Hired a Gigolo, Got a Billionaire

Chapter 681 Nick's POV | had made a promise. Not the kind with pretty words. Not the kind adults say to feel better about themselves. | had promised with presence. With time. With the rarest thing I'd learned to give after becoming a father. Staying. Bella was sprawled across the living room rug with a blanket over her head, turning herself into a dramatic "ghost" who. shuffled slowly and deliberately bumped into furniture. "Uuuuuh.." she moaned, lightly crashing into the couch.

"I'm the ghost that haunts dads who make babies." | laughed before I could stop myself, even with everything still tight in my chest. "Wow. That's very specific." "Ghosts know everything," she replied, throwing the blanket off. Her hair was a mess, her nose still pink from crying earlier. | crouched down in front of her. ---- "Okay. Smart ghost. Want to talk to me without the blanket?" She hesitated, her eyes sliding away like talking might be a trap. But her hand reached for mine anyway. Small. Warm. That hit harder than anything she could have said.

"| don't want to lose you," she blurted out, the way kids do when they don't have the vocabulary to soften fear. My throat tightened. "You're not going to lose me." "Yes, | am," she insisted, her voice rising. "Because the baby is tiny and you're going to hold him and... and... and I'll be..." "Look at me," | said, firm but gentle. She did. And | saw it right there. The damage of adult words lodged inside a heart that was too small to carry them. "There's space for you and space for a baby," | said.

"And space for all the days that are still coming, Love isn't a cake that runs out when someone takes the last slice, Bella." She bit her lip. "But Gwen will have a baby that's hers." ---- "So?" "So..." She gestured with both hands, frustrated that she couldn't explain it. "The baby is hers. I'm not." | took a slow breath and chose not to contradict her fear outright. | didn't want to erase it. | wanted to walk through it with her. "Do you remember the first time Gwen made you laugh at the estate?" | asked. Bella frowned, searching her memory.

grumpy old-man face." "You did," she said with absolute certainty. "You said, 'It's not an excavator.' And she said, 'Fine, construction grump." | laughed for real because | could see the whole scene like it was happening again. "And you laughed," | reminded her. "| laughed because you turned red,"

pulled her gently against my side and sat down on the couch with her tucked into me. "Gwen has never tried to push you away," | said, "Not once. If anything, she's always pulled you closer." Bella stayed quiet "Remember the three of us watching cartoons together?" | went 'on. "You in the middle, commenting on everything like a movie critic. Gwen

to when she was a baby crying over something | couldn't fix. "We don't like one more," | said softly. "We love differently. A dad's love doesn't have rankings, Bella. There's no first place." ---- "There is," she muttered stubbornly. "Okay. Then let's run a scientific test," | said, standing up. " Tonight's lab experiment: sugar and a movie." She raised an eyebrow. "That's science?" "Valentian science,"

step the way her grandmother had taught her. "Not too much sugar," she warned seriously. "Nonna says it ruins the flavor." "Yes, ma'am," | said, handing her the spoon for approval. Halfway through the movie, she leaned against my shoulder without even realizing it. | froze, afraid that if | moved she'd

new game you've been bugging me about." "| don't bug," she protested, but