Hired a Gigolo, Got a Billionaire

Chapter 692

Gwen's POV

Two months have a cruel way of looking short on a calendar and endless in your body.

The new routine settled like fine dust.

You don't see it at first, but you feel it in your throat.

I memorized visitation hours like medication instructions.

I learned not to ask questions that sounded like interrogations.

I learned to smile at Bella without asking for anything back.

And most of all, I learned the sound of Nick's car in the garage.

That afternoon, I heard the elevator and closed my laptop before finishing the email.

Automatic.

My body already knew.

Nick walked in without announcing himself.

Not because he was trying to be dramatic.

He just saved words when words were expensive.

He dropped his keys on the console, took off his coat slowly, and stood there for a second like the house had shifted in the last three days.

"She asked again," he said.

I didn't ask what, because I knew.

I just stepped close enough for him to see me without feeling cornered.

'Can I come back yet?" he finished.

His voice sounded like a door that creaks just slightly.

"I told her not yet." He ran a hand over his face.

"How did she say it?" I asked.

"Quiet.Like she didn't want her mom to hear." He exhaled.

"Then she pretended she didn't care.Showed me a new game.But...she was different." I nodded.

"Different how?" "Quieter.

" He looked at the window instead of me."She hugged me tighter when I left.

" What I wanted to say was this is manipulation.This is alienation.This is a child surviving in the middle of a tug-of-war.What I said was: "She's trying to adapt.The only way she knows how." Nick let out a short breath through his nose.

"and me? I'm trying to be a father by appointment." I stepped closer.

are being a father,"

off appointment, with a judge, without one.You show up.You go.You come back.That matters." He finally looked at

who accepts the logic but

her house." He looked

swallowed the urge

practical.It was what I could offer without taking

eat?"

minutes without

have them." He lifted

Kensington event had been looming on the calendar

new distributor in

Partners.

Press.

Speeches.

Smiles.

that existed before our chaos

know..."

to go either." I

I think we should."

"Gwen..."

I

don't get in a car thinking about

at the floor, then back at me, and

went to the bedroom and picked a dress without

much

the woman getting hit by the world.Not the woman

Just me.

and closing drawers carefully, like the sound might break something. When he stepped into the bedroom in a dark suit and an open-

face stopped pretending

you okay?"

He shrugged.

look presentable." I took that

were already blazing like it was daytime.There was a carpet at

air smelled like expensive

it gets to be too much, tell me,"

Nick nodded.

I don't stay long

follow your

name before I'd

shouted, like I was

on instinct, shook hands, and

a glass in hand, wearing

he said, taking my

will be

"Absolutely," I replied.

me up, I

he was using it as an anchor.I delivered the speech the

Short.

Clear.

No miracles promised.