Hired a Gigolo Got a Billionaire (Zoey and Christian) novel Chapter 478

Chapter 478

Madeline’s POV

“Can we take a break?” I blurted out suddenly, my heart racing, my breathing uneven. “Oh my God, I need

a break…”

I ran a hand through my hair, nerves buzzing, finally feeling the full weight of what I’d just said crash over me. I love you. I’d actually said it out loud-and now I had to face everything that came with it.

Marina looked at me with concern, but she was professional enough to know when to step back.

“Of course, no problem,” she said gently. “Let’s take a twenty-minute break.”

Marcus helped me down from the carousel, his grip steady on my hand, his face a mix of surprise and something I couldn’t quite read. We walked in silence to the small café nearby, and the entire time my mind spun obsessively around what had just happened.

We sat at a secluded table, and a waiter came to take our order. I asked for fresh orange juice; Marcus ordered an espresso. When the waiter walked away, the silence between us felt so heavy it was almost tangible.

Marcus was the first to speak-and to my surprise, there was a playful smile on his lips.

“You didn’t even give me time to respond, you know.”

The comment caught me off guard, and I couldn’t help smiling too, some of the tension finally easing.

“You don’t need to,” I said, meeting his eyes. “I know you love me.”

He smiled, and there was something relieved in that smile, like my certainty was exactly what he needed

to hear.

“I need to apologize,” I began, feeling the words pile up inside me like a dam about to burst. “For never really paying attention to everything you do for me. From the big gestures-like renting out an entire park just to make me happy-to the small, everyday ones.”

I paused, trying to organize my thoughts as honestly as I could.

“I wasn’t this kind of person,” I went on. “I was romantic, idealistic—the kind of teenage girl who dreamed about a prince on a white horse. And now that he’s standing right in front of me… it took me so long to recognize him.”

“I understand,” Marcus said softly. “After everything you went through with Dominic…”

“Yes,” I agreed, that familiar sadness settling in my chest. “Dominic broke me in ways I couldn’t even admit to myself. He made me doubt everything-my perceptions, my feelings, my own sanity.”

I looked at Marcus, needing him to truly understand.

“But you rebuilt me. Brick by brick, day after day, gesture by gesture. Even when I couldn’t see it. Even

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when I fought it. You stayed.”

Tears gathered in my eyes, but I forced myself to keep going.

“I’ll admit I always kept one foot out the door. I was always shielding myself, ready to leave, because I thought that if I never admitted that I loved you, it would hurt less when everything fell apart.”

“Madeline…”

TO

“Because at some point, everything was bound to go wrong,” I continued, needing to get it all out. Something from the past would come back to haunt us. Or someone new would enter your life. Or maybe you’d just realize that all of this was nothing more than an arrangement you didn’t want to keep anymore.”

“None of that is going to happen.”

I shrugged, wiping away a tear that had slipped free.

“We can’t predict the future,” I said honestly. “And I won’t pretend I know how everything will end. But I also don’t want to keep living like a pessimist just because Dominic and Vivian turned me into one.”

I took a deep breath, a new clarity settling over me.

“I want to dive into this relationship, Marcus. If you want to too. I want to say you’re my husband not because we got married for practical reasons, but because I love you. And I want you to know that I love you. I love you.”

I repeated the words, needing them to feel more real each time I said them, as if I were engraving them not just into Marcus, but into myself.

Marcus laughed, and there was so much pure joy in that sound that I felt my heart expand.

“I love you too,” he said at last, his words carrying the weight of everything we’d been through to get there. “And I want all of that with you too.”

He squeezed my hand, his eyes shining with an intensity I recognized as hope.

“Starting with rebuilding this place and creating new memories for our daughter. Our family.”

The way he said those last words made me realize he’d been waiting for this too. For the confirmation that we were more than circumstances and agreements, more than an unexpected pregnancy and a marriage of convenience.

“Our family,” I echoed, reaching across the table to take his hand, our fingers interlacing.

It was simple and, at the same time, infinitely complex. We were Marcus and Madeline-two people broken in different ways, who had found each other at exactly the right moment. Or maybe at the wrong moment that somehow became the right one.

We didn’t know what the future held. But we had each other. And for the first time since all of this had

begun, I could say that without fear, without reservations, without bracing myself for an inevitable fall.

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