Chapter 2

Elenora Quinn POV:

Kailey, ever the pragmatic one, had already retrieved a small first-aid kit from her overflowing bag. She dabbed at the gash on my prosthetic, her brow furrowed in concentration. The cool antiseptic felt alien against the cold metal. "There," she said, finally capping the tiny bottle. "Good as new. Now, about my marriage certificate..." She looked at me, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "You owe me a new one, you know. That was my only copy."

I managed a weak smile. "Of course. And a lifetime supply of whatever you want. Consider it done."

A sudden thought occurred to me. "Actually, I just got paid for that last ballet commercial. So, dinner is on me tonight. The most expensive champagne they have."

Kailey's expression, which had softened into a playful grin, suddenly tightened. The mischievous glint vanished, replaced by a storm cloud. "Elenora," she said, her voice low and serious. "What were you thinking? Showing up here? You know what today is for him."

I shrugged, the movement causing a dull ache in my shoulder. "It doesn't matter what today is for him. He's nothing to me anymore."

"Nothing?" Kailey scoffed, her voice rising. "He's the reason you're using these." She gestured pointedly at my prosthetics. "He's the reason your parents are gone. He's the reason you spent three years in that hellhole."

Her words were a drumbeat of truth I tried so hard to ignore. "I know, Kailey." My voice was flat. "But I have to live. And dancing... dancing is living for me. It's the only thing that makes me feel whole again."

She ran a hand through her hair, her frustration evident. "But at what cost, Elenora? You dance until you collapse. You push yourself to the brink. Is this career worth more than your life?"

I met her gaze, my own conviction unshakeable. "This career is my life, Kailey. It's what got me through the darkest times. It's the only thing that makes the phantom pain in my legs feel less real."

Kailey' s eyes softened, and she let out a long, ragged sigh. She knew. She understood the depth of my emptiness, the void he had carved out of my soul.

"I still can't believe it," she whispered, her voice thick with emotion. "I remember the way he looked at you, Elenora. Like you were the sun, the moon, and all the stars. Everyone saw it. No one would have believed it would end like this."

She was right. No one would have. Not after everything.

I closed my eyes, a wave of exhaustion washing over me. "He saved my life, Kailey," I murmured, the words a raw whisper. "More than once."

My mind drifted back, pulled unwillingly into the labyrinth of memory.

I was only eight when they took me. The world was a blur of rough hands, a suffocating gag, and the smell of stale cigarettes. I landed in a dark, damp cellar, my small body trembling with fear. There were other children there, thin and pale, their eyes hollow. They taught me the rules quickly: obey, or suffer.

I was never good at obeying. My spirit, even then, was too wild, too defiant. One day, a burly man with a cruel laugh dragged me out, yelling about my "attitude." He held a rusty knife, its blade glinting in the dim light. I screamed, but no one moved. They were all too scared, too broken.

Just as the knife flashed downwards, a small, skinny boy, no older than me, threw himself in front of me. He was Greyson. He cried out as the blade bit into his arm, a ragged tear in his thin shirt. Blood bloomed like a dark flower on his skin.

I stared, my eight-year-old mind unable to process the horror. Then I screamed, a guttural sound that tore through the silence of the cellar.

Greyson, pale and shaking, turned to me. His eyes, even through the pain, held a strange kind of fierce protectiveness. "Don't cry," he choked out, his voice barely a whisper. "It's okay. I got you."

Years later, after we were rescued, after my family adopted him, I would trace the jagged scar on his forearm. It was a roadmap of his sacrifice, a permanent reminder of the boy who had chosen me. I would kiss it, murmuring apologies, promises. He would just smile, his eyes filled with that same possessive warmth. "Anything for you, Elenora. Always."

He was my protector. My savior. My family. My husband.

My husband. The word felt like a lie, a cruel joke played by a malicious god.

Kailey' s sharp voice sliced through the fog of my memories. "Elenora? Are you even listening to me?"

I looked up, blinking. Around us, the bustling courthouse hallway felt suddenly too loud, too bright. I noticed a few men, their gazes lingering on my legs, then on my face, a mix of pity and something darker. It was a familiar feeling, one I had learned to ignore.

I picked up the glass of water Kailey had handed me earlier and drained it in one gulp. The ice clinked against my teeth.

"He said he loved me more than life itself," I muttered, the words tasting bitter. "My father said it too, right before our wedding. He told me Greyson would always put me first. That I was his world."

A harsh, humorless laugh escaped my lips. "What a joke. His 'love' was just another weapon, wasn't it? Another way to control me. To destroy me."

The memory of the explicit video, the one that had shattered my reputation, flashed through my mind. The one he had made.

"His love was a lie," I repeated, the conviction cold and solid in my chest. "A cruel, twisted lie."