Hired a Gigolo Got a Billionaire (Zoey and Christian) novel Chapter 592

Chapter 592

Gwen’s POV

“So, she’s single?”

Dante’s voice cut through the silence in my office, loaded with that inconvenient curiosity he always had when it came to attractive women.

It was Monday, lunchtime. Mia and Dante were sitting on the small couch by the window, surrounded by takeout containers from the Thai food we had ordered. I was at my desk, poking distractedly at my own plate without really eating.

I had asked Dante to look into Renee. Quietly. Using the resources he had access to through contacts I preferred not to know too much about.

“Focus, Dante,” I said dryly. “Did you find anything?”

He lifted the tablet he had been studying and scrolled through the screen.

“The investigator’s report just came in,” he replied, his tone turning more professional. “Basic profile. Full name: Renee Julia Sandler. Thirty-two years old. Ex-husband: Nicholas Valemont. Divorced four years ago. No criminal record. No publicly registered debts.”

He paused, frowning.

“Nothing too interesting… wait. Hold on.”

He looked at me.

“You said she’s staying at the most expensive hotel in Montelira?”

“Yes,” I confirmed, setting my fork down. “Why?”

Dante turned the tablet so I could see the screen.

“Estimated net worth.”

I looked at the numbers and blinked.

“She’s broke?” I asked in disbelief. “That doesn’t make sense. She’s staying at that hotel. Nick said she’s looking to buy a house in the area. She talked about expensive lawyers. About having money.”

Mia shrugged, grabbing another spring roll.

“Maybe she already found another idiot to bankroll her,” she said casually. “Wouldn’t be the first time someone lived beyond their means on someone else’s dime.”

Something cold settled in my stomach.

“Or maybe,” I said slowly, thinking it through, “she’s going after Nick for exactly that reason. To have

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someone support her. Or at least someone whose situation she can exploit somehow.”

“Gwen,” Mia said, her voice turning more serious, “honestly, if he falls for that, then he really is an idiot. The woman abandoned him for four years. Anyone with two working brain cells would see she didn’t come back out of motherly love or genuine regret.”

“Yeah,” I murmured. “Maybe.”

But even as I said it, part of me refused to believe Nick was that naïve. He was vulnerable, yes. Worried about Bella. Desperate about his finances. But he wasn’t stupid.

“Either way,” I continued, trying to sound professional, “there’s nothing very interesting here.”

Mia took the tablet from Dante, her eyes scanning the report more carefully.

“Actually,” she said, stopping on something, “there is.”

She zoomed in on a specific section.

“This other name here. Her ex…”

She looked up.

“Isn’t that the CEO of Vanguard Digital That software company that did that massive merger?”

Dante leaned in to get a better look. His eyes widened.

“It is,” he confirmed. “That’s him. Alexander Moriarty. Worth a few billion, at least. Or he was before…”

He paused meaningfully.

“Why is that interesting?” I asked, standing up and walking over to them.

“Because the end of his last relationship was a huge scandal,” Dante explained, taking the tablet back and typing quickly. “It was all over the tabloids. Massive. Could it have been with this Renee?”

Mia had already pulled out her phone and was scrolling furiously through gossip sites.

“No, no,” she said, reading fast. “The wife’s name was different. Clara Moriarty. But Renee was…”

She stopped. Her eyes widened as she kept reading.

“Oh my God. The mistress. Renee was the mistress

1 sat down beside her and read over her shoulder.

The whole story was right there, preserved in tabloid articles that had feasted on the scandal.

“It was ugly,” Mia continued, scrolling. “The wife caught them in bed together, in a secret apartment he kept. Found out they’d been having an affair for three years. Three years while he was married and pretending to be the perfect husband in public.”

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“Jesus,” I murmured.

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“She made a massive settlement to keep quiet and not completely destroy his reputation and the company,” Mia went on. “But she still took half of everything in the divorce and leaked the whole story to the press anyway. He and Renee even went public for a while after that mess. Like it would somehow legitimize what they’d done. But it ended a few months later.”

Mia smiled, that sharp, cynical smile she got when she was piecing together gossip.

“I bet she wasn’t welcomed into his social circle,” she said. “A cheated-on wife becomes the sympathetic victim. The mistress becomes a pariah. He probably decided it was safer to dump her before she damaged his image even more.”

I looked at both of them, trying to process everything.

Renee wasn’t the victim of a bad relationship. She was calculating. She had destroyed a marriage and spent years as a married man’s mistress for money.

And now she was back. Circling Nick. Threatening him with lawyers she probably couldn’t afford. Talking about buying a house when she clearly had no real resources.

“I don’t know what her game is,” I said finally, “but I know I don’t trust a woman like that anywhere near Nick and Bella.”

Mia gave me a knowing look.

“Hmm,” she said, a smile forming. “Someone’s jealous.”

“Jealous of what?” I shot back, more defensive than I meant to sound. “A guy who says I’m just a friend?”

I huffed and crossed my arms.

“He made it pretty clear this weekend where I fit into his life. Nowhere, apparently.”

“He’s going through a rough time,” Dante said, surprisingly serious. “And you bruised his ego.”

“Oh, sure,” I said sarcastically. “Offering genuine help is bruising someone’s ego. My terrible mistake.”

“When money is involved?” Dante raised his eyebrows. “Absolutely. For any man. Especially a traditional Valentian guy like he seems to be. The type who thinks he has to fix everything himself. Who needs to be the provider. Who sees accepting financial help as weakness or failure.”

I knew he was right. Rationally, I did. But emotionally, it still hurt.

“That stubborn mountain hermit,” I muttered, mostly to myself.

Then, without meaning to, I added more quietly,

“Completely adorable. Gorgeous. And an amazing kisser.”

“So what are you going to do now?” Mia asked gently.

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I shrugged, picked up my fork again, and pushed around the food that had already gone cold.

“Be professional,” I said. “Next weekend, the influencers Zoey booked are going there. That couple with millions of followers. It’s critical that everything goes perfectly. Perfect photos. Flawless experience. Great reviews.”

I paused.

“And I can’t leave Nick alone with all of this. He’s at his limit. Stressed about Renee. Worried about the debts. Taking care of Bella. Trying to keep the inn running. Nothing else can go wrong.”

Mia studied me for a long moment, then slowly nodded.

“And you care about him,” she said. It wasn’t a question.

I looked at her, then at Dante, then down at the cold food on my plate.

“I care about him,” I admitted quietly. “Much more than I should.”

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