Hired a Gigolo Got a Billionaire (Zoey and Christian) novel Chapter 508

Chapter 508

Madeline’s POV

I closed my eyes.

It was instinctive. Automatic. When you know you’re about to die-when you see a gun aimed at you and hear the order given-you close your eyes.

I waited for the shot to hit me. Waited for the pain. The impact. The blood. Whatever came when a bullet tore through my body.

I waited for the end.

The sound came.

A loud, sharp crack echoed through the silent garden.

But nothing else followed.

There was no pain. No impact. No sensation at all-just that sound slicing through the air.

I opened my eyes in confusion, my mind scrambling to understand why I was still standing. Why I was still breathing. Why I was still alive.

And then I saw Dominic collapsing, like every string holding him upright had been cut at the same time.

He fell backward, hitting the decorated garden floor with a heavy, final thud.

And then I saw the rest.

The perfectly round hole right in the center of his forehead. Blood spilling down. His eyes wide open, frozen in absolute shock-as if even in his final seconds, he couldn’t believe this was happening.

Dominic Blackwood was dead.

I turned slowly toward Vivian, my brain still struggling to process what I had just witnessed.

She stood there, the gun still raised, still pointed at where Dominic had been standing seconds earlier. A faint smile played on her lips. Then, in a gesture so cinematic it felt unreal, she blew lightly on the barrel of the gun like something straight out of an old Western.

“He really should’ve thought twice,” she said casually, her voice light, almost amused, “before putting a gun in my hand. Before teaching me how to shoot. Before teaching me to never ever miss a target.”

Her eyes met mine.

And the gun shifted, now aimed directly at me.

“Now it’s just you and me, Madeline,” she said.

Terror slammed back into me at full force. My knees nearly gave out. My hands flew up instinctively in

1/3

surrender.

“Please,” I managed, my voice shaking, breaking. I took a step back, stumbling. “Please, Vivian. Don’t-”

She laughed genuinely. It was almost friendly.

“I really wanted to be your best friend, you know,” she said, and there was something almost nostalgic in her tone. “I like you, Madeline. I actually liked the friendship we had. I could even see you ending up where I am-just a lot more innocent than I ever was.”

I kept backing away, my mind racing, searching desperately for an exit, a way out, a way to survive.

“It was never going to work, of course,” Vivian went on, shrugging. “Our friendship. Because I needed Dominic in my hands. And, well… he needed you in his.”

Then, to my absolute shock, she lowered the gun.

Holstered it at her waist like it was the most normal thing in the world.

“Relax,” she said, seeing my expression. “This was never about you. I suggested we work together, remember? I suggested we team up against Dominic.”

I stood there, frozen, hearing the words but unable to fully process them. My body was still in survival mode-every muscle tight, coiled, ready to run.

But something inside me began to pull itself back together. The rage. The indignation. The memory of everything she had done.

“You suggested it,” I finally said, my voice steadier now. And obviously, I hadn’t believed a single word back then. “The same weekend you tried to throw me off a bridge while I was pregnant? When you caused my husband to go into hypothermia?”

Vivjan rolled her eyes.

“The world doesn’t revolve around your bellybutton, Madeline!” she snapped, pure exasperation in her voice. “Did I enjoy watching you and the Kensington family struggle? Sure. I actually did. Was I a little… aggressively competitive? Absolutely. But-” she paused, looking at me with something that almost resembled honesty, “I didn’t plan any of that. You really were just unlucky.” She shrugged.

“Then why were you at that camp representing Montgomery?” I pressed, stepping closer now, my anger starting to outweigh the fear. “If it wasn’t to hurt us?”

“To bring you back to Verdania,” Vivian replied simply, like it should’ve been obvious. “To put you on a plane and get you out while Dominic blew up your husband and his meddling cousin on that jet.”

The blood drained from my face.

“What?”

“He wanted you alive. The Kensington men? Not so much,” she continued, unfazed by my reaction. ” Besides, he needed Montgomery to destroy Kensington afterward-with sabotage. It wasn’t enough to

2/3

have the cousins dead. His rage was so deep he wanted to destroy the company’s reputation too.”

“By killing innocent people in the process,” I shot back, my voice shaking with fury now. “With the poisonings.”

Vivian shrugged again.

“Well, Dominic never cared about collateral damage.”

“Neither do you, apparently,” I fired back, taking another step forward. “Following every order. Acting like his obedient little lapdog.”

Something flashed in her eyes. Anger. Pain. Something old and buried deep.

“You don’t understand!” she practically screamed, and I saw the first real crack in her controlled façade.” I had to! I had to keep him in my hands. I had to do what he wanted so he’d trust me blindly. Until-until he signed the papers without even looking. Until-” she gestured violently, “until this. Until he was comfortable with me holding a gun just a few feet away from him.”

She walked over to Dominic’s body and, in a gesture of pure contempt, kicked him hard in the ribs.

“Close enough to kill that miserable son of a bitch,” she spat, so much venom in her voice that I almost stepped back. “And finish my revenge.”

P

Comments

Support

Share

3/3