Chapter 5 - The Bond
The line between professional and personal began to blur in the hushed, sterile atmosphere of the Vance estate. Garrett found himself spending more time in the library than the security room, debating ethics with Eleanor over glasses of vintage scotch. She was a woman who had lived a thousand lives, having lost her leg in a failed humanitarian mission years ago—a story she rarely shared, but one that echoed Garrett’s own loss of purpose.
"You’re doing this for Lily," she observed one evening, watching him sharpen a blade he carried as a legacy of his service. "But tell me, Garrett, when the war is over, what will you be? A man who fought for a billionaire, or a father who survived?"
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"I'm just a man who wants to keep his daughter safe," he replied, though the answer felt hollow. He had started to care about the mission not just for the money, but because he saw in Eleanor a woman who wanted to use power to heal the world, while the Syndicate wanted to use it to break it.
He became her shadow. When she traveled to a conference in Geneva, Garrett slept on a chair outside her suite, his ears tuned to the hum of the air conditioning. When she was nervous about an upcoming board vote, he was the one who brought her tea, providing a tether to reality in a world of deceit. They were two broken pieces of a puzzle that, when put together, formed a formidable whole. He wasn't just her head of security; he was her conscience. And in turn, she became a benefactor to Lily, anonymously funding a prestigious private school that had once been a dream far beyond his reach.
