Hired a Gigolo Got a Billionaire (Zoey and Christian) novel Chapter 569

Chapter 569

Gwen’s POV

I answered the call with my heart racing, lifting the phone to my ear before I fully registered that it was a

video call.

“Hello?”

“Gwen!”

It wasn’t Nick’s voice.

It was Bella.

The screen filled with the girl’s animated little face, her eyes shining, a huge smile taking up half the frame because she was holding the phone far too close.

“Bella!” I exclaimed, unable to stop the smile that instantly curved my lips, even through the disappointment tightening in my chest. “Hi, my love. What a wonderful surprise!”

Except it wasn’t. Not completely.

Because for a split second, when I’d seen Nick’s name on the screen, my heart had leapt with expectation. I’d imagined hearing his voice, deep and warm. I’d imagined seeing those green eyes looking at me through the screen.

And instead, it was Bella. A girl I adored and missed, but who wasn’t him.

The realization bothered me more than it should have.

“Look!” Bella spun the phone so fast the image blurred for a moment, then focused on what she was holding. “I made a drawing of us!”

It took my eyes a second to adjust. The picture was colorful, drawn in crayon. Three figures. One small in the middle, two taller ones on either side. The figure on the left had long hair and something that looked

like a star on her neck.

“It’s beautiful,” I said honestly, my chest tightening. “That’s us watching cartoons.”

“Yes!” Bella flipped the phone back to her beaming face. “You remember!”

“Of course I do,” I replied, settling more comfortably on the bed and discreetly wiping away the last traces of tears that might still have been visible. “How could you let me forget? You talked about that

drawing.”

Bella laughed, that clear, carefree laugh only children have, untouched by real worries.

“And how’s school?” I asked, slipping easily into the child-friendly conversation mode that had become surprisingly natural during those days at the inn. “Did you learn anything new?”

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“I learned about the seasons!” Bella said excitedly. “And about how plants grow. The teacher said that in spring everything gets prettier and the flowers come out and-”

She kept talking, her words tumbling over each other with the enthusiasm typical of six-year-olds when they latch onto a topic they love. She told me about a new friend at school, about playing during recess, about the book the teacher had read to the class.

“And the inn?” I asked when she finally paused to breathe. “How are things there?”

“There are lots of people this weekend,” Bella said. “Daddy said they came from really far away on bikes. And Nonna made chocolate cake for breakfast and let me help decorate it!”

“I bet it was delicious.”

“It was!” Bella agreed proudly. “I ate two pieces, and Daddy said I’d get a stomachache, but I didn’t.”

We kept talking, Bella jumping from subject to subject in that chaotic but adorable way children do. She showed me the necklace she was still wearing and told me that a girl at school had thought it was beautiful and asked where she’d bought it.

I was so absorbed in the conversation that I didn’t hear the footsteps approaching on the other end of the call until it was too late.

“Isabella Valemont!”

Nick’s voice burst through the phone, loud and unmistakably irritated.

I watched Bella flinch slightly, her eyes widening as she turned the phone toward the bedroom door.

“What did we talk about taking my phone without asking?” Nick stepped into the camera’s view, and my stomach jumped involuntarily at the sight of him.

He was wearing a simple T-shirt and jeans, his hair slightly messy, parental frustration written all over

his face.

“I’m sorry, Daddy,” Bella said, her little voice shrinking. “I just missed Gwen. I wanted to talk to her.”

That was when Nick finally seemed to understand what was happening. His gaze dropped to the phone in Bella’s hand, to the glowing screen, and then his eyes widened when he realized it was a video call.

That I was on the other side of it.

I gave an awkward little wave, a silent hello, and immediately felt ridiculous. Who waves like that on a video call, like they’re standing at a window?

Nick stepped closer and gently took the phone from Bella’s hand, his face filling the screen.

“Hi,” he said, his voice coming out strange. Formal. Nothing like the last time we’d spoken, when he’d whispered my name against my skin.

“Hi,” I replied, my own voice sounding just as off to my ears.

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Silence followed.

Awkward, heavy silence that stretched on for seconds that felt like hours.

I looked at him through the screen. He looked back at me. Neither of us knowing what to say.

And it was in that uncomfortable quiet that something finally sank in, something I’d been avoiding. Despite the undeniable chemistry between us, despite the moments of vulnerability we’d shared while I was there, despite everything… we didn’t actually have much in common.

He was a man of the mountains who had never left Castoria, who ran a family inn, who had probably

never sat in a boardroom or closed a multimillion-dollar deal.

And I was… me. The COO of a multinational company. Used to international travel and business dinners.

Maybe we shared a love of wine. But I hadn’t even told him I was a Kensington. That I worked in the industry professionally. That I knew as much about wine as he did, maybe more.

Because he’d said it outright that he hated people like me. Rich people. City people in suits with their frantic lives.

“Gwen?”

Bella’s voice pulled me back. She had popped up beside Nick, resting her chin on his arm so she could

fit into the frame.

“When are you coming to see me?” she asked, and there was so much hope in her eyes that it physically

hurt to look at her.

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I stammered, my mouth opening and closing without forming anything coherent.

“I was thinking… I…”

My eyes went instinctively to Nick, searching for… what, exactly? Permission? Reassurance that I’d be welcome? Some sign that he wanted to see me as much as Bella clearly did?

But he interpreted my look in a completely different way. I saw it in his face, in the slight narrowing of his eyes, the way his jaw tightened.

He thought I was looking for an excuse. A way out of a promise I’d made to a child without fully thinking it through.

“Gwen is very busy, my love,” Nick said gently to Bella, even as his eyes stayed on me. “She has a lot of important work in Florentia.”

“But-“I started to protest, wanting to correct him, wanting to explain that it wasn’t like that, that I did want to go, that I was only looking for confirmation that I’d be welcome.

But Nick was already ending the call.

“Say goodbye to Gwen, Bella.”

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“Bye, Gwen,” Bella said, her voice small now, heavy with a sadness that broke my heart. “I love you.”

“I love you too, my love,” I managed to say through the tightness in my throat.

“Goodbye, Gwen,” Nick said, formal, polite, distant. As if he were speaking to a casual acquaintance and not someone he’d spent the night tangled up with just a month ago.

Then the screen went black.

Call ended.

I stayed there, sitting on the bed, staring at the dark screen of my phone in my hand, trying to process what had just happened.

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