Hired a Gigolo Got a Billionaire (Zoey and Christian) novel Chapter 406

Chapter 406

Marcus’ POV

When we turned around, a woman was standing there, casually leaning against a nearby column. I didn’t recognize her, but something about her posture put me on alert immediately. She wore a fitted dress, flawless makeup despite the Belmonte heat, and a smile that never quite reached her eyes.

Her gaze swept over me slowly, deliberately, like I was an object in a display window she was considering buying. The sensation made my skin crawl.

“Marcus Kensington,” she said, as if testing my name on her tongue, savoring every syllable. “So we finally meet in person.”

“And you are?” I asked, keeping my voice neutral despite the tension thickening the air.

“Vivian,” she replied, extending her hand toward me.

The name hit me like a punch to the chest.

Vivian. Madeline’s so-called best friend. The woman Madeline had told me about. Dominic’s accomplice. Part of the manipulation from the very beginning. And now she was standing here, smiling at me like we were old friends.

I didn’t take her hand.

“What are you doing here?” Olivia asked, her voice icy enough to cut glass.

“Visiting Madeline, of course,” Vivian replied, putting on a mask of fake innocence that probably worked on less perceptive people. “Unlike you two, I’m allowed to go in and see her whenever I want.”

The provocation was obvious. And painfully effective. My jaw clenched on its own.

“What do you mean, you’re allowed in?” I asked, fighting to keep my tone controlled when every instinct screamed at me to confront her head-on.

Vivian took a few slow, deliberate steps toward us, her movement almost choreographed to draw attention to her body. There was something predatory in the way she moved, like a snake closing in on its prey.

“Well, I’m her best friend,” she said, as if that explained everything. “I’m helping keep her calm during this very difficult time for all of us. Of course the administration would let me support her in a moment like this.”

The

way she spoke, as if she genuinely cared about Madeline, made my stomach churn. Olivia and I exchanged a look of grim understanding.

That was exactly it.

They were deliberately blocking the people who truly loved Madeline, while granting access to those who were part of the control. The manipulation.

“And how is she?” Olivia asked, forcing a casual tone while clearly trying to extract every possible detail.

TI

“Oh, sweetheart,” Vivian sighed dramatically, pressing a hand to her chest in an overdone show of concern. She’s doing terribly. Completely out of control, really. Having awful hallucinations. Saying things that make no

1/3

sense at all. The doctors had to significantly increase her medication just to keep her minimally stable.” Every word felt like a knife straight to my chest. Knowing Madeline was being drugged against her will, suffering while I stood outside powerless to protect her, made me want to break something. Someone.

at kind of medication, exactly?” I asked, forcing myself to sound clinical instead of desperate.

“Nothing that would harm the baby,” Vivian said lightly, “but enough to keep her… docile. Calm. Cooperative.”

The casual cruelty in her tone made my blood boil.

“That’s how it’ll stay until Dominic decides she’s finally behaving the way she should.”

The way she said it, like drugging someone into total submission was the most natural thing in the world, made

it painfully clear just how sick and twisted the entire situation was. These people didn’t see Madeline as a

human being with rights and autonomy. They saw her as an object to be controlled.

“You can’t keep doing this to her,” I said, fighting hard to keep my rising anger in check. “I’m her husband. I have legal rights that can’t just be ignored.”

Vivian laughed. A light, crystalline sound with no humor in it at all. Just cold cruelty.

“For now, sweetheart,” she said, stepping closer, deliberately invading my personal space.

“For now?” Olivia repeated instantly, catching the dark implication.

“This won’t last much longer,” Vivian replied with a venomous smile. “With the special emergency psychiatric process Dominic managed to activate, the annulment of the marriage should be approved very soon. It’s much faster when there are serious mental health issues involved. You know that.”

It felt like a brutal punch to the stomach. A special system? I didn’t know if such a thing truly existed or if it was just another one of Dominic’s fabrications or corrupt shortcuts, but the confidence in her voice made my blood run cold.

“Honestly, it’s for the best,” Vivian went on, taking another calculated step toward me. She was close enough now that I could smell her perfume. Sickeningly sweet. Expensive. Unable to hide the moral rot underneath. “A man like you married to someone who… well, who clearly isn’t fit to be anyone’s wife. What a waste.”

She bit her lower lip in a way that was clearly meant to be seductive, and my stomach turned with disgust.

“If you get lonely during those long nights of waiting,” she added smoothly, “you can always come find me.

The suggestion was so blatant, so wildly inappropriate given the circumstances, that for a moment I was genuinely speechless. This woman was openly flirting with me while my wife was being drugged against her will just a few meters away. The level of sociopathy required for that kind of behavior was terrifying.

“No, thank you,” I finally said, my voice colder than Siberian ice.

Vivian shrugged with practiced elegance, as if she’d just made a casual dinner invitation that had been politely declined.

“The offer stands,” she said, already stepping away. “When you finally get tired of fighting for someone who probably doesn’t even remember your name anymore, you know where to find me.”

2/3

And with that, she walked off, swaying her hips exaggeratedly, fully aware we were watching and clearly intent on giving us one last display of her complete lack of decency.

The moment she disappeared from view, Olivia turned to me. Her eyes were blazing with a mix of pure fury and rising desperation.

“They’re going to destroy her if we don’t act now.”

Comments

Support

Share

3/3