I sit on the couch at home, working on some finalized plans for our Home Our Community house in Georgia that would be renovated within the next few months. Ever since the fundraiser, I've thrown myself into work even though it's been pretty hard since my tablet was still missing. It literally had all my notes and everything I needed on it, but now, it was just gone. It had to be around the house somewhere since it wasn't at the support center or any of the homes and it's not even at Julian's office. I was making do without it, but it definitely has been hard. I've been relying on Julian and Jonah mostly to help me with whatever I needed and they've been super great.

In the middle of me doing work, there's a knock at the front door and I rush towards it since I had an idea of who could be here. When I open the door, I'm immediately pulled into a hug by my little sister. "Hi!"

I'm filled with love for how happy she sounded since her and Jonah had worked through things and back on track to having a healthy relationship. I run my hand through her long hair as I smile against her shoulder. "Hi, Ivy, how're you?"

"I'm good, how about you?" She asks, finally moving out of the hug. She bends down to pet Bailey before picking him up to hold him close as we move towards the living room. Her giggle assaults me and I look over to see Bailey trying to lick at her face. Once we get settled on the couch, she sets the dog down so he could come over to crawl into my lap since that's where he seems most comfortable. My hands instantly reach down to run through his soft fur as he starts to slowly fall asleep.

"Uh, I'm okay. Just busy mostly," I tell my sister with a soft smile.

"Oh, trust me, I know. Jonah's been working nonstop, not only with Julian but also with you. Is everything okay?" She asks, sounding a bit worried as she narrows her eyes at me.

I nod my head with a sincere smile. "Everything's okay. I just lost my tablet, which practically had my whole life on it. It has to be here somewhere here because I don't remember leaving it anywhere else, but Julian and I haven't found it."

"Where was the last place you had it?" She asks, looking around the room like she would just see it sitting out somewhere. But that definitely wasn't going to happen since I've checked every square inch of this house and it's been nowhere to be found.

"Um, I'm pretty sure I left it on the counter in the kitchen one morning when... when Nora was here," I say, realization dawning on me. Julian and I had been fighting about her being in the house and I had grabbed my bag to leave but didn't take my tablet. The next thing I know, it went missing. Did she take it?

"Wait, hold on, Nora was here?" Ivy asks, knowing exactly who I was talking about since I had explained to her the entire situation that was going on with Nora and Julian's parents. I had told my mother so I knew I would have to tell my sister eventually since it would get confusing talking to the both of them if they didn't know about it. When Ivy heard the story of what happened with Mr. Caldwell hitting me and then showing up here and hurting Julian, then about everything happening with Nora, she was livid.

My sister is a very protective person, so I knew she wouldn't take that lightly. She completely agreed with me that Nora was being shady and we shouldn't trust her. Obviously, she didn't agree with me allowing Julian to have a connection with her, but he was his own person. I couldn't control him that way. This relationship is compromise and this was something that we just had to agree to disagree on.

I explain to Ivy everything that happened that night that Julian and I fought and then tell her everything that happened the night of the fundraiser when his mother showed up. When I finish explaining, she's seething with anger at this point. "That fucking bitch. You need to get her out of your life, Mila."

"No," I tell her, my voice taking on a fierce tone. "Julian and I have talked this over extensively and until she explicitly does something wrong, then I'm not going to make him force her out. She's technically his adopted sister, even though his parents kinda disowned him, I don't know. It's complicated, Ivy."

She glares at me for a bit before she gets a mischievous look on her face. All of a sudden, she shoots off the couch to go into the kitchen. I want to run after her to see what she's doing, but there was an adorable dog sleeping on my lap that would growl if I woke him up. I stay put as she grabs the tablet off the wall that controlled the downstairs lights and security cameras... which told me exactly what she's doing.

"Ivy, no! Do not go through the security cameras!" I tell her. I try to get up and have to force my way through Bailey's growls before shooting off the couch to rush over to my little sister. She had already gotten past the passwords since she apparently knew all of them already, either from Jonah or me, I didn't know. She was now searching through the calendar on the security app to figure out the day that I was talking about. Before she could press on anything, I snatch the technology from her hands and hold it against my chest. "trust me, you don't want to do that."

She scoffs, trying to grab the tablet from my hands, but I move away from her so she's not able to. "There are no cameras showing your bedroom, you're fine, calm down."

"It's not just in our bedroom, idiot!" I yell at her, practically running away from her at this point. She freezes to give me a disgusted face, shaking her head to probably rid her mind of those thoughts that I just put in her head.

"Okay, too much information! Why can't you two just be civil and do it in your room? I mean, Jonah and I aren't even that bad and we're younger than you," she tells, making me freeze this time. I put on a disgusted face, making her giggle a bit as she realizes what she just said.

"Alright, I didn't need to know that my sister and my fiance's assistant are fucking," I explain to her, even though I definitely already knew. I mean... she did get pregnant, so it was obvious that they had fucked. But I was glad that she wasn't letting those thoughts get to her because I saw no falter in her smile or anything, telling me she had mourned when she needed to.

She giggles again before pointing to the tablet. "Just look at the security cameras from that morning and see if she took it. The cameras show the kitchen, right?"

I nod my head before searching through the app to try and figure out which day Nora had spent the night in the living room. It was hard to find it since the past few weeks have kinda jumbled all together into one big stress ball, but after a little bit, I finally found it. I motion for Ivy to come over and we watch as it shows me making coffee all while Julian hesitated towards me. It was completely obvious that I was mad at him in the video and watching it back, I felt bad because I definitely overreacted a bit.

Ivy didn't say anything, just glanced at me over-and-over again all while the security app played the video. I could clearly see my tablet sitting on the counter underneath my bookbag and I was so curious as to where it went and I was glad that my sister had reminded me of the cameras constantly recording inside the house. We kept watching as I stormed out of the kitchen, grabbing my bag and leaving my tablet sitting on the counter.

We keep watching as Julian says something to Nora before following me out of the kitchen. Fortunately for me, you couldn't hear anything that was being said because I really didn't want my sister to hear us fighting. She's already heard it before and I'm still embarrassed about that. The next thing I know, there's a motion on the video and Ivy and I both pay close attention to what happens next.

Nora rushes towards the kitchen counter and grabs the tablet before stuffing it into her bag. She looked around guiltily as she did it, almost like she was hesitating. I immediately believe Mrs. Caldwell when she told us that Mr. Caldwell was making Nora do things in exchange for gifts or whatever she said. My whole life was on that tablet, meaning that he could leak stuff about Julian and I's business life or even our personal with just the click of a button. Even if he's in jail, he could easily persuade his daughter to do it for him.

"Oh my god," I whisper, covering my mouth with my hand as I watch Nora close her bag before going back to sit on the couch. She fucking stole from me. "oh my god."

"Miles," Ivy asks, nervous at my reaction.

"She's going to leak something or post something and... Ivy, I have pictures and documents on there that cannot get out. It'll ruin Julian and I's life if it does. I can't... I don't know what to..." I say, easily sending myself into a downward spiral of a mental breakdown. My sister reaches out to grab me when I start to feel dizzy from all the emotions in my body. She tries to pull me towards the couch, but my knees give out and I tumble to the ground.

"Miles!" She says, trying to pull me up. I just curl in on myself and start sobbing into my hands. This isn't good. This won't end well. Nora's going to do something and she's going to ruin our fucking lives. This can't possibly be happening right now.

The next thing I know, the two beeps run through the house to warn us that the front door was opening. I don't even dwell on who could be here because Ivy was already running towards them. She knew that I needed Julian to tell me that everything was going to be alright. Even if I felt like there was no way that anything was going to be okay, I needed to hear him say it. I can hear Ivy talking frantically before Julian's persistent footsteps get closer to me.

"Baby boy," he whispers before scooping me up into his arms. He leads me over to the couch, settling down on it with me in his lap as I continue to cry as my thoughts start to get more panicky. Julian holds me close all while Ivy settles the tablet into his free hand so he could watch what we just watched. I could hear Jonah talking to my sister behind me, but I don't focus on them as I try to get my breathing under control.

I feel Julian's body go rigid when he sees Nora taking the tablet before stuffing it into her bag. He shuts off the device before setting it next to him, pulling me into a straddling stance so he could hold me tighter. I start to cry into his shoulder, hating everything about this situation. I wish Nora never showed up in our lives. I wish I had never tried to get closer to her. I wish I had just forced Julian to cut all contact with her after I found out who she was. I just wish everything was different than what was happening now.

"What're you going to do?" Ivy whispers, talking to my fiance as he just held me tightly while running his hand up-and-down my back. I feel him move his head to probably look at my sister before he sighs, frustrated and upset.

"I don't know. Can you two just give us a bit to talk? You can go to our room and watch TV or something. We just have to figure things out," he says, his voice going softer as he talked to my sister and his assistant. They don't say anything, but I soon hear their footsteps retract towards the stairs. Once the sound of our bedroom door upstairs shutting is heard, Julian pushes me away lightly so he could see my face. When he does, he sighs again before using the pads of his thumbs to wipe my tears away.

"Julian," I whimper, feeling so scared at the moment. He nods his head, giving me a soft expression before running his hand through my hair. I wrap my arms around his neck while his free hand travels down to set on my waist. My eyes connect to his with a pleading look to silently ask him to help fix this and he searches through his thoughts before starting to question the situation.

"What do you have on your tablet that we need to be worried about?" He whispers, trying not to make his voice sound frustrated or anything negative, as to not worry me any further than I already was. I think for a second because there's so much on there. Not only is there stuff for Home Our Community and PRES, but there's also information for Well Sessions and Stigma, which could really fuck up George Brock and Andrea's businesses.

"Julian, there's so much," I whisper, probably sounding like a whiny kid, but I wasn't focused on that. Julian nods his head, urging me to keep talking. "well, for starters, we have pictures on there that aren't... appropriate."

"Oh, fuck," Julian says, his eyes widening bigger than I think I'd ever seen them. He's immediately reminded of when he had taken pictures of me in Hawaii while I was wearing the lingerie that he had bought. Those photos were automatically uploaded to my tablet since they were taken on my phone and I never even thought to delete them since they weren't hurting anybody. Even if I did feel like I looked pretty cute in them, it doesn't mean I want them spread everywhere, which is probably what Nora and Mr. Caldwell were planning.

"Uh, I also have passwords to basically everything and my social security number and important documents and contracts and..." I start to tell him, starting to feel even worse when I realize just how much that one small piece of technology could fuck everything up. "Julian, everything. Everything is on there."

He nods his head, seeming to understand the severity of the situation now. He pulls me into another hug, just whispering soothing things to me while running his hands over my body. "We're going to figure everything out, I promise you."

"What're we going to do?" I whisper, pulling back from the hug to wipe at my eyes.

"We're going to take a few minutes to calm down," he whispers, reaching up to run his hand through my hair again. I could tell that I probably looked like a mess right now since he wanted to take some time to just relax. I just imagine my puffy face and my messed up hair that definitely made me look absolutely hysterical. But with Julian's hands running over my exposed skin, I already felt a bit better. "then we're going to go over to the house and get the tablet back. We'll go from there."

"But what if she already posted stuff somewhere or sent it to someone and-"

"No," Julian interrupts me with a tone that tells me that there was no room for argument. "we're not going to think about that because thinking of the what-ifs is just going to make things worse. That's not what we need right now, okay? I promise you that we're going to figure things out and whatever happens, happens."

"Okay," I whisper, reaching out to settle my hands against his chest so I could feel his heartbeat under my palm. It was going a bit faster than it usually was, which told me that he was freaking out, but he was keeping himself together for me. I lean down to press my lips against his to just take in these last few moments of peace that we would probably have for the rest of the night.