MAYA'S POV
The first thing I noticed was the silence.
Not a true silence, but the bubble of it around me as I walked onto campus. Students laughed and called to each other, but near me, their voices dropped. Heads turned. Eyes followed. I clutched my new student ID, my stomach tight.
I had a shadow.
A tall, broad-shouldered man in a dark suit walked three steps behind me. His name was Leo. He had opened the car door for me and said, "For your safety, Mrs. Thorne." His voice held no argument.
"Please," I whispered to him as we passed a group of staring students. "Can you wait by the car? I'll be fine."
"I cannot, Mrs. Thorne," he said, his tone respectful but firm. "My orders are clear. I stay with you."
My face burned. This wasn't freedom. This was a different kind of cage.
In the administration office, the woman behind the counter beamed. "Mrs. Thorne! Welcome. We have your private study room prepared."
"My… what?" I asked, confused.
"A quiet space for your studies. Mr. Thorne's assistant arranged it. And your course materials have been delivered there."
She called me "Mrs. Thorne" again. The name felt heavy and wrong. I was Maya Mayfair. A student. Not this… title.
"Thank you," I managed to say, my voice small.
My first class was Sociology 101. I slipped into a seat at the back, hoping to disappear. Leo stood just inside the doorway, a silent, looming statue. The professor began taking roll.
"Maya Thorne?"
The air left my lungs. Every head in the room swiveled to look at me. My married name sounded like a foreign word in the dusty lecture hall.
"Here," I mumbled, sinking lower in my chair.
After class, I fled into the hallway, my heart pounding. I just wanted a coffee. To feel normal for one minute.
"Maya? Oh my God, Maya!"
I turned. It was Sarah, a girl I'd taken a few classes with years ago, before I dropped out to support Daniel. Her eyes were wide, darting from my face to Leo and back.
"Sarah, hi," I said, forcing a smile.
"I heard the rumors, but I didn't believe it!" she gushed, stepping closer. She lowered her voice to a dramatic whisper. "You married Alexander Thorne? After everything with Daniel? It's like a movie!"
I didn't know what to say. "It's… new."
"But why are you here?" she asked, her nose wrinkling in genuine confusion. She gestured at the old hallway, the scuffed floors. "If I married a billionaire, I'd be on a beach somewhere. Not back in Sociology 101. Why would you even need a degree now?"
Her question was like a punch. It was the same question I saw in the eyes of the dean, the professors, the students. Why are you here? You've already won the prize.
She wasn't being mean. She was just saying what everyone thought. I was Mrs. Thorne now. Why was I pretending to be anything else?
"I… I want to finish," I said, but it sounded weak, even to me.
"Wow," Sarah said, shaking her head with a laugh. "You're really doing it all, huh? Good for you." She patted my arm like I was a strange, ambitious pet. "Well, I've got to run. See you around, Mrs. Thorne!"
She walked off, leaving me standing there. Leo's silent presence behind me felt heavier than ever.
I got my coffee and found an empty table in a corner of the cafeteria. Leo stood against the wall nearby, watching the room. I pulled out my phone, just to hide my face. News alerts crowded the screen.
SECRET WEDDING OF BILLIONAIRE HEIR!
THORNE'S MYSTERY BRIDE: FROM HEARTBREAK TO HIGH SOCIETY.
There was a photo of us leaving his parents' estate. Alexander's hand was on my back. We looked… real. The article called me "calculating" and "lucky" in the same sentence.
"Is this seat taken?"
I looked up. A boy with kind eyes and a messy backpack smiled at me. He hadn't noticed Leo.
"No, it's…" I started.
Leo took one smooth step forward. "The table is occupied, sir."
The boy jumped, finally seeing him. His eyes went wide with alarm. "Whoa. Sorry, man. No problem." He backed away quickly, shooting me a terrified look.
Tears of hot frustration pricked my eyes. I was a leper. A zoo animal. I couldn't talk to an old friend without her wondering about my motives. I couldn't share a table with a classmate without my guard scaring him off.
I stood up so fast my chair scraped. I walked out of the cafeteria, not caring where I was going. Leo followed.
"Stop!" I finally hissed, spinning to face him in a quiet corridor. "Just stop! Tell Alexander this isn't working! I can't live like this! I feel like a prisoner!"
For the first time, Leo's professional mask slipped. He looked almost… sorry. "Mrs. Thorne," he said, his voice low. "My job is to keep you safe. The world knows who you are now. There are cameras, gossip, people who might want to get close to you for the wrong reasons. Mr. Thorne… he worries. He is not a man who worries often."
He worries.
The words cut through my anger. I saw Alexander's tense face last night after the phone call. The fierce, protective fire in his eyes when he'd kissed me. This wasn't just control. This was something else. Something that scared him, too.
The fight drained out of me, leaving exhaustion. "Just… more distance tomorrow, please," I whispered.
He gave a single nod. "I will speak with him."
The car ride home was silent. When I entered the penthouse, Alexander was on the phone, his back to me. His voice was sharp, commanding. "I don't care about the cost. You scrub it from the internet. All of it."
He hung up and turned. He saw my face—the tiredness, the lingering upset.
"How was your day?" he asked carefully.
A helpless laugh escaped me. It sounded slightly hysterical. "People called me 'Mrs. Thorne.' My old friend asked why I was even bothering with school now that I've 'won.' A boy tried to sit with me for coffee, and Leo scared him away. I saw the news. They call me calculating."
I expected him to get defensive. To give me another cold, logical reason.
Instead, he crossed the room. He didn't touch me. He just stood close, his eyes searching mine. "What do you need, Maya?" he asked, his voice rough. "Tell me what you need, and I will make it happen. But the guard… the guard is not negotiable."
It was the closest to "I'm sorry" I would get. And it was real.
I looked at this powerful, fearful man who was trying to lock me down to keep me safe. I thought of Sarah's puzzled face. Why are you here?
I straightened my shoulders. "I need Leo to be invisible," I said, my voice stronger. "And I need you to understand why I'm here. It's not for a degree. It's for me. The me that existed before I was Mrs. Thorne. I need to find her again."
He was silent for a long moment. Then, a slow nod. "Then we will help you find her," he said. "And I will keep her safe."
He didn't say I love you. He didn't apologize for the contract. But in that moment, with the city lights glittering behind him and his fierce, worried eyes on mine, he finally saw Maya. Not just his wife.
And that was a beginning.