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Chapter 86
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Hired a Gigolo, Got a Billionaire Chapter 727
Gwen's POV I learned that routine isn't the absence of emotion. It's emotion, tamed. Put to work quietly, without making a scene. While Nick went back to dealing with his problems, I took Bella—and within two minutes, we were already heading to the car. She claimed the backseat like she owned it. Dropped her backpack onto her lap, glanced out the window, then studied me through the rearview mirror. "Mom," she called, in the same tone she'd use to ask the time. "Hmm?" "When is my baby sister going to be born?" I let out a breath that was half laugh, half surrender. "What's the rush?" "Because your belly is already huge," she said, pointing with zero delicacy. Then she added, like it was a compliment, "Like… really huge." "Wow. Thank you for the kindness," I replied, feigning offense. Bella burst out laughing. "It's true." "It is true," I admitted. "Not much longer now. Soon enough, you'll get to meet her." Her eyes lit up. "I told Julia," she said, like s
Hired a Gigolo, Got a Billionaire Chapter 726
Nick's POV The Valement Estate had a sound. Not just one clear, recognizable noise you could identify with your eyes closed. It was a blend of smaller sounds that came together and turned into a rhythm. The gate creaking open at dawn. Tires crunching over gravel. Quick footsteps echoing down the service hallway. The soft clink of dishes in the kitchen. The coffee machine running nonstop. Wood groaning under footsteps that no longer tried to be careful, because this place had stopped being a project and become a home. And it had a scent. Strong coffee. Warm bread. Ripe grapes that lingered in the air even out of season. The clean smell of freshly pressed laundry drifting from somewhere. That standard hotel soap Martina had approved with all the seriousness of a board meeting. As I crossed the courtyard, I could still catch the faint scent of cold stone beneath it all. A reminder that these walls had history. By the time I walked into the kitchen, the routine was already in mot
Hired a Gigolo, Got a Billionaire Chapter 725
Gwen's POV On Monday afternoon, I returned to Kensington like someone reclaiming a piece of herself. I walked through the building entrance with the same posture I had always carried. But there was one essential difference now. I wasn't trying to prove anything anymore. For weeks, I had lived with the feeling that my name was being used as a weapon by people who had never actually known me. And the cruelest part of that was simple. Lies always had more space than normal life. Headlines loved "kidnapping stepmother." Clicks loved "scandal." Comments loved the version that was easiest to hate. But what I had now was the one thing the internet could never steal. Those who knew me, knew. And they did. They truly did. Christian had handled the board exactly the way I knew he would. With facts so clear they left no room for malicious interpretation. He laid everything out on the table. Literally. And when he finished, the idea that it had all been a setup was so obv
Hired a Gigolo, Got a Billionaire Chapter 724
Nick's POV The four of us got into the car almost at the same time. Bella dove into the back seat, sliding across it like it was the couch at home. Her small backpack in her lap. Hair still rumpled from the morning. The unfiltered excitement of someone who doesn't store anxiety in her body. "Seatbelt," Martina warned automatically, before she had even sat down. "I know, Grandma," Bella replied, clicking it in with a dramatic sigh, just to perform that she was being forced. Gwen closed the passenger door carefully and settled in slowly, her hand going to her belly in an instinctive gesture. I got into the driver's seat, put the key in, and for a second just stared ahead, feeling the good weight of having everyone there. I started the engine. It turned over and something inside me did too. Gwen glanced at the back seat. Bella had already stretched her legs out and was swinging her feet in the air. Then she looked at me with a smile that was too innocent for the woman she
Hired a Gigolo, Got a Billionaire Chapter 723
Nick's POV The days passed. Then the weeks. At first, I measured time by fear. By the phone that could ring again. A legal notification. A headline. A car parked too long in front of the building. The feeling that life was only on loan. Then, without me noticing exactly when it happened, I started measuring time by other things. By the hour Bella woke up and went straight to the kitchen, barefoot, hair sticking up. By the routine Martina built like someone rebuilding a house with her own hands. By the way Gwen began organizing the small details of our daily life. And by the sound of my daughter's laughter returning without fear. Custody had started out as temporary. An emergency measure. A provisional residence. Words that sound neutral on paper and, in real life, mean hold your daughter tight, but don't trust it yet. But temporary, with Bella, was never temporary. She had no trouble adapting to life with us again. I did. Because I kept waiting for the moment sh
Hired a Gigolo, Got a Billionaire Chapter 722
Nick's POV The receptionist looked at the screen, then at me, and I saw that split second of assessment everyone makes when the urgency isn't their own. "One moment, sir," she said. I felt Gwen's hand in mine, firm, like she was keeping me grounded. I didn't look at her. If I did, I'd break in a way I couldn't afford to. The receptionist motioned to a nurse in the hallway. The nurse came quickly. "I'll take you to her," she said. I didn't ask where. I just went. The corridor felt too long. Every door we passed was a reminder that life inside those walls could change in seconds. I tried to keep breathing. The nurse stopped in front of a door. Checked a clipboard. "She's in here." I opened it before she could finish. And for a moment, everything I'd been holding inside me hit the floor. Bella was sitting on the bed with a tray in her lap and a small cup of gelatin trembling under the white light. A nurse stood beside her, watching with the calm of someone who ha
Hired a Gigolo, Got a Billionaire Chapter 418
Madeline's POV It had been two months since we moved into our own apartment in Florentia. Christmas had been strange. My first one away from my family in Verdania, without the traditions I'd known since childhood. But Marcus' family welcomed me so warmly that I surprised myself by realizing it w
Hired a Gigolo, Got a Billionaire Chapter 433
Marcus' POV Her question hung between us, heavy with all the vulnerability we'd laid bare in the last few minutes. When I finally answered, my voice came out softer than I expected. "Don't you see?" I asked, shifting slightly so I could look at her better in the dim light of the elevator. "The t
Hired a Gigolo, Got a Billionaire Chapter 419
Marcus' POV I instinctively widened my eyes when I saw the look on Madeline's face. There was something completely unexpected there. A mix of surprise and shock that made me instantly forget our argument about schedules and missed calls. "Are you okay?" I asked, alarmed, taking a step toward her
Hired a Gigolo, Got a Billionaire Chapter 420
Madeline's POV "I need fresh ingredients if I'm going to cook for Annie and Nate," I told Marcus as I finished my breakfast. "I want to do everything myself. Not order delivery, not leave it to the cook." Marcus smiled, folding the Valentian newspaper he'd been reading. "Do you want to go to C
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