Hired a Gigolo, Got a Billionaire

Chapter 416 Madeline's POV It had been ten days since we'd arrived at the Galleo property, and I found myself counting them like a prisoner scratching marks into a wall. Not because I felt trapped. If anything, there was something deeply freeing about being there, far away from all the toxicity that had dominated my life over the past few months. Still, there was a strange sensation of living inside a bubble, as if the real world had temporarily stopped existing. I was sitting on the terrace with Olivia, enjoying the golden late afternoon that had become part of our daily routine.

She was flipping through a Valentian magazine she'd found in the house's library, while I watched the olive trees sway gently in the breeze. It was a scene of absolute peace, yet my mind refused to fully settle. "Don't you think it's strange?" I said, breaking the comfortable silence between us. "What?" Olivia asked, lifting her eyes from the magazine. "Dominic being so quiet. Ten days and... nothing. No moves, no attempts to find us, at least nothing that's reached us. That's very unlike him." Olivia closed the magazine and looked at me thoughtfully.

"Maybe he genuinely has no idea where we are. Marcus was extremely careful, and this property is registered under Beatrice's family name, not the Kensington name. He might just be completely lost." I shook my head, a sense of unease curling in my stomach that I couldn't quite explain. "Have you checked social media lately?" "No," Olivia admitted. "Marcus asked us to avoid anything that could be tracked. Why?" I sighed, remembering the screenshots Marcus had discreetly shown me a few days earlier, against his own advice that I shouldn't expose myself to any of it.

My parents keep appearing everywhere, giving emotional interviews about their missing daughter. Crying in nt of cameras. Begging me to come home. Saying they're desperate and just want to know I'm okay." y chest tightened at the memory. My mother, eyes red and swollen, holding a photo of me from years ago. My father pleading with whoever had "taken" me to bring me back safely. "Dominic is definitely manipulating them," I continued, bitterness creeping into my voice.

"I won't," I said, more firmly than I truly felt. "I know that's exactly what he wants. The second I make contact, he'll find a way to track me." The words came

your parents?" I asked. "They must be worried about you too." Olivia snorted, a flash of disdain crossing her face. "If I talk to them twice a year, that's a lot." "But they must be worried," I pressed, surprised by how cold she sounded. "You basically disappeared." "I didn't just disappear. I contacted them beforehand. Told them I got a new job and that I'm fine. They didn't question anything," she said

casual tone, and a stab of guilt hit me for dragging her into this mess. She had left her life in Verdania because of me, and now she was just as stuck

and holding out her hand to me. "It's our last night here, and they've prepared something special." It was true. Tomorrow we would move into the apartment in Florentia. Marcus had finally decided it was safe for us to

as long as we wanted, but we both felt it was time to take the next step. We walked into the dining room and found the table beautifully set. Jonathan and Beatrice had clearly gone all out for the last meal we'd share together as an extended family. Candles glowed softly, the finest