Hired a Gigolo Got a Billionaire (Zoey and Christian) novel Chapter 681

Chapter 681

Nick’s POV

I had made a promise.

Not the kind with pretty words. Not the kind adults say to feel better about themselves. I had promised with presence. With time. With the rarest thing I’d learned to give after becoming a father.

Staying.

Bella was sprawled across the living room rug with a blanket over her head, turning herself into a dramatic “ghost” who shuffled slowly and deliberately bumped into furniture.

“Uuuuuh…” she moaned, lightly crashing into the couch. “I’m the ghost that haunts dads who make babies.”

I laughed before I could stop myself, even with everything still tight in my chest.

“Wow. That’s very specific.”

“Ghosts know everything,” she replied, throwing the blanket off. Her hair was a mess, her nose still pink from crying earlier.

I crouched down in front of her.

“Okay. Smart ghost. Want to talk to me without the blanket?”

She hesitated, her eyes sliding away like talking might be a trap. But her hand reached for mine anyway. Small. Warm.

That hit harder than anything she could have said.

“I don’t want to lose you,” she blurted out, the way kids do when they don’t have the vocabulary to soften fear.

My throat tightened.

“You’re not going to lose me.”

“Yes, I am,” she insisted, her voice rising. “Because the baby is tiny and you’re going to hold him and… and… and I’ll be…”

“Look at me,” I said, firm but gentle.

She did. And I saw it right there. The damage of adult words lodged inside a heart that was too small to carry them.

“There’s space for you and space for a baby,” I said. “And space for all the days that are still coming. Love isn’t a cake that runs out when someone takes the last slice, Bella.”

She bit her lip.

“But Gwen will have a baby that’s hers.”

“So?”

“So…” She gestured with both hands, frustrated that she couldn’t explain it. “The baby is hers. I’m not,”

I took a slow breath and chose not to contradict her fear outright. I didn’t want to erase it. I wanted to walk through it with her.

“Do you remember the first time Gwen made you laugh at the estate?” I asked.

Bella frowned, searching her memory.

“When she got the name of your tractor wrong,” she said suddenly, making a face. “She called it an excavator and you made that grumpy old-man face.”

“I did not make a grumpy old-man face.”

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“You did,” she said with absolute certainty. “You said, ‘It’s not an excavator.’ And she said, ‘Fine, construction grump.””

I laughed for real because I could see the whole scene like it was happening again.

“And you laughed,” I reminded her.

“I laughed because you turned red,” she admitted, and for a second her face lightened. Then it dimmed again. “But that was

before.”

“Before what?”

“Before the baby.”

I pulled her gently against my side and sat down on the couch with her tucked into me.

“Gwen has never tried to push you away,” I said. “Not once. If anything, she’s always pulled you closer.”

Bella stayed quiet.

“Remember the three of us watching cartoons together?” I went on. “You in the middle, commenting on everything like a movie critic. Gwen laughing. Me pretending to be annoyed when I was actually just happy.”

Bella let out a tiny, reluctant giggle. I held onto it like it was a lifeline.

“But what if you like him more?”

I rested my forehead against hers, the way I used to when she was a baby crying over something I couldn’t fix.

“We don’t like one more,” I said softly. “We love differently. A dad’s love doesn’t have rankings, Bella. There’s no first place.”

“There is,” she muttered stubbornly,

“Okay. Then let’s run a scientific test,” I said, standing up. “Tonight’s lab experiment: sugar and a movie.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“That’s science?”

“Valentian science,” I declared. “The most respected kind.”

She laughed.

And that laugh felt like oxygen after being underwater too long.

I put on the movie she picked, one of those animated ones with talking animals and a moral at the end. I made hot chocolate, and Bella supervised every step the way her grandmother had taught her.

“Not too much sugar,” she warned seriously. “Nonna says it ruins the flavor.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said, handing her the spoon for approval.

Halfway through the movie, she leaned against my shoulder without even realizing it. I froze, afraid that if I moved she’d pull away. I let my hand rest lightly in her hair.

“Dad?”

“Hmm?”

“When the baby comes… do you promise you’ll still play with me?”

I swallowed the knot in my throat.

“I promise.”

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“Really promise?”

“I really promise.” I pointed at the game controller on the table. “In fact, as soon as the movie’s over, we’re starting that new game you’ve been bugging me about.”

“I don’t bug,” she protested, but she was smiling.

“You absolutely bug. It’s just the kind I like.”

She went quiet for a few seconds, staring at the screen without really watching.

“And dwwGwen… will she promise too?”

“She’ll promise in her own way,” I said. “Because she loves you.”

Bella wrapped both hands around her mug.

“Okay.”

It wasn’t an okay of conviction. It was an okay of effort. And I felt proud and furious at the same time.

The movie was almost over when my phone buzzed on the table.

Gwen.

For a second, I assumed she was calling to say the event had gone perfectly and she was on her way home.

I answered.

“Gwen?”

The video came through shaky, the lighting too white. Her face looked different. It wasn’t makeup. It wasn’t bad lighting. It was

tension.

Then I heard the words.

“Nick… I’m at the police station.”

I stood up so fast Bella jumped.

“What?” My voice came out too loud. “The police station? How-”

“Calm down,” Gwen said. She was trying to sound like herself, like control, but there was a crack underneath. “I need you to

come. Now.”

My stomach dropped.

“I’m on my way,” I said, already grabbing my keys.

“Dad?” Bella’s voice was small. Too small.

I turned.

She was sitting on the couch with the blanket in her lap, like everything had suddenly become unstable again.

“But you promised,” she said, pointing at the game controller, holding onto the agreement like it was the only solid thing left.

My heart split in half.

I went back to her and crouched down, cupping her face gently.

“I did promise,” I said. “And I’m not breaking it. This is an emergency, okay? I’ll fix it and I’ll come back.”

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Her eyes filled, but the tears didn’t fall. The threat of them was worse.

“You’ll really come back?”

“I will.”

The kitchen door opened and Martina stepped in, already alert just from the tone of my voice.

I looked at her and didn’t need to explain much.

“Mom… I need to go. Can you stay with Bella?”

“Go,” she said immediately. “I’ve got her.”

Bella stared at me, holding back her tears like it was something she had to win on her own. That nearly destroyed me.

“I won’t be long,” I repeated, trying to force the words into reality.

She nodded, but her eyes were wet.

I kissed her forehead.

“I’ll be back, princess.”

And as I stepped out the door, the sound of Bella’s voice behind me, small and breaking, was the one thing I never wanted to hear.

“Okay… but don’t forget, okay? Don’t forget about me.”

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