All Chapters of One Night Stand with My Stepdad: Chapter 121 - Chapter 130

ELENA Pov Chloe was waiting outside.The heavy oak panels of Marcus’s private office clicked shut behind me, isolating the massive executive suite once again while leaving me standing in the quiet, carpeted hallway. Chloe was leaning against the opposite wall, her arms crossed tightly over her chest, her eyes sharp and hyper-vigilant as she scanned the surrounding corridor. The moment the door closed, she pushed off the wall instantly, her posture snapping straight with a fierce, protective readiness as she crossed the small distance to meet me.The moment she saw my face, she knew something had happened.The fragile, carefully painted mask of indifference I had worn inside the office had completely dissolved, leaving behind pale, tear-stained skin, red-rimmed eyes, and the unmistakable, hollow look of someone who had just barely survived a shipwreck.“What did he say?” Chloe asked immediately, her voice low and sharp, dropping into a protective register meant only for my ears.“Noth

ELENA POV By the end of the day, I couldn't concentrate anymore.The glowing white monitor in front of me felt like an endless sea of meaningless static, the corporate spreadsheets and project timelines blurring into a dizzying wall of numbers that refused to stay still. My mind was entirely consumed by the image of my mother marching past my desk earlier that afternoon—her rigid posture, her darting, frantic eyes, and the white-knuckled grip she had maintained on her leather briefcase as she vanished up toward the executive floor. The ticking clock of her forty-eight-hour deadline was deafening, and every second I spent sitting at that auxiliary desk felt like wasting precious time while the truth slipped further and further out of my reach.I packed my things.With shaky, methodical movements, I slid my tablet, my planner, and my personal notebook into my leather tote bag, snapping the magnetic clasp shut with a quiet, decisive click. I couldn't pretend to work another minute under

Elena’s POVI stared at the man standing in front of me.The lobby around us had completely vanished. The ambient hum of the corporate chatter, the frantic clacking of keyboards from the reception desks, and the distant ringing of phones all evaporated into total silence, leaving only the sound of my own erratic breathing echoing in my ears.The way he had called my name made something strange twist inside my chest.It wasn't a casual greeting. It was an anchor dropped into a sea of chaos, heavy with an emotion I couldn't yet name.“Elena,” he repeated, his voice cracking slightly as his eyes filled with tears. “My daughter.”He looked at my face as though he had spent years imagining this exact moment, tracing the lines of my forehead, the shape of my eyes, and the curve of my jawline with a desperate, hungry intensity that made my skin prickle with cold dread.I didn't understand.My mind spun in frantic circles, desperately trying to assemble the shattered pieces of a puzzle that k

Elena’s POVI remained outside the office, barely breathing.The narrow sliver of warm light cutting across the dark hallway carpet felt like a lifeline to a world I no longer recognized. Every muscle in my body was locked in a state of absolute tension, my shoulders pressed hard against the cold wood paneling of the wall as I strained to catch every single shift in tone, every indrawn breath, and every suppressed word leaking through the slightly ajar door.Marcus sounded furious, but he was trying to control himself.I could hear the physical restraint in his deep, gravelly voice—the deliberate, measured cadence of a man who was walking a tightrope over an active volcano. He was fighting back the overwhelming urge to shatter the glass and tear the answers out of her by force, choosing instead to anchor his anger in cold, logical persistence.“I'm not asking you to tell me every secret you've ever had,” he said, his tone biting and tight. “I'm asking why a man came here, called Elena

Elena’s POVI didn't go back to my desk.My feet refused to carry me back down the corridor toward the auxiliary stations, rejecting the very idea of sitting under the glare of fluorescent lights and pretending to type numbers into a spreadsheet. The chaotic energy of the corporate floor felt miles away, drowned out by the roaring thrum of anxiety and shock still vibrating through every nerve in my body.I couldn't face the curious looks of the employees or the questions I knew Chloe would ask.If Chloe saw me right now—if she looked into my pale, tear-streaked face and asked me what had happened—she would immediately demand that we pack our things and leave this building forever. She would try to pull me away from the very fire I needed to walk through. Because despite the terror gripping my chest, despite the cold realization that my entire existence was built on shifting sand, I couldn't run away anymore.Instead, I stood near the corridor window, trying to calm myself.The towerin