Hired a Gigolo, Got a Billionaire

Chapter 703

Nicks POV

'When we stepped out of the barrel cellar, the late afternoon air hit my face like I'd just come up from underwater. Bella was in my arms, clinging to me the way children cling when the world turns dangerous. Her face was pressed into my neck, her small hands fisted in my shirt like I was a wall. I didn't have the strength to ask her to let go. I didn't want to. In the courtyard, the lights were already on. The sun had fully dropped, leaving that last stretch of day that looks like the end of a movie.

Except no movie ends with paperwork waiting in the middle of your property. The police were still there. Two men with the posture of people who do this every day. Clipboards. Phones. Authority filling the space. When they saw me, both moved at the same time.

"Mr. Valemont," the older one said. His tone was neutral. Not aggressive. Not kind.

"Is the child all right?"

"She is," I answered. Bella lifted her face just enough to glance at them, then buried it in me again. The officer nodded and looked toward Gwen. She stood beside me, half a step back.

"We need to understand how she was located," the officer continued, already writing.

say the route is that my daughter disappeared and I almost lost my mind. I swallowed it. Gwen spoke before I could.

tracked down camera footage and arrival times,"

school recordings. Then I looked for witnesses near

"Witnesses?" the officer asked. "A

of someone jotting down gelato vendor and thinking, of course, why not. My stomach tightened. "and then?" the officer prompted. Gwen hesitated for

a place they used to go together," she said. "And you found the child

felt the

It doesn't

rest was instinct," she finished. It was quick, but I saw it. The younger officer looked up from his notes and made that subtle shift of his mouth that signals skepticism. The expression that says: convenient. Convenient. Like I'd chosen tonight to stage a story. Like Gwen had picked the estate to perform heroics. Like my daughter had chosen fear to manipulate

Her eyes were steady and alert, saying the same thing I was thinking: they're going to try to force a triangle into a circle. I turned back to the

was hiding in the