Hired a Gigolo, Got a Billionaire

Chapter 380 Madeline's POV It wasn't a question. It was a simple, direct statement that was impossible to deny after what he'd just W..nessed. "It's not yours," I said immediately, still on my knees on the cold bathroom floor, trying to regain some control over a situation that was slipping through my fingers. The words came out automatically, like a protective reflex. Denial was easier and safer. It kept a barrier between us, even if we both knew there was a very real chance it wasn't true. "How far along are you?" he asked, stepping closer, his tone careful but insistent.

I tried to stand, bracing myself against the cold sink, but my legs were shaking from the nausea and from the emotional strain crashing down all at once. I didn't want this conversation. Not here. Not like this. "I haven't done any official tests yet..." I tried to deflect, avoiding his eyes. But I could tell Marcus had no intention of letting it go. "How many months, Madeline?" he repeated, firmer now, like he knew I was dodging the real issue. I lowered my gaze, unable to look at him. The truth sat heavy on my tongue, like molten lead. "Maybe...

nine or ten weeks," I whispered, my voice barely audible. I saw the exact moment he did the math. Nine or ten weeks took us straight back to the Maldives. Straight back to that intense week we'd spent together, far from the real world and all its complications. "Then it could be mine," he said, his voice tightening, charged with an emotion I couldn't quite name. Surprise? Fear? Resolve? "Impossible," I shot back, desperate to cling to the denial I'd built inside my head.

made my stomach twist again. "And you know that." My heart slammed into my ribs because he was right. We both knew it. We'd been careful most of the time. But there had been that one night. The one where the intensity had overwhelmed logic. Where urgent desire had made protection an

of what it implied. "That's enough," Marcus said simply. He wasn't speculating. He wasn't playing with hypotheticals. He was stating a basic biological fact I knew but had chosen to ignore over the past few weeks. It had only been once with Marcus. With Dominic, on the

married. and moving on with my life. And you should do the same. You should forget we ever met. Forget everything that happened between us." The words sounded hollow even as I said them. Marcus stepped closer, and this time I couldn't avoid his gaze. There was something different in him now, a

heavy with an absolute resolve that made me shiver. "But things are very different now.' He paused, like he was choosing his next words carefully. "And if that child is mine," he continued, each word delivered with surgical precision, "you don't get a choice. I will pull you out of that wedding, whether you want it or not." The absolute, almost possessive tone of his statement

chance I'm that child's father, I'm not standing by while you marry a criminal and raise my child inside a lie." The word 'my child' twisted something deep in my chest. There was a