Hired a Gigolo Got a Billionaire (Zoey and Christian) novel Chapter 617

Chapter 617

Gwen’s POV

“I’ll say it again: who in their right mind gives real diamonds to a seven-year-old?”

Mia was sitting in the armchair by the window in my room, still in her dinner dress, her heels kicked off carelessly on the floor. Zoey was lying on her stomach across the bed, propped up on her elbows, watching me with that amused but slightly concerned expression she got when she thought I was being

reckless.

I had just changed into sweatpants and an oversized T-shirt, finally able to breathe after the suffocating tension of dinner.

“In my defense,” I said, sitting on the edge of the bed, “I wasn’t in my right mind when I gave her that necklace. I had amnesia.”

“You were missing a brain, that’s what you were missing,” Mia shot back mercilessly. “Seriously, Gwen. Take that necklace back before someone realizes it’s real. Before Renee drags it to a jeweler and confirms you’ve been lying about everything.”

“I can’t!” I protested, turning to glare at her. “Did you see how much she loves it? How she protected it? It’s our friendship necklace. She made me one too. How am I supposed to just rip it off her neck?”

Mia groaned dramatically and threw her head back.

“You make this so much harder than it needs to be.”

“Okay, calm down,” Zoey intervened. “Just have a perfect replica made. When Bella isn’t looking, you switch the pendants. Simple. Clean. Problem solved.”

“Not exactly quick,” Mia pointed out. “If that psycho takes it to a jeweler before the replica is ready…”

“She won’t,” I cut in, with confidence I wasn’t sure I actually felt. “Nick won’t let her. He made it very clear tonight that she crossed every line.”

I shifted on the bed, crossing my legs.

“And speaking of Nick,” I said, looking directly at Zoey, “you hadn’t met him in person before. What did you think? Of him. Of the whole family.”

Zoey smiled, that warm, genuine smile that always made me feel steadier.

“They’re lovely,” she said honestly, “All of them. Martina is an absolute sweetheart. Bella is adorable, even scared. Paula is hilarious with that sarcasm. And Nick…” She paused meaningfully. “I completely understand why you fell for your mountain hermit.”

I felt my cheeks warm.

“But?” I asked, because I knew her too well,

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Zoey widened her eyes in exaggerated innocence.

“How do you know there’s a ‘but’?”

“Because I’ve known you long enough,” I replied. “So? What’s the ‘but’?”

Zoey sighed and pushed herself upright, her expression turning serious.

“But… is it worth it, Gwen? All of this? The lies getting bigger. This house of cards you’re building that could collapse at any second and crush everything.” She gave a humorless little laugh. “Look, I know I’m a total hypocrite, okay? Considering how things started with Christian. All our lies in the beginning. But that’s exactly why

I’m a hypocrite who loves you and doesn’t want to watch you fall apart when this spirals out of control.”

I fell back against the mattress, staring at the white ceiling. Her words settled heavily on my chest.

“I know,” I murmured. “I know. I need to fix this. Soon. But how? He said it out loud, Zoey. He said he hates people like us.”

“People like us?” Mia repeated, frowning.

“People who live in a world where money opens every door,” I explained, still staring upward like the answers might be written there.

Mia wrinkled her nose.

“And why exactly is that a bad thing? Who likes closed doors?”

Zoey laughed and shook her head.

“Because from the outside, it looks like you think you’re the center of the universe,” she explained patiently. “Like you can buy anything and anyone if the price is high enough. Like you don’t respect people who don’t have the same money and privilege. Like regular people are disposable pieces on your personal chessboard. Like you’ve never faced real hardship, so you don’t understand what it means to struggle. Like you measure someone’s worth by their bank account instead of their character.”

I made a dramatic choking sound and pushed myself up onto my elbows so I could look at her.

“I’d like to remind you, dear sister-in-law,” I said with gentle sarcasm, “that it’s been a few years now since you officially became one of us too.”

Zoey laughed for real this time.

“I know,” she agreed. “And it’s exactly because I came from a working-class family that I understand Nick. The wealthy people we deal with professionally? Most of them don’t care about regular folks, Gwen. Banks cutting off credit without blinking. Collectors threatening families, Bosses squeezing employees dry, Corporations crushing small businesses without a second thought. Investors wiping out entire communities in the name of maximum profit.”

She paused, looking at me seriously.

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“So it’s very easy for someone on the other side to assume all rich people are like that. Cruel. Detached. Selfish. Now I know that’s not the whole truth. There are good people and terrible people at every income level. That’s what you need to show him. That your world… our world… is like any other. It has decent people trying to do the right thing. And it has awful people thinking only about themselves. And you are absolutely one of the good guys in this story.”

I laughed softly, something warm spreading through my chest.

“Maybe,” I said. “I just don’t know where to even start that conversation. Especially when… technically… I own his property and he has no idea.”

Mia let out a long sigh and got up from the armchair, flopping down onto the bed beside us.

“Yeah,” she said, staring at the ceiling. “Whoever said love was easy?”

Zoey and I looked at each other. Then, in perfect unison, we echoed, “Whoever said love was easy?”

And the three of us burst out laughing.

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