Lahat ng Kabanata ng Forbidden Never Felt This Good: Kabanata 111 - Kabanata 120

0111~Aria~The house felt different.Not loud. Not chaotic. Just… tense. Like something had shifted and everyone could feel it, even if no one was saying it out loud.I got out of the car before Luca could come around to open my door.Josie didn’t hesitate. She gave me a quick “see you later” and went straight upstairs. She had read the room perfectly and removed herself from it without making it a thing.I stood in the entrance for a moment, clutch still in my hand, just breathing. Then I went to find my father.He was in his room.Sitting by the window with his coffee.He looked like he hadn’t slept much. Like he had been up for hours, waiting. Worrying.That part hit me more than anything else.I shouldn’t have let him feel like that.He looked up when I walked in.I didn’t give him the chance to speak first. I crossed the room and sat opposite him.“I’m sorry,” I said. “For worrying you. For not telling you where I was going. For making you hear it from Pierre.”I held his gaze.

0113~Aria~A week.Seven full days of routine. Wake up early. Dress. Work. Come back late. Sleep. Repeat.I threw myself into it completely.Not just to avoid things, even though part of it was that. But also because the work actually needed me. And I had the focus to give. The two came together in a way that made sense.The results started showing.Céline noticed before I did. She didn’t say much, she rarely did, but I saw the small tick marks she placed next to certain figures in the reports. That quiet satisfaction she got when things were moving in the right direction.It was working.The field work was the best part.Getting out of the office helped. Being on-site, seeing things directly, the hotel developments, the logistics hubs, the vineyard. Pierre’s team was ahead of projections and needed oversight. Real oversight, not just numbers on a screen.Walking through it all with Céline beside me felt… efficient. She was always prepared. Always one step ahead. Documents ready befo

0115~Aria~I did not like it.That was the simplest way to put it. I did not like it, and I could not change it. So I did what I had been doing all week. I took it, folded it up neatly, and placed it in the same mental space where I kept every other thing I did not like but had no control over. Then I moved forward.Shanghai was an opportunity. A serious one. The kind that came from people who had been watching quietly and had decided that Santoro Enterprises was worth their time. I was not going to let something personal, something messy and unresolved, interfere with what Shanghai represented.I got dressed.Structured. Clean. Professional. The version of me that walked into rooms and got things done without hesitation. Céline had already sent the morning brief before seven, which meant she had been working since six. That alone told me I had made the right decision hiring her.When I stepped into the corridor, Luca was there.I did not slow down. I walked past him like he was part

0117~Pierre~I didn’t think.That was the truth of it. No calculation. No pause. No weighing of consequences. I was standing there in the blue light of the jellyfish tank, she was looking up at me, the distance between us was small, and I just closed it.I kissed her.It lasted maybe three seconds.By the fourth, I knew I had made a mistake.Not even because of Aria, not immediately. But her stillness told me everything I needed to know. She hadn’t leaned in. She hadn’t pulled away. She had just… received it. Like someone trying to understand what had just happened rather than being part of it.That alone should have been enough.I didn’t even get to finish that thought.Something hit me from the side.Not a casual shove. A real push, deliberate, meant to move me. I stumbled, my shoulder hitting the glass of the tank, and I barely had time to turn before the punch landed.It was clean.I’ll give him that.Luca Moretti knew how to throw a punch, and I wasn’t about to pretend otherwise

0119~Aria~“Miss Santoro.”Marguerite’s voice had never sounded like this.In all the months I had been at the estate, she had always been steady. Calm. Reliable. The kind of person who appeared exactly when needed with exactly the right thing. Her voice had never carried strain.Now it did.There was a tightness to it, something barely held together. The sound of someone staying composed because there was no room to fall apart.“Marguerite.” I sat up straight immediately. “What happened?”“Your father. He started coughing very badly this evening and it did not stop. We called the doctor and the doctor said he needs to come in.” She took a breath that sounded like it cost her something. “He is in the ambulance now. They are taking him to Hôpital Américain.”I was already reaching for the door.“I am on my way,” I said.I ended the call and turned to Luca.I did not even have to explain. Something in my face must have said everything because his expression shifted instantly. Focused.