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.

being a father," I

show up.You go.You come

someone who accepts the logic but

matters...but it doesn't change her house."

her room there.I hate imagining what she hears." I swallowed the urge

asked, practical.It was what

something to eat?" He

want...five minutes

you'll have them." He

tonight." The Kensington event had been looming

of a new distributor

Partners.

Press.

Speeches.

Smiles.

before our chaos and

know..."

go either." I kept

think

"Gwen..."

I cut

for us.Two hours where you don't get in a car thinking about her gate."

floor, then back at me, and

the bedroom and picked

much armor.I needed something

the woman getting hit by the world.Not the woman trying

Just me.

sound might break something. When he stepped into the bedroom in a dark suit and

face stopped

you okay?" I

He shrugged.

I took that as a

lights were already blazing like it was daytime.There was

like expensive

to be too

Nick nodded.

don't stay long enough,

your lead," I

before

a man shouted, like I was a brand

smiled on instinct, shook hands,

stood near the stage with a glass in hand, wearing the enthusiasm of someone

taking

certain this will be a successful partnership."

"Absolutely," I replied.

up,

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

Short.

Clear.

No miracles promised.