Hired a Gigolo Got a Billionaire (Zoey and Christian) novel Chapter 361

Chapter 361

Madeline’s POV

Apollo had been gone for over an hour on a work call he’d promised would be quick, and since then I’d found myself sitting there, staring at the impeccably cleaned room, feeling his absence in a way that unsettled me.

houldn’t have missed him. We shouldn’t have gotten to this point so fast. And yet, there was something about. his presence that had already become familiar, and comforting even. The way he filled a room. The way he smiled when he saw me. The way he made even silence feel easy between us.

I was lost in those thoughts when my phone vibrated on the nightstand, the sound irritatingly loud in the quiet bungalow.

I walked over without much enthusiasm, expecting to see yet another call I’d been systematically ignoring since I ran from the wedding. My father. My mother. Vivian. Even Dominic, probably using different numbers, trying to convince me to come home and marry him.

But when I looked at the screen, the name made me hesitate.

Olivia.

My cousin. My almost-sister. The only person in my family who had always truly been on my side. The person I shared an apartment with. The one who knew me better than anyone else in the world, and who was probably worried sick by now. I let out a deep sigh and answered.

“Madeline!” Her voice exploded through the phone before I could even say hello. “Where the hell are you? I’m freaking out! Everyone’s looking for you, your parents are losing their minds, Dominic is—”

“Olivia, stop,” I cut in, my voice more tired than annoyed.

“Stop? Stop?!” she shouted even louder. “You disappeared in the middle of your own wedding! You left two hundred guests sitting there, your parents humiliated, and just vanished off the face of the Earth! You think I’m going to stop?”

“Just… stop for a second.”

I heard her take a deep breath on the other end, like she was forcing herself to calm down.

“Fine. Then explain it to me. Because no one understands what happened. Why did you run?”

I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling the same sharp ache in my chest that always came with the memories. It was still an open wound. It was one I couldn’t touch without bleeding.

“I can’t talk about it right now,” I said quietly, my voice thick. “It’s just… something happened that I couldn’t accept. Something that destroyed everything.”

The silence on the other end was so heavy I thought the call had dropped. Then her voice came back, softer, full of concern.

“Was it really that bad?”

“It was.” I took a shaky breath, the pain rising all over again. “And it still hurts too much to say out loud.”

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“Madeline…” Her voice carried a pain that mirrored my own. “I can’t believe someone would do something that serious to you

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“Believe it. And it’s not a phone conversation, so don’t ask me for details right now.”

There was another moment of silence as she processed it.

Okay,” she finally said. “But that still doesn’t explain where you are. Everyone thinks you might’ve done something reckless, that-”

“I didn’t do anything reckless,” I said quickly. “I’m fine. I’m safe. I’m… dealing with it.”

“Where are you, Madeline?”

I looked out the window at the golden sea, at the overwater bungalows stretching elegantly across the crystal- clear water, at the tropical paradise that had become my refuge.

“On my honeymoon.’

“My what?” Olivia’s voice jumped at least two octaves. “Did you go alone? Please tell me you’re not in some romantic resort by yourself, drowning in self-pity and caipirinhas.”

I hesitated for a moment, but I couldn’t stop a small smile from forming.

“Not exactly alone…”

The scream that came through the phone was so loud I had to pull it away from my ear.

“Not exactly alone?! What does that mean? Madeline! Are you with someone?”

“Olivia…”

“Who is he? How did this happen? Where did you meet him? Is this serious? Are you okay? Is he ”

“Olivia, stop!” I laughed despite everything. “I’m not having this discussion right now.”

“Oh, yes, you are! I’m having a heart attack over here. You disappear without a trace, everyone thinks you might be dead in a ditch somewhere, and now you tell me you’re on your honeymoon with a mysterious guy?”

“It’s not exactly like that…”

“Then what is it like?”

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. How was I supposed to explain Apollo? How could I explain this insane situation without sounding like I’d completely lost my mind?

“It’s complicated.”

“Complicated how?”

“Complicated as in ‘I’m not explaining this over the phone’ complicated.”

“Madeline Sullivan, I swear to God, if you don’t give me at least one basic piece of information, I will track your phone and show up there-”

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“You don’t even know where ‘here’ is.”

“Then tell me!”

“No.”

“Madeline!”

Olivia, listen.” My voice turned serious. “I need you to promise me something. Don’t tell anyone about this. Not my parents. Not anyone.”

“And how long are you planning on staying off the grid?”

“I need time. To recover. To think about everything that happened. To decide what I’m going to do when I go back.”

“Your parents are desperate, Madeline. Your mom hasn’t stopped crying. Your dad-”

“Then let them be desperate,” I cut her off, surprised by the hardness in my own voice. “They share some of the blame for what happened too.”

“I can’t believe you’re saying-”

“Then don’t believe it. But don’t ask me to feel sorry for them right now.”

Another tense silence followed. I could hear Olivia breathing heavily on the other end, probably torn between worrying about me and trying to process what I’d just said about my family.

“You are coming back, right?” she finally asked, and the vulnerability in her voice made my chest ache.

“I am,” I promised. “Of course I am. I just need a few more days.”

“Okay. But Madeline… be careful, alright? Whoever this guy-is, whatever you’re doing… just be careful.”

“I know what I’m doing.’

“Are you sure?”

The question hung in the air. Was I sure? Did I really know what I was doing here with Apollo, in this paradise, living a fantasy with an expiration date?

“I am,” I lied.

“Alright. I love you, cousin. And if you need me, you call me, okay?”

“I will. I love you too.”

I ended the call and stood there for several minutes, just holding my phone and staring out at the sea.

Talking to Olivia had dragged reality back into focus. The chaos I’d left behind. The decisions I would have to make. The life I would need to rebuild.

For a few more days, I could pretend I was just Aphrodite, a woman without a complicated past. I could pretend this place was real, that Apollo was real, that whatever we were building here had a future. But deep down, I

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knew the truth

I could run from a wedding. But

And soon enough, I would have to face it.

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