Hired a Gigolo, Got a Billionaire

Chapter 690

Chapter 690

Nick's POV

The silence in the car was worse than anything else.

I drove without remembering the route.

Gwen sat with her hands folded in her lap, her fingers moving now and then like she was counting something invisible to keep herself steady.

Heartbeats.

Deadlines.

Fear.

When we got home, Bella was in the living room with Martina, sitting on the floor drawing.

When she saw us, she looked up and smiled.

Small.

Real.

The kind of joy that wrecked me because it had no idea what was coming.

"Daddy!" She jumped up and ran to me with that pure, instinctive sense of belonging I crouched down and hugged her, squeezing my eyes shut.

"Hey, baby." Martina looked at me, then at Gwen, reading the news in our faces.

She didn't ask.She just stood slowly and touched my shoulder.

A silent I'm here.

It took me a full minute to find words that didn't taste like panic.

"Bella...can you come with me for a minute?" I asked.

She nodded

and started

had just tried to pull out of

on the

beside me,

I started, hating the

to be...different for a little while." Bella

I took

Then another.

hold

with Mommy for a

But heavy.

Bella blinked.

at her face and felt

sweetheart," I

promised she'll play with me," she said, and her voice carried a hope

gelato." I felt Gwen's presence in the

a second.Martina appeared in the hallway too, quiet, watching the way mothers do

brighter now, like she'd found

Mommy." Gwen stepped

you two?" she

mom promise, sweetheart? What else did she say?" Bella looked at Gwen the way a child looks at someone who exists in the room but doesn't control the rules.She wasn't mean.She was just...closed."She said...she said she'll

us." My stomach dropped.I looked at Gwen.She understood

an innocent

It had shape.

Direction.

Intention.

Bella, trying to keep my

My

in the suit...that you liked staying at Mommy's house more?" Bella shrugged,

Because I'm hers." She looked at Gwen and added, without cruelty, just with that clean certainty children have: "And I'm not Gwen's." Gwen walked

took for her not

to look like she was asking

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