Lahat ng Kabanata ng Forbidden Never Felt This Good: Kabanata 131 - Kabanata 140

0132~Pierre~I told my mother on a Tuesday.She was in the sitting room with her reading glasses on, holding a book she was not actually reading. She does that sometimes, uses a book as something to occupy her hands while her mind is somewhere else. I sat down across from her and said, “I’m in love with Aria Santoro.”She looked at me over the top of her glasses.“I know,” she said.I should not have been surprised. My mother has known things about me before I knew them myself for thirty-four years. There was no real reason this should be different.“I told her,” I said. “At the airport. Before she left for Shanghai.”My mother closed the book properly this time and set it aside. “And?”“She didn’t say anything back,” I said. “She nodded, picked up her bag, and walked to the plane.”My mother was quiet for a moment. It was the kind of silence that meant she was thinking, not hesitating.“She’s in the middle of something,” I added. “I knew that when I told her. I told her anyway becau

0134~Aria~I walked back to the suite thinking about one thing.He flew to Shanghai.Not a text. Not a call. Not another message added to the ones I had been quietly avoiding while I figured out what to do with them. He packed a bag, got on a plane, spent eleven hours in the air, spent a full day in a city he didn’t know, and then knocked on my door.For me.I pressed the lift button and stood there, arms loosely folded, watching the numbers descend. I kept replaying it, not the conversation, not even what he had said, but the fact of it. The weight of the decision.Because it wasn’t one decision.It was many.At the airport. At the gate. Sitting in that seat before takeoff when you can still stand up and walk away. Somewhere over Europe. Somewhere over Russia. Somewhere over whatever stretch of sky feels endless when you’re halfway between where you were and where you’ve decided to go.At every point, he had chosen to continue.The lift arrived. I stepped in and pressed my floor.Th

0136~Aria~I heard her before I saw her.That was becoming a pattern with Céline.We were back at the Lian Wei offices for the final session before the formal dinner that evening. I had stepped out between meetings to find water and a few minutes of quiet before going back into a room that required my full attention.The corridor outside the conference suite was the same one from two days ago. The slight bend. The seating area. The strange acoustics that carried sound further than they should.I stopped walking.Not consciously at first. My body registered it before my mind caught up.Céline’s voice.Low. Fast. Urgent in a way that had nothing to do with work.“I told you I would handle it,” she said. “You don’t need to send anyone. Joan, listen to me, you do not need to send anyone. I am here. I am handling it.”A pause.“What do you mean it’s already done?”Her voice changed.The urgency tightened into something sharper, controlled but not successfully hidden. The sound of someone

0138~Luca~I stood in the corner of the hotel suite, my eyes fixed on Aria. She was standing by the window, her silhouette framed by the glowing lights. She looked beautiful, but there was a tension in her shoulders that made me want to go to her. I wanted to pull her into my arms and tell her that everything would be okay. I wanted to tell her that I would burn the world down before I let anyone hurt her. But I couldn't move. Aria didn't say a word. She just stared out at the city, her fingers tracing the edge of her phone. She didn't tell me about anything but I had overheard earlier. She didn't tell me she was scared. She just stood there in a silence that felt like ice.My phone vibrated in my pocket. I stepped back, moving into the shadows of the hallway so she wouldn't see my face. I pulled the phone out. It was a message from my lead security detail back at the estate in France. My heart skipped a beat as I read the words.Joan is gone. She took a taxi three hours ago. Isabe

0140~ Luca~I was standing in the middle of a dark street, my chest heaving as I stared at the empty road. The taxi I had been tracking was gone. It was a ghost. A decoy. My phone felt like a block of ice in my hand as I dialed Marco’s number for the tenth time.I was just informed that Aria had been kidnapped."Pick up, damn it," I growled.Suddenly, my phone buzzed. It wasn't Marco. It was a restricted number."Luca," a voice whispered. It was Joan. Even through the speaker, I could hear the jagged edge of hers. "You left your post. That was your first mistake. Your second was thinking you could take Isabella from me.""Where is Aria and Isabella?" I snarled, my fingers clenching so hard the phone casing creaked. "If you touch Aria, Joan, there is no corner of this earth where I won't find you.""She’s with me," Joan giggled, a sound that sent a chill down my spine. "She’s finally going to see the man you really are. The monster I’ve lived with."The line went dead.I felt like the