Chapter 3

Anya POV:

I moved through the city like a ghost, the early morning chill biting at my exposed skin. My graduation gown was still clutched in my hand, a useless symbol of a night irrevocably ruined.

I needed to be untraceable. Every instinct honed over years of clandestine operations screamed warnings. Grayson would send his people. He always did.

His "international business trip" was a smokescreen for this grand proposal. He was a master manipulator. And I, his most loyal protector, had been the biggest fool.

My burner phone vibrated in my purse. A text message. It wasn't the network. It was Camilla.

"OMG, Anya! Did you see? I'm so sorry, I totally forgot to tell you! It was such a surprise. We have to celebrate!"

A wave of disgust washed over me. Her words were laced with feigned innocence, but I heard the triumphant sneer beneath them.

She wasn't sorry. She was gloating.

I remembered her "panic attack" from last month. Grayson had dismissed a serious injury I sustained during a security detail to rush to her side.

"She's delicate, Anya," he'd said, his voice laced with concern for Camilla, not for me, bleeding on the floor. "You're strong. You can handle it."

He'd made me believe my strength was a burden, a reason for him to seek out fragility elsewhere.

The memory burned hotter than any physical wound.

I found a small, nondescript hotel on the outskirts of the city. Cash only. No digital footprint.

Inside the sterile room, I shed the gown, watching it fall to the floor like a discarded skin. The scars on my arm, faint but still visible, seemed to pulse with a phantom ache.

I collapsed onto the bed, staring at the ceiling. Sleep wouldn't come. My mind was a whirlwind of rage and heartbreak.

How could I have been so blind? So utterly devoted to a man who saw me as disposable?

My burner phone buzzed again. This time, it was the heritage network. "Received. Standby for coordination. Be ready to move immediately."

A spark of hope flickered in the darkness. A chance for a real future, away from his lies.

But then, another message came through. Not a text. A video. From an unknown number.

I hesitated, my finger hovering over the play button. A part of me didn't want to see it, to confirm the sickening truth.

But another, stronger part, the part that had survived and fought for so long, demanded to know.

I tapped it.

The video was short, shaky. It showed Grayson and Camilla, laughing, clinking champagne glasses. They were in a lavish suite, decorated with white roses.

"To us, my love," Grayson said, his voice soft, intimate. The same way he spoke to me.

Camilla giggled, leaning into him. "To our perfectly executed plan. Anya won't know what hit her."

My breath hitched. My blood ran cold. The phone nearly slipped from my hand again.

Their plan. Anya won't know what hit her.

It wasn't just a betrayal. It was a conspiracy.

Grayson kissed Camilla's forehead, a tenderness that twisted my gut. "She's strong. She'll get over it. And this way, we both get what we want."

Camilla's smile widened, predatory. "Exactly. A pure bride for the Deleon empire. And you, my protector, are free of... distractions."

My hands clenched into fists, nails digging into my palms. Distractions. That's all I was to him.

The video ended abruptly. The silence in the room was deafening, filled only with the deafening roar of my own shattered heart.

Camilla. My friend. She was in on it. She was a viper masquerading as an angel.

And Grayson. My rescuer. My lover. He had orchestrated my public humiliation, his words dripping with venom disguised as affection.

I finally understood his twisted logic. He didn't see me as "tainted" by the cartel. He saw me as a distraction from his true objective: a "pure" bride for his empire.

The pieces clicked into place, forming a horrifying mosaic of calculated cruelty.

The rage, cold and absolute, now turned to icy resolve. They wanted a game? I would play. But not by their rules.

"We both get what we want," Grayson had said.

No. Only they would. I would get something far more precious. My freedom.

I didn't just want to escape. I wanted to disappear so completely that even his vast network couldn't find a trace of me.

My fingers flew across the burner phone, sending another message to the network. "Accelerate. Urgent."

Then, I deleted the video. Deleted Camilla's texts. Wiped the phone clean.

It was time to vanish. Before they could finish their game. Before they could make me pay for being a "distraction."