Hired a Gigolo, Got a Billionaire

Chapter 177 Without saying a single word or even looking back, I turned and walked straight toward the stairs, ignoring the confused, worried, questioning stares I could feel coming from every direction in the dining room. My heart was pounding so hard and unevenly that I was certain everyone could hear it echoing off the walls. Behind me, I heard Christian's calm, composed voice, offering some polite, vaguely diplomatic excuse about me having forgotten something important upstairs and that we'd be back to join everyone shortly.

His tone was perfectly smooth for the guests, but I could still hear the tension beneath it, the genuine worry threading through even his controlled façade. Once we reached our bedroom and he closed the door behind us, sealing us off from the rest of the world, tears were already streaming down my face before I could even form the words. "I don't know how to tell you this," I whispered, my voice shaking and thick with emotion. Christian stepped toward me slowly, carefully, like I was something fragile that might shatter if he moved too fast.

His hands instinctively reached for me but stopped just short, hovering in hesitation-as if he wasn't sure I'd want to be touched in that moment of raw vulnerability. "Just say it," he said gently, his voice calm and infinitely patient. "Whatever it is, no matter how hard, just tell me the truth." I took several shaky breaths, trying to piece my thoughts together in a way that might soften the blow. But there was no gentle way to say something that would hurt this much.

"When I went up to that small organizer's office to get the marketing materials," I began slowly, every word feeling like it was being ripped from my throat, "when I opened the door, I saw Elise kissing someone." I'paused, gathering strength I wasn't sure I had. "Actually... more than kissing. It was... intimate. Very intimate. The kind of moment that makes it obvious it wasn't the first time it had happened between them." Christian said nothing, just waited in complete silence, giving me space to go on. "I recognized Elise first, of course.

had walked in..." I stopped again. My throat tightened painfully, as if my body itself was trying to keep me from saying it-from causing him that kind of pain. "I honestly don't know how to say this. There's no easy or gentle way." "Zoey," Christian said quietly, his tone firming, the steel of resolve sliding beneath the tenderness. "I already know it's someone

sound, no breath, no

way to soften the blow I'd

repeated the word father like he was testing its sound, trying to understand how it could possibly be tied to a betrayal this big. "Christian, I'm sorry," I whispered, moving toward him on instinct, wanting to offer something, anything, that might comfort him. "I don't understand," he went on, like he was talking more to himself than to me, trying to process something that broke every rule of family he knew. "If he's really involved in

to send strength through touch alone. "I think that part was more of a desperate attempt by Elise to shut me up, but..." Christian kept spiraling out loud, as if he needed to hear every thought to make any sense of it, to organize a reality that felt impossible.