Hired a Gigolo Got a Billionaire (Zoey and Christian) novel Chapter 644

Chapter 644

Nicholas’ POV

Forty-eight hours turned into seventy-two before I even realized time was passing.

Everything blurred into a routine of hospital visits, the apartment, bad coffee, and medical updates that never said anything definitive.

“Stable.”

“Responding well.”

“No significant changes.”

On the second day, Paula showed up at the hospital carrying a large suitcase.

“I brought clean clothes,” she said, pulling me into a tight hug. “And some toiletries. I figured you’d need them.”

Gratitude closed my throat.

“Thank you,” I managed. “You didn’t have to come all the way here.”

“Of course I did,” she replied simply. “How is she?”

“Stable,” I repeated, the word losing meaning every time I said it. “Still in a coma. We’ll know more when

they wake her.”

Paula only stayed a few hours. She had to get back to the estate. But her presence, even brief, reminded me that life was still happening outside those hospital walls.

I called my mom that night. She asked when I was coming home, if everything was okay, if I needed anything,

“It’s all fine,” I lied automatically. “I’ll be back soon.”

I didn’t know if that was true.

Bella got on the phone next. Her small, worried voice shattered me.

“Daddy, is Gwen going to get better?”

“She is, sweetheart,” I promised, trying to sound confident. “She just needs a lot of rest right now. But soon she’ll be back playing with you.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

Another promise I wasn’t sure I could keep.

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After I hung up, I stood there staring at the dark screen for a long moment.

Bella needed me home. My mom needed help. The estate didn’t stop running just because I was in

Florentia.

But Gwen…

Gwen needed me here.

I went back to the hospital and headed straight for the café where I know I’d find Christian. He seemed to exist between the waiting room and that place, just like I did.

Not the main crowded cafeteria. A private VIP lounge reserved, apparently, for the families of critically ill wealthy patients.

Quieter. More discreet. Much better coffee.

We mostly talked about Gwen.

Christian told me stories about her childhood I’d never heard before. About how stubborn she’d always been. Determined. Incapable of accepting no for an answer.

“When she was about ten,” he said with a faint nostalgic smile, “I was going through a rough phase. Fighting with our grandfather constantly. I wanted to walk away from everything. Leave. She was just a kid, but she noticed everything.”

He took a sip of coffee.

“One day I came home after a terrible argument. I found her sitting on my bed with a suitcase open. She’d packed some clothes inside. Poorly folded, of course. When I asked what she was doing, she said, ” If you’re leaving, I’m coming with you. Someone has to take care of you.””

He paused, staring into his cup.

“She was ten, Nick. Ten. And ready to leave everything behind so I wouldn’t be alone. That’s when I realized I couldn’t just run away. I had a responsibility to her.”

I smiled, picturing a tiny, fierce Gwen packing that suitcase.

“So she’s always been like that,” I said.

“Always,” Christian replied, his voice softer. “Stubborn. Loyal. Incapable of leaving the people she loves. to fend for themselves.”

We sat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes.

Then Christian asked about the estate. About the numbers. About my plans.

And eventually, we circled back to the conversation we’d had in his office days ago.

Before everything fell apart.

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I thought about what Zoey had said. About Gwen not needing a financial provider. About her needing family.

I took a deep breath.

“About that proposal,” I began carefully. “The associated line. ‘From Kensington Group.””

Christian looked at me closely.

“Yes?”

“I accept,” I said, with more confidence than I actually felt. “I want to do it. Especially as part of paying off the debt Gwen bought. I want to start over without that shadow hanging over-”

Christian started laughing.

It wasn’t cruel. It was genuinely amused.

“What?” I asked, confused and a little offended.

“Nick,” he said, trying to control his laughter. “Do you really think Gwen is naive? Or that I wouldn’t structure this in a way that prevents it from becoming a terrible business decision?”

I waited for him to continue.

“I don’t know exactly what you’ve been told,” Christian went on, his expression turning serious again, “but Gwen didn’t just buy your debt by itself.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“She bought an entire package of debts,” he explained calmly. “Yours, frankly, is the smallest issue in that portfolio.”

I processed that slowly.

“And after a full review with our financial department,” he continued, “she’s actually projected to make a solid profit from the overall operation. As long as this doesn’t leak to the press and create a PR mess, we’re more than fine. Technically speaking, she’s in the black.”

He looked directly at me.

“So if you want to move forward with the associated line, don’t do it out of some ‘I need to pay my debt’ speech. Your debt is already absorbed within a much larger structure. Do it because you’re certain you want to change your life. Grow. Expand. Build something bigger.”

I stayed quiet, absorbing it.

Gwen hadn’t bought my debt out of charity alone.

She had made a smart investment that happened to help me in the process.

I didn’t know why that mattered so much.

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But it did.

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“I am certain,” I said finally, and this time the conviction was real. “I want to change. I want to grow. I want to build something Bella can inherit with pride. Something sustainable.”

Christian smiled. Not the polished CEO smile. A genuine one.

“Good,” he said. “Then we’ll talk numbers and logistics when we’re in the right headspace to focus properly.”

He paused.

“But understand something, Nick,” he added, his tone more personal now. “You’re not selling your business to some corporate shark that devours smaller players. You’re joining family businesses. And we take care of our own.”

Something tightened in my chest.

Christian truly considered me family.

“Thank you,” I said, my voice rougher than I meant it to be.

“No need to thank me,” he replied. “Just take care of my sister when she wakes up. And accept that she’ll probably want to weigh in on every single detail of this partnership.”

I laughed, genuinely, for the first time in days.

“I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

We talked a little longer. Vague future planning. Possibilities.

When we finally walked back into the private waiting room, the doctor was there. The same one who had updated us after the surgery.

Zoey, Mia, and Dante were present. But they weren’t alone anymore.

Over the past few days, more family had arrived. Annabelle with her husband Nathaniel. Matthew, one of Zoey’s brothers I’d briefly met before. Marcus Kensington and his wife Madeline. The room was full.

The entire Kensington family, it seemed, waiting.

The doctor turned when we entered.

“Good,” he said, his expression neutral but not grim. “I was waiting to update everyone”

My heart immediately started racing.

“Update?” Christian asked, tense.

The doctor nodded.

“We’re going to begin gradually reducing the sedation and bring Gwen out of the induced coma,”

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