Hired a Gigolo, Got a Billionaire

Chapter 664 Nicholas' POV Renee was already gone by the time | could actually breathe, but the damage stayed behind like crushed glass on the floor. Invisible. Impossible to step on without getting cut. Bella wouldn't stop crying. This wasn't a dramatic tantrum. This was fear wrapped in anger, like someone had yanked the ground out from under her and she was fighting with her whole body not to fall. "Princess..." | tried again, kneeling to her level. "Look at me." She jerked her face away and wiped her tears on her sleeve, like she was embarrassed to be crying.

"You lied to me!" she shouted The word hit me square in the chest. "I didn't lie. | just..." | stopped. Because in her language, "I just didn't tell you" meant exactly the same thing. "I messed up. | should have told you." Her lip trembled. Her chin followed. Her eyes were huge. "You're going to leave me," she repeated, her voice smaller now, ---- barely steady. "You're going to leave me and stay with the baby." My instinct was to deny it instantly. But | remembered what my mother always said: when a child is afraid, you don't argue with the fear. You hold it.

"You're scared," | said slowly, keeping my hands on my knees so | wouldn't try to touch her again and make it worse. "I get that." "I don't want it!" she cried louder. "I don't want things to change!" "IL know," | said. "| know, sweetheart." She made a strangled sound and ran upstairs. | stood there for a second, debating whether to give her space or follow immediately. But there is no "wait it out" with Bella. When she runs like that, she's not asking for distance. She was asking to be chased. | went up. Her door was mostly closed. | knocked lightly. "Bella...

it's me." "No!" came from inside, raw and broken. "Go away!" ---- | rested my forehead against the wood. "I'm not going away," | said quietly. "I'm just coming in to talk. Can 1?" Silence. A hiccupped sob. Another. | pushed the door open slowly. She was sitting on her bed, clutching her backpack to her chest like it was a life raft. Her eyes were swollen and shiny, and something inside me broke in a way that felt physical "You promised," she said, her voice thin. "You promised it was me. | stepped into the room but stopped halfway. Didn't crowd her. Didn't force it.

important." My stomach twisted. "You are important," | said firmly. "You are... you're a part of me ---- that no one can take." She squeezed the backpack tighter. "But the baby is going to be tiny," she whispered. "And tiny gets held. And I'm already big. Everybody says that. 'You're a big girl.' And then | feel..." She

didn't know how to be someone's father. You taught me. Every hug. Every bedtime story. Every time you laughed at my bad jokes. You built that." Her crying softened, just a little. "The

but sharp. "She's going to love it more." That one hurt differently. "Gwen loves you," | said quietly. "Not because she has to. Because she chooses to. And loving a baby

fragile hope buried under accusation. "Yes," | said without hesitation. "I was just trying to figure out how to make it special. Because it is special. And you are part of it" ---- She swallowed. "Part of it how?" | let out a slow breath. "How would you feel about being the big sister?"

"You are not extra," | said. "And if someone made you feel that way today... that person was wrong. Very wrong." She sniffed, and something in her expression nearly destroyed me. For a split second, she looked relieved that | had called it ---- wrong "Then why didn't you tell me?" she asked, her voice cracking in the middle. "I'm not dumb..." | shut my eyes

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