Chapter 3

Elenora Quinn POV:

The media frenzy after my kidnapping had been overwhelming. The Quinn family, a tech dynasty, was rarely out of the headlines, but this was different. Every news channel, every paper, screamed my name. The kidnappers, a bumbling crew of small-time criminals, were quickly apprehended. My family' s influence, even then, was vast.

The stories shifted focus. Not just about the kidnapped heiress, but about the nameless street boy who had saved her. "Orphan Hero Saves Tech Princess," the headlines blared. Greyson, a boy no one had known existed, was suddenly a household name. My parents, grateful beyond measure, adopted him. Our lives, already intertwined by fate, became inseparable.

My father spent countless hours with the adoption agency, with lawyers, with child welfare services. Each time he returned, his expression would be a little more strained, a little more concerned. Greyson, it seemed, was not an easy child.

I remembered the incident in high school. A boy, a senior, had cornered me in the hallway, his words laced with disrespect, his hands reaching for me. Before I could even scream, Greyson was there. He moved like a shadow, swift and silent. He grabbed the boy by the throat, slamming him against the lockers. His eyes, usually so gentle when they looked at me, were wild, feral.

He didn't just hit him. He used a wrench he kept in his locker, meant for fixing his old motorcycle. He brought it down, again and again, on the boy's hand, then his knee. The sickening crunch of bone was a sound I would never forget. Then, with a chilling calmness, he tore off a piece of the boy's shirt, forced it into his mouth, and taped it shut.

The boy never bothered me again. In fact, he wouldn't even look at me. When he returned to school weeks later, his arm in a sling, he would visibly flinch whenever I passed. A physical, visceral disgust that always made my stomach churn.

Then there was the incident at the university gala. A rival CEO, a man known for his predatory charm, had made an inappropriate comment about my dress, his eyes lingering too long on my collarbone. Greyson, who was just a few feet away, heard it. He grabbed a champagne flute, not by the stem, but by the bowl, and smashed it against the man's face. The man reeled back, blood blooming across his cheek. Greyson, his knuckles bleeding from the shattered glass, simply stepped in front of me, shielding me from the scene. "No one talks to her like that," he growled, his voice a low threat.

He always protected me. Always.

"He sees you as more important than his own life." My father's words, spoken gently on the eve of my wedding, echoed in my mind. He had placed his hand on Greyson's shoulder, his eyes full of pride. "Elenora, you are incredibly lucky to have a man who would die for you."

My father had smiled, a warm, loving smile. "May you both be happy, my daughter. Forever and always."

Kailey's sharp, insistent voice pierced through my reverie. "Elenora! You're drifting again."

I blinked, pulling myself back to the present. The cloying scent of cheap air freshener in the county clerk's office, the distant murmur of voices, the way the late afternoon sun slanted through the dusty windows.

I felt a familiar ache behind my eyes. He loved me more than life itself. The words were a mockery now. A cruel, vicious distortion of a memory.

I thought of the deepfake video. The one that destroyed my career, my reputation. The one he had created. I had sent him photos, hundreds of them, trusting him implicitly. And he had used them to craft a lie so convincing, so vile, that it tore my world apart.

No. His love wasn't love. It was a charade. A weapon. A sick, twisted joke.