All Chapters of The Billionaire's Forbidden Waltz : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

The building was quieter than usual. Not silent, just stripped down to the low hum of lights and the soft echo of footsteps from distant hallways. Most employees had gone home hours ago, leaving the office feeling bigger and emptier than it did during the day.Adrian didn’t seem bothered by the emptiness. He worked like time didn’t exist. His office door was open, light spilling out across the floor where Elara sat at a workstation he’d set up for her.He insisted she stay close.“You’re not leaving this floor until I’m done,” he’d said earlier.So she stayed.Her eyes drifted toward the glass wall that separated them. Adrian sat at his desk, fingers tapping through files on his tablet, his expression steady but sharper than usual. Even from here, she could feel the weight of whatever he wasn’t saying.Ethan had left twenty minutes earlier to follow a lead and said he’d return soon.Elara tried to focus on her own work, but her screen still showed the article about her mother. The hea

Adrian’s breath was still close to her mouth when the ringtone sliced through the quiet.He pulled back so fast he almost startled himself. The hand that had been resting at the small of her back dropped, like he suddenly remembered who he was supposed to be.Elara blinked, heat still clinging to her skin. Her pulse hadn’t caught up to the interruption yet.Adrian looked at the screen.His posture stiffened. “Not now,” he muttered.But he answered anyway.“Hello.”A woman’s voice came through. Light. Familiar. Too familiar.“Elara,” she heard the woman say, “did you miss me?”Adrian pinched the bridge of his nose. “This isn’t a good time.”“Oh, come on,” the woman said, a smile in her tone. “You disappeared last month. I thought you were avoiding me.”Elara’s breath hitched for a second. She wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but the words weren’t quiet enough to ignore.Adrian walked toward the balcony edge, lowering his voice. “I told you we were done.”“Since when has that stopped you?” t

Elara changed quietly, trying to ignore how her hands kept shaking. She didn’t know what HR planned to ask. She didn’t know what they had seen online. She just knew the rumor had turned one night into something bigger than she ever intended.Adrian waited by the elevator. He didn’t rush her, but the tension in his posture made it clear he was already thinking ten steps ahead. When she stepped beside him, he pressed the button without speaking.“Adrian,” she said softly.He looked at her.“Thank you… for coming with me.”His jaw eased a little. “You’re not facing them alone.”The elevator opened.He kept her close on the ride down, not touching her, but standing near enough that anyone watching would understand he wasn’t letting her walk into anything without him.---THE HR MEETINGThe building felt colder than usual. HR’s floor was quiet, too quiet, the kind of quiet that made Elara feel watched. When they entered the conference room, two HR representatives sat waiting.“Ms. Hayes,”

Elara checked her phone twice before stepping out of the HR building. She wasn’t sure what she expected—maybe another email, another rumor, another small disaster waiting for her name to show up on it.The street outside was busy, but her mind wasn’t on the noise or the movement. All she could think about was the weight of Adrian’s presence beside her during the meeting, the way he’d stood a little too close as if ready to shield her from anything said across that table.He had left immediately after for the office. Something urgent had pulled him away, though he didn’t hide the fact that he didn't like leaving her alone.“You go straight home,” he’d said.Home.The word lingered longer than it should have.She had just stepped toward the curb when someone said her name.“Elara.”She turned sharply.Ethan stood near the building’s corner, hands in his pockets, scanning the area before focusing on her. He looked more serious than usual, a quiet intensity settling over him that made her

Elara didn’t remember when she finally drifted off. It couldn’t have been long. When she opened her eyes, the room was still dim, and her pulse already felt uneven, like she’d woken in the middle of a thought she didn’t finish.The key lay on the nightstand. She touched it, paused, then picked it up and held it for a moment before slipping it into her pocket and stepping into the hallway.The penthouse was quiet. Too quiet.Adrian stood near the windows, staring down at the city as if it had asked him a question he didn’t like. His stance wasn’t relaxed. It wasn’t tense either. It was something in between — a man holding himself in place because moving too fast might break something.He didn’t look away from the glass when he said, “Morning.”“Morning,” she answered.His phone buzzed in his hand.He glanced at the screen. His focus sharpened instantly, like a lens snapping into place. He didn’t show her the message. He didn’t answer it out loud. He simply locked the device and said, “