Hired a Gigolo Got a Billionaire (Zoey and Christian) novel Chapter 716

Chapter 716

Gwen’s POV

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Florentia sunlight had that quality that made everything feel possible for a few hours. Like the city was offering me a truce. A small window where nothing was urgent, nothing was a headline, nothing was a courtroom.

I held Nick’s hand on the way to the hospital parking lot and felt his palm relax in mine. Not completely. He wasn’t a man who ever relaxed completely. But enough for me to know the news had landed like water on dry ground.

A girl.

I repeated the word in my head the way you test expensive fabric. Carefully. Afraid to tear it.

“You’re smiling,” he said as he opened the car door.

“I’m trying not to cry again,” I replied, my voice carrying that light honesty that only shows up when you’re too tired to perform.

He touched the back of my neck for a second. A quick, protective gesture. Then he got into the driver’s seat and went quiet, staring ahead.

Nick didn’t celebrate the way people celebrate. He stored things.

Like every joy had to be checked first. Weighed. Accepted.

I waited. Let him have his time, because I knew that beneath that calm was a man who had lost the right to get excited without

fear.

“Bella’s going to have a little sister,” he murmured again, almost to the dashboard.

I smiled.

“And that little sister is going to have an obsessed father,” I teased, nudging his shoulder with mine.

He let out a breath that was half laugh, half surrender.

“I’m already obsessed,” he said.

I tightened my fingers around his.

“Want to buy a few things?” I suggested, like I was offering a path without thorns.

He turned to look at me.

“Today?”

“Today,” I confirmed. “I know we have…” I stopped, because I didn’t need to name the wars. They were everywhere. “But I want to do something normal. Something for a couple who’s about to become parents.”

Nick was silent for a second. Then he nodded slowly.

“A layette,” he said, like he was learning the word.

“A layette,” I repeated, and felt the joy hit again. Small. Insistent.

We went to a shopping district where I usually walked in without thinking. Storefronts where the lighting is curated, the fabrics look softer just by being displayed, and silence costs money.

I wasn’t trying to make Nick uncomfortable. I just… existed in that place naturally. I grew up in environments where buying things was a language.

But I saw it out of the corner of my eye when he slowed down.

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Chapter 778

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An honest discomfort. The kind that comes from realizing you don’t know the terrain.

“If you want, we can go somewhere else,” I said before he had to swallow it.

Nick looked at the window display, then back at me.

“That’s not it,” he replied.

“Then what is it?”

He ran his tongue along the corner of his mouth, like he did when he was trying to choose a sentence that wouldn’t come out

harsh.

“It’s… a lot,” he said, and I understood that a lot was a place. A place where he remembered that Gwen’s world was enormous and his was land, vines, work, old history. “I keep thinking if she’s going to…”

“If she’s going to look more like me or more like you?” I finished gently..

He nodded.

I stopped right in front of him, in the middle of the sidewalk, and held his face in both hands, ignoring the people passing by.

“She’s going to have the best of both our worlds,” I said, firm. “Yours and mine. She’ll have roots and she’ll have wings. She’ll know the value of things and she’ll know she’s allowed to dream big. She’ll grow up with wine, with land, with family… and with the ability to walk into any room without apologizing for existing.”

Nick stood still, taking it in.

He took a deep breath.

“Yeah… that sounds good,” he said, like someone choosing to trust. “Let’s do it.”

Inside the store, the air smelled like new cotton and expensive perfume. The saleswoman smiled with that trained kindness that feels like an offer of exclusivity.

“Congratulations,” she said, looking at my belly with almost ceremonial respect. “Boy or girl?”

I smiled.

“Girl.”

“Oh, then we’re going to have fun,” she replied, like girls came with more possibilities.

I started picking things out with the careful joy of someone who knows happiness can be interrupted, but chooses to insist

anyway.

Tiny dresses. Onesies with delicate embroidery. A knit cardigan that looked like it had been made by someone who had never had to rush.

Nick held each piece like it was too fragile for the size of his hands.

“This is tiny,” he said, amazed.

“Because she’s going to be tiny,” I replied.

He looked at me.

“I forgot how small a person can be.”

I laughed.

“You’re not ready to go back into newborn mode.”

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He shook his head, and I saw the corner of his mouth lift. It wasn’t much, but it was enough.

We passed a section of cribs, and I stopped to look at one in light wood. Simple lines. Elegant without being flashy. Nick ran his hand along the side like he was testing its sturdiness.

“I like this one,” he said.

“Me too,” I replied.

And in that moment, for a second, Renee didn’t exist.

There was no police.

No board.

Just a man choosing a crib.

The thought hit me in the chest.

I moved further down and started picking up a blanket. A sheet set. A bigger throw. A larger jacket.

That’s when Nick frowned.

“Gwen,” he called, with that calm tone he uses when concern is trying not to turn into control.

I turned to him.

“Don’t you think…” he glanced at the pieces in my hands, “you might be getting ahead of things?”

I blinked.

And then I understood what he was seeing.

I was picking up larger items. Things for an older child.

“They’re for Bella,” I said.

I stepped closer and draped one of the blankets over his forearm like it was natural. Because it was.

“I’m going to love them both the same,” I continued, my voice low and steady, no drama. I didn’t need drama to tell the truth.” They’re my daughters.”

Nick swallowed hard.

His eyes filled too quickly, undoing me.

He looked down for a second, like he was trying to get a handle on it. Then he lifted his face to mine.

“I’ve never been more certain in my life,” he said slowly, “that I chose the right woman to bring into her life.”

He stepped closer and rested his forehead against mine, right there in the middle of the store aisle, ignoring the saleswoman, ignoring the world.

“And into mine too,” he added, his voice catching just a little.

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Chapter 77

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