happened there, she did not want innocent employees to lose their jobs. “Can the studio survive?”
“If its creative value is real.” Noah looked toward the project shelves. “Your work is a large part of that value.”
She braced for another offer, but he did not make one. Instead, he asked permission to include her credited contributions in the valuation package.
“Only if my name stays attached,” Alaina said. Too often, collaboration had erased her authorship.
“It will.” Noah made the promise as a businessman, not as an ex-fiancé seeking gratitude.
During the handover, Alaina reviewed years of scripts and found her fingerprints everywhere: repaired motivations, rewritten endings, and entire emotional arcs hidden beneath other names. Leaving no longer felt like failure. It felt like recognizing the scale of what she had already built.
At lunch, Aaron delivered the updated valuation report. The evidence of Alaina’s authorship increased the studio’s projected worth enough to attract two independent media funds.
Noah could have used the result to revive Triple AI’s bid. Instead, he forwarded both introductions to Joey and removed himself from the correspondence.
Alaina watched him do it. “You’re really letting the company go.”
“I’m correcting the part of the deal that never should have existed.” Noah closed his laptop. Then Aaron called with worse news: someone had sent the board copies of Noah’s private messages about breaking Crazy Maple into pieces.