All Chapters of The Billionaire's Rebel Fiancée: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Zayn's POVI woke up before sunrise and knew she was already gone.The house felt different, quieter somehow, like the air had shifted when she left. I got dressed and walked down the hallway toward her room even though I already knew what I would find.The door was open. The bed was made. Her bags were gone.I stepped inside and looked around. Everything was neat and empty like she'd never been there at all. The only thing she left behind was the sketch of the rose pinned to the wall, the one my mother drew, the one I'd shown her in the cottage.She took the dried rose but left the drawing.Maybe she kept what was personal and left what was still mine.I walked to the window and looked out at the driveway. No car. No sign of her. Just empty gravel and morning light cutting through the trees.She really left.I thought back to last night in the cottage. The way she stood in the doorway and said she was leaving. The way we moved closer without meaning to, the pull between us so strong I

Adriana's POVTwo weeks since Victoria's memo landed. Two weeks since I learned my fresh start had an expiration date built in before I even arrived.I barely slept and by morning my eyes were swollen, the kind of exhaustion that sits in your chest and makes every breath feel heavier. But work was the only thing I could control so I focused on that while everything else threatened to pull me under.The Milan office tower rose in front of me, tall and bright, glass catching the early light in sharp angles. I took one breath and walked inside.The board meeting had gone exactly as Victoria planned. She didn't buy the company outright but she bought enough of our clients that we were bleeding contracts. Sage was fighting to keep us afloat but everyone could feel the pressure.The elevator ride was too quiet. I watched my reflection in the polished door and tried to see who I needed to be today. Hair pulled back, blazer buttoned, makeup soft but professional. No one would know I'd been awa

Adriana's POVThe office had emptied out hours ago yet I remained at my desk, staring at the same stubborn dataset that refused to align. The glow from my monitor was the only light on this floor and the silence felt deliberate, like the building itself was holding its breath. My eyes burned and my shoulders ached from hours of hunching over data.It had been two weeks since the board meeting, two weeks of rebuilding myself in a city that felt less like exile and more like choice.Milan was supposed to be simple. New job, new city, automatically a new version of myself with no ghosts following me through the hallways. But ghosts do not respect geography. They show up in the way a stranger's voice carries, in the particular quality of light at eight in the evening when the city turns gold and I remember standing in his garden.I was learning to live with that or trying to. The distinction mattered.The work grounded me because numbers had rules. They did not lie or twist themselves to f

Adriana's POVThe sky over Milan was metal gray when I woke, and Victoria's words lived behind my eyes all night like sharp glass. Darling, Milan suits you. Until I arrive.I brewed coffee I could not drink and stood barefoot by the window, watching the city pulse awake while people hurried beneath umbrellas and taxis splashed through puddles. My calm had ended before it began.By eight, I reached the office. The lights were dim and the air-conditioning hummed. I liked arriving early, but that peace broke the moment I opened my laptop. The login screen froze.Access Error. Unauthorized credentials detected.The firewall never glitched and yet the same warning appeared again. A faint hiss of static slipped through the speakers."Not today," I muttered and restarted.The second attempt worked, but half my folders were missing, gone as if someone had lifted them clean off the network. My stomach turned cold. Those files held the risk models, the predictive algorithms, and the framework Sa

Adriana's POVThe rain had not stopped, soft against the glass like a slow heartbeat, and I woke to its sound mixed with the faint scent of coffee and cedar. For a moment I forgot where I was, then I saw him.Zayn sat by the window in the same clothes from yesterday, phone in hand and his face drawn in quiet exhaustion. Morning light cut across his profile, turning the sharp lines of his eyes almost tender. He looked like a man whose mind refused to let him sleep.Something inside me ached at the sight. The quiet between us was full, not empty, and I had missed him more than I wanted to admit. Seeing him in my space felt both right and dangerous.He looked up. "You're awake." I pushed the blanket aside and sat up. "You didn't sleep." "Connor traced Victoria's server activity," he said quietly. "Someone accessed your company system before dawn."I froze. "What were they looking for?" "Anything to link you to a breach. If she builds that story, she can bury your credibility before you