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.

a father,"

appointment, with a judge, without one.You show up.You go.You come back.That

who accepts the logic but not the

matters...but it doesn't change her house." He looked away

imagining what she hears." I swallowed the urge to say Renee's name.I wouldn't give her more space inside our

a shower?" I asked, practical.It was what I

eat?" He shook his

want...five minutes

them." He lifted an eyebrow,

the event tonight." The Kensington event had been looming on the calendar

of a new distributor in

Partners.

Press.

Speeches.

Smiles.

before our chaos and therefore felt like

know..."

want to go

think we should."

"Gwen..."

for business," I

don't get in a car thinking about

looked at the floor, then back at me, and nodded

and picked a dress without overthinking

much

hit by the world.Not the woman trying

Just me.

my hair back, I heard Nick in the bathroom, opening and closing drawers carefully, like the sound might break something. When he stepped into the bedroom in a dark suit and an open- collar shirt, I noticed something he probably didn't.He looked more handsome

stopped pretending to be

okay?"

He shrugged.

look presentable." I took that as a

was daytime.There

smelled like expensive perfume and freshly poured

gets to be too much, tell me,"

Nick nodded.

don't stay long enough,

your

last name before I'd even crossed half

I

on instinct, shook hands, and accepted

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

taking my

certain this will be a successful partnership."

"Absolutely," I replied.

called me up, I

room quieted just enough.I spotted Nick near a column, like he was using it as an anchor.I delivered the speech the way I

Short.

Clear.

No miracles promised.