Hired a Gigolo Got a Billionaire (Zoey and Christian) novel Chapter 691

Chapter 691

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Chapter 691

Nick’s POV

Bella’s backpack felt too light for what I was doing.

I zipped it up slowly, feeling the resistance of the fabric like it was the only real thing in a morning that had turned into a legal maze. Inside, I packed things she’d recognize without thinking. The pencil case with the cracked lid. Her sketchbook. Two changes of clothes. Pajamas. Her favorite hoodie. The pair of socks with little stars she insisted were “lucky.”

None of it was her life.

Just a small enough slice so it wouldn’t feel like goodbye.

I heard footsteps in the living room and Martina’s low voice, soft, careful, like she was building a nest

around her.

“Are you taking your necklace?” Martina asked.

“The friendship one?” Bella replied, bright. “Yes!”

I paused for half a second, my hand still on the backpack strap. That necklace had become proof of affection and, at the same time, potential ammunition. I hated how everything blurred together like that.

Bella appeared at the end of the hallway with her hair tied back in a crooked elastic. She looked at me like I was late to take her to the park.

“Mommy said she bought games,” she announced.

Martina looked at me over Bella’s shoulder. That look mothers give when they don’t ask because they already know. I gave a tiny nod. Cross had said no scenes. I wouldn’t fail before we even left the house.

“Let’s go.”

Cross was waiting outside, hands in his pockets, wearing that steady expression of someone who doesn’t allow himself to be surprised.

“Valemont,” he greeted.

“She’s ready,” I replied.

I

Bella noticed him and frowned.

“Is he coming too?”

“He is,” I said simply. “To help Daddy make sure everything’s done right.”

“So he’s like the lady at the school office?”

Cross smiled.

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Chapter 601

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“Something like that, miss.”

I opened the back door and helped Bella in carefully.

“Ms. Kensington isn’t coming?” Cross asked quietly before walking around the car.

“No,” I said. “Better this way.”

He nodded, like I’d just confirmed a strategic move.

“One less variable.”

I drove with both hands on the wheel while Bella hummed a song without words in the backseat, kicking her legs gently. I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw her face relaxed. Bella wasn’t afraid. She still believed in the basic rule of the world. That adults protect you.

The GPS told me to turn onto a tree-lined street. The gates got taller. The facades cleaner. The sidewalks wider. My stomach tightened.

“This is it,” Cross said, confirming the number.

I stopped in front of a house that was too big. Pale exterior. Tall windows. A manicured lawn that looked like it had been tended for weeks, not days. A shiny automatic gate.

Bella pressed her face to the window.

“Wow… there’s a garden,” she whispered, like that fixed everything.

I turned off the engine but kept my hand on the key for a second, staring at the place.

The question formed in my head before I could stop it.

‘Since when can she afford this?’

P

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Chapter 892

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