All Chapters of One Night With the Arrogant Billionaire: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Aria's P.O.VFor a second after being slammed into the wall, all I could do was stand there and blink.The impact had knocked the breath straight out of my lungs, leaving a dull ache spreading across my shoulder blade as I stared at the man standing in front of me.Landon.Of course it was Landon.Because apparently getting cheated on wasn't enough. Now I also got to be physically ambushed in office lobbies."What the hell is wrong with you?" I snapped, pushing away from the wall.Landon didn't move, if anything, he stepped closer as trying to be intimidating. His jaw was clenched so tightly that I thought he might crack a tooth."You really enjoyed that, didn't you?" he demanded, his hands curling into fists at his sides.I frowned. "Enjoyed what?""This morning." His voice rose. "Making me look like a fool in front of the entire office."For a moment I simply stared at him…then I burst out laughing.Not because anything was funny, but because I genuinely couldn't believe the audacit

Aria's P.O.V"I swear, if this apartment turns out to be haunted, I'm blaming you."My friend laughed so hard she nearly dropped her phone. "Why does your mind immediately go to ghosts?""Because nobody rents out a place this nice for this price unless somebody died in it."Tory rolled her eyes as she led me down the hallway.The apartment building itself was gorgeous. Not luxury-penthouse gorgeous, but the kind of gorgeous that felt attainable.Clean marble floors. Modern lighting. A twenty-four-hour concierge desk downstairs. Most importantly, security cameras everywhere.The exact kind of place my mother would call wasteful and unnecessary, which automatically made me like it even more.We stopped in front of a door near the end of the hallway on the third floor and Tory pulled out a keycard. And I immediately hid behind her five foot two frame, narrowing my eyes at the door like I could launch a psychic attack the second something came out the door."You are so dramatic." Tory rol

Aria's P.O.VI had spent the rest of the week dreading this moment, not because I doubted my decision or that I wanted to stay. But because I knew exactly how this conversation would turn out.My parents had spent twenty-five years teaching me to make myself smaller whenever it benefited someone else, mostly Amara, and today was the first day I was refusing to succumb to that kind of pressure.The moving truck arrived shortly after nine in the morning.It wasn't anything fancy, just a small pickup truck hired to transport a few boxes, some suitcases, and the handful of furniture pieces I actually owned.Most of my belongings fit into five medium sized boxes. The realization was strangely depressing. Twenty-five years in this house and I could pack my entire life into the back of a small truck.The movers waited outside while I carried the final box downstairs.My mother walked into the

Aria's P.O.VIt had been six days since I moved out of my parents' house, and I had never felt so free in my entire life.Every morning, I woke up to sunlight pouring through the massive floor-to-ceiling windows of my apartment instead of my mother's criticism echoing through the hallway. Every evening, I came home to silence instead of being expected to solve everyone else's problems.No demands, no guilt trips. No reminders that Amara was more important than me.Just peace.It was almost suspicious.Honestly, after years of family drama, I kept expecting someone to jump out from behind my couch and tell me the entire thing had been an elaborate prank.Unfortunately, life wasn't that kind.It preferred subtler forms of torture…like giving me Damien Henderson, because apparently my heart hadn't suffered enough already.I stared blankly at my computer screen inside my apartment as spreadsheets blurred together in front of my eyes.Across from me, Damien sat comfortably at my dining tab

Damien's P.O.VSomething was wrong with Aria.At first, I told myself I was imagining it.People had bad days, they got stressed and sometimes, people needed space. But after nearly a week of watching her carefully, I knew I wasn't imagining anything.She was avoiding me.Not openly enough for anyone else to notice. But I noticed, because I had become embarrassingly aware of every small thing she did.Every glance, every smile, every nervous habit…every time she chewed on her lower lip while concentrating.Before, Aria would find excuses to linger in my office.She would bring reports and stay to discuss them, bring me lunch or coffee from the break room and even argue with me or roll her eyes at me.Sometimes she would sit in the chair opposite my desk and spend twenty minutes talking about absolutely nothing important.Now?Now she dropped files on my desk and disappeared before I