All Chapters of The Billionaire's Forbidden Waltz : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

She left late, later than she wanted. The office felt smaller at night. Screens glowed. Desks sat empty. The building’s hum narrowed to the sound of her own footsteps as she walked toward the elevator.Her badge was still flagged. The override that had let her up earlier had been revoked. She had to show ID to each guard, one by one. They scanned her, glanced at the board notes taped to their consoles, and didn’t make eye contact. It felt like moving through a theater where everyone knew the script except her.Downstairs, the cold air hit her the second the doors opened. The street was busy, normal, and loud. People moved fast. Cars rolled past the curb. Nothing about the city slowed to match the chaos in her head.She tightened her coat and walked quickly, the photograph pressed inside her bag, close enough to grab if she needed it.She noticed the first sign because someone else did. A woman at a nearby crosswalk looked over her shoulder and then turned away with deliberate slowness

Elara barely made it two steps out of the secured briefing room before the first vibration hit her pocket.Then another.Then three more in rapid succession.Ethan lifted his head sharply. “Don’t touch your phone.”“I’m not,” she said, though her hand had already twitched toward it.Adrian was speaking quietly to someone over comms, issuing clipped orders, shutting down nodes, locking terminals. He looked like a man pulling levers in a burning building. Efficient. Controlled. Ice over fire.Another vibration buzzed against her leg.“Elara,” he said without turning, “give your bag to Ethan.”She did. Ethan zipped it shut like it contained an explosive.A guard jogged down the hall toward them. “Sir—Ops is reporting a spike on external networks.”Adrian’s shoulders went still.Ethan checked his tablet. His expression drained. “It’s her name.”“What?” Elara whispered.He turned the screen.Her breath caught.#ElaraHayes — 6,102 postsIt was climbing by the second.Her name. Trending. Pub

Adrian didn’t reach the door.He stopped halfway there, mid-stride, like a thought struck him hard enough to pull him still. Ethan noticed first. Elara felt it a second later—The way his focus changed, sharp and deliberate, the quiet calculation she’d learned to recognize in him.“Sir?” Ethan asked.Adrian turned back toward the desk, his expression sharpening. “If they’re bold enough to leak photos and impersonate her in real time, then they’re using something old. Something buried.”Ethan stiffened. “Legacy tech?”“Yes.” Adrian nodded once. “Something predating your protocols. Something predating mine.”Elara’s pulse picked up. “Meaning whoever’s doing this has access to something the company doesn’t even use anymore?”“Something the company shouldn’t know still exists,” Adrian corrected.He moved behind his desk again, fingers tapping rapidly across the touchscreen. The monitors flickered—security logs, timestamp chains, archived directories. None of it looked modern. All of it loo

The emergency lights shuddered back on in a thin red glow, casting the room in broken shadows. The shelves seemed taller in the low light, as if the shadows stretched them out.Adrian didn’t move until the entire door panel blinked to life again. Only then did he straighten, the warning note still in his hand.“They wanted us to find this,” he said quietly.Ethan checked the lock again, scanning the edges with quick, practiced movements. “And they wanted us trapped long enough to drop it.”Elara’s breath trembled. She didn’t like the idea that someone had stood only inches from them on the other side of the metal door. Watching. Waiting. Close enough to touch the lock. Close enough to listen.Adrian slipped the note into an evidence sleeve from the shelf and tucked it inside his jacket.“We’re leaving,” he said. “We don’t stay in a boxed room with no cameras.”Elara followed as they exited Archive C. The hallway felt colder than when they’d entered. Ethan checked each corner before th

Elara didn’t realize she’d stopped breathing until her vision tightened at the edges. Her mother’s name on the screen felt heavier than anything Jessa had thrown at her. This wasn’t a rumor anymore. This wasn’t gossip in a hallway.Someone had dragged Lydia Hayes into the spotlight.Again.The tablet shook slightly in Adrian’s hand. Not from fear. From anger he was too controlled to show on his face. Ethan stood beside him, shoulders locked, reading the headline twice as if the words might rearrange themselves.Elara swallowed. “Why her? Why now?”“Because they want to hit you where it hurts the most,” Adrian said. His voice was quiet, but it wasn’t calm. It was the kind of tone people use when they’re trying not to break something. “They want you unstable. They want you questioning everything.”Ethan stepped closer. “This wasn’t posted by a tabloid. It came from a political commentary blog. Someone fed them the story.”“Fed them?” Elara repeated. “Like… handed it over?”“Yes,” Ethan