Hired a Gigolo, Got a Billionaire

Chapter 182 "Alex," I said, my tone sharper now, stripped of any softness. "You're a traitor and a fool, that's true. But at least you're not a criminal. You still have a chance to walk away from this before you get dragged down with her. Because when all of this comes to light, you don't want your name anywhere near it." He nodded slowly, like a man waking from a long, heavy sleep, realizing too late the nightmare had been real all along. "You're right," he murmured, voice barely audible. "I know you're right. I just... don't understand why I'm still here.

Why I still care what happens to her after everything." "Because you're pathetic," I said coldly. "You can't face the truth that she never loved you. Admitting that would mean admitting you threw away everything for nothing. And guess what? I don't pity you. Not even a little. Blame whoever you want, but the choice was still yours." Then, feeling the weight of years pressing against my chest, I crouched down until I was eye level with Elise. It was time. Time to say everything I had buried deep inside, every truth I had swallowed, every word she deserved to hear.

"You know something, Elise?" I began, my voice low but steady, charged with a strength I hadn't known I possessed. "For years, I wondered what was wrong with me. Why my best friend, the person I trusted the most... would betray me in the cruelest way possible." Something flickered in her eyes then-something raw and fleeting. Vulnerability. And just as quickly, she hid it behind that mask of loathing she wore like armor. "Who was the one trying so hard to be perfect, Elise? To be chosen, to matter?" I pressed, my voice sharpening with every word. "It wasn't me. It was you.

get you what you wanted." I paused, letting my words sink in, and letting her sink under the weight of them. "I bet you wanted Christian, didn't you?" I said, and her

sadness. They were tears of release. "And you..." I continued softly, almost with pity, "you were born to chase crumbs. Always running after what other people have. Always trying to outdo me in some imaginary competition you invented inside that twisted head of yours. When you could've just been happy. You could've been my best friend. You could've celebrated my happiness instead of trying to destroy it." The silence around us

really do." Elise blinked, confusion flickering across her face for the first time. "Because of you," I went on, my voice steady and sure, "I learned who I am. You showed me what kind of woman I never want to be. You forced me to grow stronger, to fight for my happiness, to build a life no one can take from me. So, in a strange way, you did me a favor." 1/2 I stood up slowly,

and your pathetic betrayals, I might've ended up living a mediocre life with an even more mediocre man," I said, an ironic smile tugging at my lips. "But look at me now. I have real love,

have a family who welcomed me, a grandpa who adores me, and a life I never even dreamed was possible." I glanced around at the sterile white hallway, the silent machines, and the man who'd once been her husband slipping quietly away, unable to stand the sight of her