Hired a Gigolo Got a Billionaire (Zoey and Christian) novel Chapter 501

Chapter 501

Madeline’s POV

“NO!”

The scream tore out of me before I could even fully understand what had just happened. I saw Marcus stumble. Saw the shock and pain flash across his face. Saw him instinctively clutch at his body.

“No, no, no!”

I ran to him, my knees slamming into the concrete floor at the exact moment he collapsed. I caught him before his head hit the ground, pulling him into my arms, cradling him against me.

“Marcus, no, please, no,” I sobbed, my voice completely breaking. “Stay with me, love. Please. Stay with

me.”

His blue eyes found mine. Those same blue eyes Aurora had inherited from him. But they were dull now, clouded with pain, and the sight of it shattered me.

He tried to speak, his mouth opening, but only a strangled sound came out. He tried again, forcing the

words out with visible effort.

“Save…” he whispered, so softly I almost didn’t hear it. “Save… our daughter…”

“No!” I screamed, clutching him tighter. “Don’t leave me! Marcus, don’t leave me! I need you! Aurora needs you! You can’t leave us!”

But his eyes were already fluttering shut. His body grew heavier in my arms. His breathing turned shallow, uneven.

“Marcus!” I screamed his name so loudly my throat burned. “Marcus, wake up! Please don’t do this to me!

The pain was so intense it erased everything else. I didn’t see the warehouse anymore. I didn’t see Vivian. I didn’t see anything except Marcus in my arms, fading, slipping away from me.

It was as if the world had shrunk down to just the two of us. Me and him. And him slipping through my

fingers.

“No, no, no, no,” I repeated like a broken mantra, rocking back and forth with him in my arms. “You can’t die. You can’t. I love you. I love you so much. Please don’t leave me. Please…”

Tears streamed down my face. My chest hurt so badly I could barely breathe. It felt like someone had ripped my heart out and crushed it right in front of me. Like every piece of me was being torn apart.

The universe couldn’t be this cruel. It couldn’t take him from me. Not like this. Not now. Not when we

finally had everything.

“Marcus, please,” I whispered against his hair, kissing his forehead, his face, any part of him I could

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reach. “Don’t leave me alone. Don’t leave us. I don’t know how to do this without you. I don’t know how to be strong without you. I need you. Aurora needs you.”

But he didn’t answer. He didn’t move. He just lay there, heavy and still in my arms.

And it was that stillness that finally shattered me completely. Sobs ripped out of my chest, so violent my whole body shook. The pain was physical. Raw. Unbearable.

And then I remembered.

Vivian.

The pain turned into rage.

A rage so fierce, so blistering, it burned straight through the despair, through the agony, through the fear. It gave me strength when I shouldn’t have had any left.

I carefully laid Marcus on the ground and stood up. My movements were mechanical, automatic, like my body was functioning while my mind lagged somewhere far behind.

And I saw her.

She was still standing there, a few yards away. The gun was still in her hand, now hanging at her side, visibly shaking. Her face was drained of color, her eyes wide.

Something inside me shattered completely.

“You’re insane!” I screamed, charging toward her. The pain had erased any sense of self-preservation.” Look at what you did! You shot him! You’re completely insane!”

I was only a few steps away now. I could see the panic in her eyes. See the gun trembling in her hand. But I didn’t care. Nothing mattered anymore. Marcus was bleeding on the floor behind me. Aurora was God knows where. And this woman was responsible for all of it.

Vivian raised the gun and fired.

The shot exploded so close that I felt the air shift beside my head. The sound echoed through the warehouse, freezing me instantly in place, my ears ringing.

“I am insane!” Vivian shouted, her voice tipping into hysteria now. “Yes, I’m insane! But I’m an insane woman with a gun, and you should respect that!”

I didn’t move. My heart was pounding so hard I could hear it. The bullet had passed so close. So close. If she’d aimed just a little more to the right…

Now Vivian kept the gun aimed directly at my head, and there was no longer any tremor in her hand. It was steady. Determined. Completely out of control.

“Now,” she said, her voice calmer but still edged with danger, “you have two choices. You come with me the easy way, or you come with me the hard way.”

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Chooter 501

I couldn’t respond. I couldn’t move. I was frozen there, completely paralyzed. The pain was blinding. I saw Marcus lying motionless on the floor behind me, and my heart splintered. I saw the gun pointed at my head, and fear locked me in place. I thought of Aurora, somewhere I didn’t know, and desperation crushed my chest.

It was too much. Too much to process. Too much to bear.

“If you behave,” Vivian continued, taking a step toward me, “I’ll take you to that whiny little daughter of yours. I’ll take you to Aurora. But if you don’t…” Vivian tilted her head, her dark eyes studying me. “Well. You saw what I’m capable of when you disobey me, Madeline. You saw what happened to Marcus when he tried to interfere. Do you really want to risk me doing the same to you? Or worse… to Aurora?”

The mention of my daughter, the threat wrapped inside it, made me tremble.

“Where…” My voice came out hoarse, broken. I tried again. “Where is she?”

“With Dominic,” Vivian answered simply. “Waiting for you. Waiting for Mommy.”

I looked back at Marcus, still lying on the floor, unmoving. Every fiber of my being screamed at me to go back, to stay with him, to not leave him alone.

I took a step toward him, my legs unsteady, my vision blurred by tears that wouldn’t stop falling.

“No,” Vivian said sharply, the gun shifting to aim at me again. “There’s nothing you can do for him now,” she cut in, her voice cold. “But you can do something for your daughter.”

I stood there, torn in two. Marcus. Aurora. The man I loved and the daughter I barely knew. How was I supposed to choose? How was I supposed to decide?

But there was no choice. Marcus had told me. His last words.

Save our daughter.

Still, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t take the step that would pull me away from him, that would drag me

farther from his side.

Vivian lost her patience.

She walked up to me with firm steps and grabbed my arm hard. Her fingers dug into my skin as she yanked me toward her.

“Enough,” she said, her voice low and dangerous. “Dominic doesn’t like to wait.”

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