Lahat ng Kabanata ng THE BILLIONAIRE HIDDEN SIN : Kabanata 11 - Kabanata 20

Edwin’s POVThe apartment smelled like antiseptic and the faint, metallic tang of illness that never quite left, no matter how much we aired the place out. I dropped my bag by the door and went straight to Mom’s room without turning on the hall light. The oxygen concentrator was humming steadily, a mechanical lullaby that had become background noise over the last year. I hated that sound. It meant she was still fighting. It also meant she was still losing, inch by inch.She was awake when I pushed the door open a crack. Propped against three pillows, eyes half-closed, but they found me immediately.“Edwin,” she rasped. Her voice was thinner every week.“Hey, Mom.” I crossed to the bed, kissed her forehead the way I always did. Her skin felt too warm, too fragile. “How’re you feeling?”“Same as yesterday.” She managed a small smile. “Tired. But Ruby said you started the new job. Tell me.”I sat on the edge of the mattress, careful not to jostle the IV line taped to her arm. “It’s good.

Edwin’s POVThe service elevator doors slid open with a soft chime that felt louder than it should have in the empty corridor of B-2. 7:03 p.m. I was late by three minutes, traffic on the bus had crawled, then stopped entirely for some accident two blocks from the tower. I’d run the last stretch, tie loosened, shirt sticking to my back with sweat.The hallway was dim, with only the emergency lights and the faint glow from the vending machine in the break room. No one else was here. The sorting tables were cleared, and carts were parked neatly against the wall. The silence pressed in, broken only by the distant hum of the building’s ventilation system.I adjusted my bag on my shoulder and started walking toward the executive elevators, the ones staff weren’t supposed to use after hours. The message hadn’t specified, but I knew. The service elevator only went so far; the rest was his domain.The private elevator waited at the end of the corridor; doors already parted like it had been ex

Edwin’s POVThe private elevator doors opened onto level P-3 with a hushed sigh, and the black SUV sat exactly where I’d left it, gleaming under the low fluorescent strips as if it had never moved. I walked straight to it, key fob already in hand, pulse thudding too hard for 6:42 a.m. The garage was empty except for the distant echo of a security cart somewhere on the far side. No one saw me slide behind the wheel, no one watched me start the engine and pull out.The drive back to the tower felt shorter than it should have. Morning traffic hadn’t fully thickened yet; the streets were still half-asleep. I kept the windows up, the AC on low, and the radio off. Silence made the thoughts louder.Ruby’s words from last night looped in my head. “Don’t let him own you.” I gripped the wheel tighter. I wasn’t owned. I was surviving. There was a difference.I pulled into the underground staff parking on P-3 at 6:58, killed the engine, and sat there for thirty seconds breathing through my no

Edwin’s POVThe fluorescent lights in the break room buzzed like dying insects. I sat on the edge of the plastic chair, elbows on my knees, staring at the scuffed linoleum between my feet. My shirt was untucked on one side; the collar still crooked from where Daniel’s fingers had gripped it on the roof less than two hours ago. I hadn’t bothered to fix it. What was the point? The marks he left weren’t the kind you could straighten with a mirror.The door swung open without warning.Sarah Nguyen, marketing coordinator, level 38, perpetually caffeinated and terrifyingly observant, stepped inside carrying two paper cups from the executive espresso machine. She stopped short when she saw me.“Jesus, Reed. You look like you got hit by a truck and then the truck backed up.”I forced a half-smile. “Rough morning.”She handed me one of the cups without asking. The coffee was still scalding; steam curled up between us.“Sit,” she said, dropping into the chair opposite mine. “You’ve been walking

Edwin’s POVThe stairwell door clanged shut behind me with a sound that echoed down all forty-five floors. I stood motionless on the landing between levels 40 and 41, back pressed to the cold concrete wall, breathing like I’d sprinted the whole way down instead of walking.Victor Hale’s voice kept replaying in my skull, smooth, almost affectionate, like he was sharing an inside joke only the two of us understood.“Daniel has a habit of collecting interesting things… But here’s the thing about Daniel. He’s very good at control. Until he isn’t. And when he loses it… Things tend to get messy.My fingers were still curled around the cart handle even though I’d left the cart two floors up. I forced them open, shook them out, and tried to shake the feeling of Hale’s touch on my shoulder along with them. It didn’t work.I pulled out my phone. Thumb hovered over Daniel’s unknown number, the one that only ever sent short, commanding texts. I typed three words.“Hale spoke to me.”Deleted them.