I refused to let myself smile at his joke. “There’s no way you found those photos in a simple Google search. I’ve had a Google alert set up for my name for years, and I’ve never seen them.”

“I didn’t find them right away. I had some trouble with my search at first. There were more people named Audrey Miller than I expected, so I had to try something different. I pulled some images from your social media profiles and did a reverse image search. That was when I found them.”

“I still don’t understand. Where did you find them?”

He shook his head. “A gross site you don’t want to know about.”

I shuddered, not wanting to imagine what kind of site would be so gross that Max couldn’t tell me about it. “Are they still there?”

“No, I took care of it. I called one of my friends who is … well, he’s a hacker. He broke into the site and removed your pictures. I also asked him if he could trace where they originated, but he hasn’t been able to do so thus far.”

“Max …” I started, unsure what I wanted to say. It’s not like I didn’t believe him. Of course I believed him; he was my boyfriend. But … there was something that felt sketchy about his explanation. There was something he wasn’t telling me.

“I don’t like you keeping things from me,” I finally said.

“I know,” he said miserably. “And I’m sorry. I was just afraid you were going to think I was some weirdo for looking you up.”

“Of course you looked me up. I did the same to you. Googling someone before you date them is normal. Finding out that person has a fucking stalker and then keeping that information to yourself, however, is not.”

He nodded, swallowing so hard I saw his throat move. “I know. I’m sorry.”

“Sorry isn’t good enough. You knew how scared I was about everything that had been happening at my apartment, and you had additional information that you kept to yourself. You should have told me. We could have given that evidence to the police, and this creep, whoever he is, could be behind bars right now.”

“The police don’t have the resources my friend does,” Max protested. “I told you, he’s working on it.”

“Excuse me if I don’t trust your nameless, never-before-mentioned friend with my life. I mean, for God’s sake, Max, this is serious. Don’t you remember what happened to Rosalind?”

“Audrey, that’s why I couldn’t tell you. You were so consumed with that exhibit that I knew you’d see parallels where there were none and freak out.” He took a deep breath and leaned across the table, taking my hands. “I messed up, I get it. And I’m sorry. But you have to know that I love you. I love you so much, Audrey. I would do anything for you. Anything. I made a mistake, I see that now, but you have to believe me when I say it was a mistake that I made for you.”