Hired a Gigolo, Got a Billionaire

Chapter 508 Madeline's POV I closed my eyes. It was instinctive. Automatic. When you know you're about to die-when you see a gun aimed at you and hear the order given-you close your eyes. I waited for the shot to hit me. Waited for the pain. The impact. The blood. Whatever came when a bullet tore through my body. I waited for the end. The sound came. A loud, sharp crack echoed through the silent garden. But nothing else followed. There was no pain. No impact. No sensation at all-just that sound slicing through the air.

I opened my eyes in confusion, my mind scrambling to understand why I was still standing. Why I was still breathing. Why I was still alive. And then I saw Dominic collapsing, like every string holding him upright had been cut at the same time. He fell backward, hitting the decorated garden floor with a heavy, final thud. And then I saw the rest. The perfectly round hole right in the center of his forehead. Blood spilling down. His eyes wide open, frozen in absolute shock-as if even in his final seconds, he couldn't believe this was happening. Dominic Blackwood was dead.

I turned slowly toward Vivian, my brain still struggling to process what I had just witnessed. She stood there, the gun still raised, still pointed at where Dominic had been standing seconds earlier. A faint smile played on her lips. Then, in a gesture so cinematic it felt unreal, she blew lightly on the barrel of the gun like something straight out of an old Western. "He really should've thought twice," she said casually, her voice light, almost amused, "before putting a gun in my hand. Before teaching me how to shoot. Before teaching me to never ever miss a target." Her eyes met mine.

in 1/3 surrender. "Please," I managed, my voice shaking, breaking. I took a step back, stumbling. "Please, Vivian. Don't-" She laughed genuinely. It was almost friendly. "I

lot more innocent than I ever was." I kept backing away, my mind racing, searching desperately for an exit, a way out, a way to survive. "It was never going to work, of course," Vivian went on, shrugging. "Our friendship. Because I needed Dominic in my hands. And, well... he needed you in his." Then,

of everything she had done. "You suggested

her voice. "Did I enjoy watching you and the Kensington family struggle? Sure. I actually did. Was I a little... aggressively competitive? Absolutely. But-" she paused, looking at me with something that almost resembled honesty, "I didn't plan any of that. You really were just unlucky." She shrugged. "Then why were you at that camp representing Montgomery?"