All Chapters of THE BILLIONAIRE HIDDEN SIN : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

The penthouse smelled like garlic, fresh basil, and the faint metallic tang of the city rain that had followed me inside. Daniel had left the terrace doors cracked open so the night air could slip in, cool and damp against the warmth of the kitchen. I stood at the island chopping tomatoes, knife moving in a rhythm I’d learned from Mom years ago, steady, mindless, the kind of motion that let my brain quiet down after another long day of pretending I wasn’t falling in love with the man who signed my paychecks.Daniel moved behind me like he belonged in this space, which he did. He’d changed out of the suit into soft gray sweatpants and a black T-shirt that stretched across his shoulders in a way that made it hard to focus on the knife. He was stirring the sauce on the stove, a wooden spoon moving in slow circles, the muscles in his forearm flexing with every turn.“You’re staring,” he said without turning around. The corner of his mouth lifted.“Guilty.”He glanced over his shoulder, ey

The stolen kiss happened in the supply closet on level 32.I’d gone in for more printer paper. Daniel had followed thirty seconds later, closed the door, and pressed me against the shelves before I could speak.His mouth was on mine, hungry, desperate, like he’d been waiting all morning for this exact moment. One hand fisted in my shirt, the other braced beside my head. I gripped his tie and pulled him closer, tasting coffee and the mint he’d eaten after his last meeting.We had maybe ninety seconds.His thigh pressed between mine. My head fell back against a stack of boxes. He bit my lower lip, then soothed it with his tongue.“Missed you,” he breathed against my mouth.“It’s been four hours.”“Too long.”Another kiss, deeper, slower, his hand sliding down to grip my hip.The doorknob rattled.We froze.A voice outside, Sarah.“Has anyone seen the extra toner?”Daniel’s eyes met mine. Dark. Amused. Dangerous.He pressed one finger to my lips.We waited.The footsteps moved away.He k

Daniel Ashcroft’s POVThe photo was still spreading when Edwin finally fell back asleep against my chest.I held him tighter than I should have, one arm locked around his waist, the other cradling the back of his head like I could shield him from the entire digital world if I just pressed hard enough. His breathing had evened out, shallow but steady, but I could still feel the faint tremors running through his body every few minutes, aftershocks from the panic that had cracked him open in my arms.I didn’t close my eyes.I watched the city through the penthouse windows and counted the seconds until I could move without waking him.At 8:12 a.m. I slipped out from under him as carefully as I could. He stirred, murmured something soft and broken, then settled again when I tucked the blanket higher around his shoulders. I stood there for a long moment, looking down at him, hair messy, lips still swollen from the way I’d kissed him earlier, wearing nothing but one of my shirts that hung lo

Edwin’s POVThe meeting in Daniel’s office lasted exactly seventeen minutes.He didn’t waste time on the Meridian deck. The slides stayed closed on my laptop. Instead he locked the door the second I stepped inside, pulled me against him, and held me like the world outside had already tried to tear us apart and he was the only thing keeping the pieces together.“I contained it,” he said against my hair. “Every internal copy is gone. Slack threads deleted. Email servers scrubbed. The original file is wiped from every system that touched it. Legal is hitting every external share with takedowns. It’s not perfect, screenshots exist, but it’s dying fast.”I nodded against his chest. My hands were still shaking.He pulled back just enough to look at me.“You don’t have to be here today. Go home. I’ll clear it with Sarah.”“I can’t.” My voice cracked. “If I leave now, it looks like I’m running. Like I’m guilty.”“You’re not guilty.”“Tell that to everyone who saw the photo.”His jaw tightened

Edwin’s POVThe ICU room smelled like plastic and antiseptic and the faint metallic tang of machines fighting a battle they were losing. The ventilator hissed in a steady rhythm, pushing air into Mom’s lungs because her body had forgotten how to do it on its own. The monitors painted green and blue lines across the screen , heart rate, oxygen saturation, blood pressure , numbers that had become the only language we spoke anymore.I sat on the plastic chair beside her bed, one hand wrapped around her cold fingers, the other resting on the railing like I could hold the whole machine steady if I just gripped hard enough. Ruby was on the other side, curled into the second chair with her knees to her chest, eyes red but dry now. Daniel stood behind me, one hand on my shoulder, silent and solid, the only thing keeping me from sliding off the edge of the world.The doctor had come in twenty minutes ago. Dr. Patel , the same one who’d delivered the “we’re managing symptoms now” speech weeks e