All Chapters of THE BILLIONAIRE'S DIRTY SECRET: A FORBIDDEN SECOND CHANCE: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

RETREATNOELLE'S POVThe first day back at work after whole drama felt strangely off-balance.I arrived early, dressed in a cream blouse and navy pencil skirt, determined to keep things professional. The office was buzzing with energy. People congratulating each other on things, sharing photos, planning the next big event. Normally I would have thrived in this atmosphere.Today, my stomach was in knots.Roman had long returned from Europe, but something had shifted since last night together. The sweet, open man who had held me and told me he loved me seemed to have disappeared overnight.I saw him for the first time around nine: twenty a.m.He was walking down the executive hallway toward the conference room, phone pressed to his ear, looking every bit the powerful billionaire CEO. When our eyes met, he gave me a small, polite nod. The kind you give to a colleague, not the woman you had been inside just days ago.My chest tightened.“Morning,” I said softly as he passed.“Morning,” h

NOT MINEROMAN'S POVMy phone rang at eight thirteen p.m. while I was sitting on the balcony of my penthouse, a glass of whiskey in hand, watching the city lights flicker below like distant stars.The name on the screen made my stomach drop.MotherI answered on the sixth ring, my voice carefully neutral.“Mom.”“Roman.” Sylvia’s voice was crisp, but there was an undercurrent of tension I rarely heard from her. “We need to talk. In person. Tomorrow evening at the house. I’ve invited James Carter. He’ll be there too.”I froze, the whiskey glass halfway to my lips.“James Carter? Why the hell would you invite him?”There was a long, heavy silence on the line. When she finally spoke, her tone was quieter, almost weary.“Because there are things that can no longer stay hidden. Things I should have told you years ago.”My grip tightened on the phone.“Mom, what is this about?”Another pause. I could almost see her sitting in her elegant study, back straight, fingers tapping the edge of her

FALLING MANNOELLE'S POVI couldn’t stop crying.The moment I closed the apartment door behind me, the weight of everything crashed down like a wave I could no longer hold back. My legs gave out beneath me. I slid down the wall until I was sitting on the cold hardwood floor, knees pulled tightly to my chest, sobbing so hard my entire body shook.Everything hurts.The meeting with our parents replayed in my mind on an endless loop. Sylvia’s trembling confession about her one-night affair with my father a week before she married Declan Mathew, the stunned silence in the room, my father’s furious demand for a DNA test, and Roman’s shattered expression as the possibility that we might be half-siblings hung in the air like a death sentence.I pressed my forehead against my knees, tears soaking the fabric of my dress. My chest felt like it was being crushed. How could something so beautiful turn into something so ugly in the span of one conversation?Milo jumped onto my lap, meowing softly

DANGEROUS POSSIBILITIESROMAN'S POVI couldn’t sleep.The penthouse was dark and silent, but my mind was loud. Screaming with every worst-case scenario. I lay on my back in the king-sized bed, staring at the ceiling, the city lights casting faint patterns across the room.Noelle’s face kept flashing in my head.The way she had looked at me when I told her I couldn’t touch her. The tears streaming down her cheeks as she sat on the floor. The quiet pain in her voice when she asked if we might be related.I turned onto my side, punching the pillow in frustration.I loved her.That love was the only real thing I had felt in years, and now it might be the most forbidden thing in my life.My mother’s words wouldn’t leave me.“A week before I married Declan… I slept with James Carter.”“The timing matches your birth.”If Noelle and I shared the same father…I sat up abruptly, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed. My chest felt tight, like I couldn’t breathe properly.I walked to the

NOELLE'S POVThe office felt like a battlefield I could no longer navigate.I sat at my desk, staring at the same email for the past twenty minutes, the words blurring together. My eyes were still puffy from crying last night. Every time I blinked, I saw Roman’s red-rimmed eyes in my doorway, the way he had stood there like touching me would burn him.He hadn’t come to work today.Or maybe he had, but he was avoiding my floor completely.I checked my phone again. No new messages. The last one from him was still that cold, distant “We’ll talk when things calm down.”Things weren’t calming down. They were falling apart.Bria had texted me good morning with a heart emoji and a silly meme, trying to cheer me up. I hadn’t replied yet. I didn’t know what to say. “Hey, the guy I’m in love with might be my half-brother, and he’s ghosting me while pretending to be professional” didn’t fit in a text.I forced myself to focus on the wedding proposal I was supposed to finish. The words felt meani