Hired a Gigolo Got a Billionaire (Zoey and Christian) novel Chapter 408

Chapter 408

Marcus’ POV

The relentless pounding on my apartment door ripped me out of a deep, restless sleep. I glanced at the digital clo on my nightstand. 3:20 a.m. Who the hell would be knocking at my door at this hour?

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The knocking continued, louder now. It was more urgent. It had to be Olivia. I’d given her permission to come up without announcing herself, given everything going on with Madeline, but I hadn’t expected her to use it in the middle of the night.

I stumbled out of bed, still half-asleep, ran a hand through my messy hair, and headed for the door. When I opened it, Olivia was standing in the hallway, visibly shaken, her eyes bright with an urgency that instantly put me on edge. She was wearing wrinkled clothes, like she’d rushed straight out of her apartment.

“What’s going on?” I asked, concern wiping away the last traces of sleep.

“Madeline is at the hospital,” she said bluntly, her voice tight with tension that made my stomach drop.

It felt like a punch to the gut.

“What?” I managed, my voice rougher than I meant it to be. “But the procedure wasn’t supposed to happen until tomorrow afternoon.”

Our entire plan with Christian was built around that timeline. We had contacts at the hospital who alerted us when Dominic scheduled the DNA procedure for Madeline, even though it was strongly contraindicated given her condition. That information had bought us time to prepare and to mobilize everything we needed.

We had secured a detailed medical report from the doctor who performed Madeline’s first ultrasound, clearly documenting why the procedure was dangerous due to the placental detachment that had been detected. We had lawyers ready to file an emergency injunction to stop it, and even law enforcement on standby to intervene if necessary, using the situation to expose the neglect and abuse Madeline was suffering in the psychiatric clinic.

The strategy was bold, but solid. The goal was to have her guardianship transferred back to me, who, like it or not, was still legally her husband. It was a clean, decisive move that could end all of this at once, pulling her out of Dominic’s grip permanently and legally.

But now Madeline was at the hospital in the middle of the night, and our carefully constructed plan had completely fallen apart.

“What happened?” I asked, already moving back toward the bedroom to get dressed, my mind racing as I tried to process the implications of this sudden change.

“I don’t have all the details,” Olivia said, following me down the hall as I grabbed jeans and a shirt from the closet. “But she was brought into the ER with bleeding. My contact at reception called me as soon as her name popped up in the system.”

My blood went cold.

Bleeding during pregnancy could mean a lot of things. Most of them bad. Miscarriage. Placental abruption. Some complication caused by the sedatives they’d been forcing on her. My mind raced through every horrific possibility, each one worse than the last.

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“What time did she get there?” I asked, pulling on my shirt.

“About two hours ago. She arrived screaming that she was losing the baby. The medical team took her straight into obstetric emergency.”

A ve of pure panic crashed through me.

Madeline was alone, terrified and bleeding with no one there to comfort her or protect her interests. Dominic was probably already on his way to the hospital, if he wasn’t there already, ready to take control of the situation and block anyone from getting near her.

I was already running for the elevator, slipping on my shoes and digging for my car keys, when I pulled out my phone and called Christian.

“Marcus?” His voice sounded groggy, confused. “It’s three thirty in the morning.”

“Send the helicopter to the hospital. Now,” I said without preamble, urgency cutting straight through any social niceties. “Madeline is there.”

I heard the sound of him getting out of bed fast, Zoey’s voice asking what was going on somewhere in the background.

“What happened?”

“We don’t know yet. Bleeding. I’m heading there now. I need to get there before Dominic completely takes control of the situation.”

“The helicopter’s being prepped,” Christian said, fully awake now, all business. “It’ll be ready in twenty minutes. I’m sending our security team too.”.

“Thank you,” I said, a surge of gratitude and relief hitting me. Having Christian on my side in this war mattered more than ever.

I hung up and stepped into the elevator with Olivia. The ride down to the underground garage felt endless, every passing second tightening the knot in my chest as I imagined what we might find at the hospital.

The moment we reached the garage, I sprinted to my car and peeled out onto the nearly empty streets of Belmonte. The city was still asleep, the avenues eerily quiet, broken only by the occasional taxi or delivery truck cutting through the darkness.

“So now what?” Olivia asked as I took a sharp turn toward the hospital. “What’s the plan?”

Her question forced my mind through every carefully crafted strategy we’d built over the past few days. Plans layered on top of plans, Backup contingencies for backup contingencies. We’d investigated Dominic from every possible angle, only to keep running into one of his allies. Another protected contact. Another powerful person who owed him favors.

We were fighting in court to have Madeline’s guardianship transferred to me, challenging the authority her parents had been given. But the legal process was slow, tangled, and suffocating. Even with the best lawyers in the country, the system moved at its own pace.

We’d orchestrated an entire legal and police operation for the moment they tried to force Madeline into the DNA test that endangered both her and the baby. We had ironclad medical documentation. Authorities ready to

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intervene. Solid legal arguments for medical negligence. It had been a flawless plan, days in the making

And it had all collapsed with one phone call in the middle of the night.

Ever plan, every legal maneuver, every attempt to work within the system ran headfirst into the corruption and influence Dominic had spread everywhere. It was like fighting a hydra. Cut off one head, and two more grew

back.

Maybe it was time to stop trying to be strategic. Maybe it was time to stop playing by the rules of a system Dominic had poisoned. Maybe it was time to stop thinking with my head and start acting with my heart.

“Get Madeline out of there,” I said finally, my voice filled with a determination that rose from somewhere deep and primal inside me. “No matter the cost.”

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