I married a homeless man, and the entire wedding hall was filled with mocking looks

"Why the subway station?" I asked, crossing my arms defensively over my white lace bodice. "If you were hiding, why stay in the most crowded place in the city?"

Daniel sighed, running a hand through his neatly trimmed hair. He looked exhausted, the adrenaline of the reveal fading.

"Because it was the only place I could access the underground server lines without drawing attention," he explained.

I blinked in confusion. "Server lines?"

"Vanguard's old data hubs," he said, taking a small step closer. "They run beneath the city. Vance locked me out of the main system, but he forgot about the physical maintenance ports."

I stared at him, piecing it together. "You weren't just sleeping there. You were hacking into your own company."

"Every night," he confirmed. "For two years. I had to build a backdoor into the financial records to prove Vance was embezzling funds and setting me up. I used a junk laptop I found in a dumpster."

The image of him shivering under a thin blanket flashed in my mind. The reality shifted. He wasn't helpless; he was at war.

"But why didn't you go to the police?" I demanded. "Why pretend to be dead?"

"Because Vance owned the police," Daniel said darkly. "He bought off the detective investigating my 'accident.' If I surfaced before I had undeniable proof, I would have had another, more permanent accident."

A cold chill ran down my spine. The danger he had been in was real.

"And then you met me," I said, my voice barely a whisper.

"I was starving, Emily," he said, his eyes softening. "Not just for food. For humanity. I hadn't spoken to anyone in months. And then you dropped a coffee and a sandwich in my lap."

"You threw the money back at me," I recalled, a faint smile breaking through my anger.

"I didn't need your money," he smiled back, a genuine, warm expression. "I just needed you to sit and talk with me. And you did."

"I talked about my terrible boss and my overbearing parents," I sighed. "I must have sounded so privileged and whiny to a man living on the street."

"You sounded like an angel," Daniel corrected, his voice thick with emotion. "You gave me a reason to finish the fight. I wanted to get my life back so I could offer you the world."

I looked into his eyes. The sincerity was overwhelming. But before I could forgive him, the sound of breaking glass echoed from inside the ballroom.