Hired a Gigolo, Got a Billionaire

Chapter 488 Vivian's POV The hospital room was sterile and impersonal, its white walls seeming to amplify every sound-the steady beep of the monitors, the low hum of the air conditioner, the shuffle of shoes in the hallway outside. I was propped up in bed, still hooked to the IV dripping methodically through the catheter in my arm, when the door opened. I expected to see a nurse or the doctor doing rounds. I did not expect to see her. "What are you doing here?" I asked immediately, my voice coming out louder and more desperate than I meant it to.

She closed the door behind her with a soft click, then turned to face me with that expression I knew all too well-a mix of concern, anger, and something dangerously close to disappointment. She was a few years younger than me, but in that moment, she carried a weariness that made her look far older. "I find out my sister almost died," she said, her calm clearly forced, "and you're asking what I'm doing here?" I glanced nervously at the door, as if Dominic might appear at any second. "Go home, Cecilia. He can't see you here." But my sister didn't move.

Instead, she pulled a chair up beside the bed and sat down, watching me with that piercing look that always managed to strip away my defenses. "Why?" she asked, open disdain in her voice. "Does he come visit you every day? Plays the perfect boyfriend? He almost killed you, Vivian." "But he didn't," I shot back automatically-hating how the words sounded even to my own ears. Cecilia let out a bitter, humorless laugh. "Wow. That's what you call love now." "You know I don't have a choice." "You do have a choice!" Cecilia leaned forward, her voice sharpening. "Of course you do.

slightly, as if I'd physically struck her. When she spoke again, her voice trembled with barely contained emotion. "No," she said, every word slow and deliberate. "You chose this for yourself. I never asked you for 1/3 anything. I just wanted... I just wanted..." She stopped, unable to finish

had this same conversation dozens of times over the years, always ending in the same painful place. "You just wanted to forget," I finished for her, my voice softening. "But I'm your older sister, Cecilia. I don't forget." The silence that followed was heavy, thick with unspoken memories and shared wounds neither of us could fully put into words. I could see the battle playing out on Cecilia's face-the desire to save me clashing with the need to save herself. Finally, she spoke, and her voice was

hollow it sounded. "It's almost over." Cecilia looked at me with that expression that made it painfully clear she didn't believe

couldn't tell if it was from stifled sobs or bottled-up anger-or a devastating mix of both. "I love you," I whispered into her hair, breathing in the familiar lavender scent she always wore." Everything I do... it's for you. For all of you." "I know," Cecilia said, but there was a deep sadness in her voice that told me she wasn't sure any of

the door with care just a second