My Daughter's Defender

I was securing the diamond clasp of my necklace when the security monitor blinked to life, revealing my husband burying his face between his assistant's thighs. Just an hour later, Dante Moretti stood by my side at the Gala, playing the part of the devoted Capo, while his mistress smirked at me from across the room in a dress that screamed for attention. I wanted to leave. I had packed my bags, ready to disappear. But then the doctor told me the news: I was six weeks pregnant with the Vitiello-Moretti heir. I thought the baby might save us. I thought it would stop the madness. I was wrong. When his mistress accused me of betrayal to cover her own tracks, Dante didn't listen to his wife. He listened to the woman warming his bed. In a blind rage, the man who swore to protect me struck me down. I felt the sharp, tearing pain in my abdomen before I even hit the stone floor. As blood stained my pristine white dress, I realized he hadn't just broken his vows. He had killed our unborn son. So, when the opportunity came to detonate the gas line and fake my own death, I didn't hesitate. I let the world believe Seraphina Moretti died in that explosion. Ten years later, I returned to a city that thought I was a ghost. I dismantled his supply lines, froze his assets, and watched his empire crumble piece by piece. And when he was finally on his knees in the rain, broken and destitute, I stepped out of the shadows. I didn't come back for his money. I came back to hand him the ultrasound photo of the child he murdered. "Hello, Dante."

I served seven years in a black-site prison for a crime my sister committed. Today, my betrothed—the man who chose her over me—finally came to collect his property. But he didn't come to save me. He came to collect me like a debt, watching with cold eyes as I was shoved into a filthy shed, a disgrace to be kept out of sight. Minutes later, his phone rang. It was my sister. Without a word, he left me standing in the dirt to rush to her side. Abandoned. Again. Through the thin walls of my new prison, I heard my own mother's voice. She was arranging to have me sent to a remote convent, to be buried for good this time. They hadn't just locked me away to protect their perfect, adopted daughter. They planned to erase me completely. But as I sat in the dark, a cheap burner phone buzzed in my pocket. A single message glowed on the screen. "Northern Syndicate. We can get you out. You have ten days."

For five years, they told me my cousin Juliette was in Asia, atoning for a data breach that almost destroyed our family's tech company. I played my part as Elaine Stewart, the perfect philanthropic daughter, engaged to my father's brilliant successor, Cole. My life was a carefully managed performance to uphold our family's public image. That lie shattered on the night of our biggest product launch. I saw them on the private airfield next to the event hall. My fiancé, Cole, and my cousin Juliette. And between them, holding both their hands, was a little girl. My world stopped. The girl was Kiarra, the four-year-old "niece" Cole had told me about. His daughter. I soon discovered my entire life was a PR stunt, a shield for their secret family and a much darker corporate crime. My own father had framed Juliette for a data breach he orchestrated, and she was blackmailing him. My mother was in on it, funding their lavish life to ensure their silence. Then I found the video call recording. My cousin and my fiancé, laughing at me. "My sweet, naive charity case of a cousin," Juliette's voice dripped with mockery. "She's so easy to fool." They thought I was a pawn, good for photo ops and nothing more. A cold fury burned through the shock, melting away the girl I used to be. The company's annual shareholders' meeting was in two weeks, live-streamed to the entire world. They were expecting a celebratory corporate video. But this year, I would replace it. I would replace it with irrefutable proof of the affair, the secret family, and the blackmail. They were about to find out how wrong they were.

This was the third time I had tried to kill myself. Each time, my brother-in-law, Dustin Martin, found me and saved me. But then, I found his watch, a Patek Philippe I' d commissioned for my husband, Evertt, who was presumed dead in a plane crash. The engraving on the back read: "H&E, Forever." My heart stopped. Why did Dustin have Evertt' s watch? A cold dread filled me. I had to know. I had to find out the truth. I stumbled out of my hospital room and heard voices from the waiting area. It was Kylee, Dustin' s pregnant fiancée, and a man' s voice I knew better than my own. It was Evertt' s voice. I peeked around the corner. "Dustin" was holding Kylee in his arms. "Evertt, what if she finds out?" Kylee whispered. "What if she realizes you' re not Dustin?" "She won' t," Evertt said, his voice cold and indifferent. "Her grief is too deep. She sees what she wants to see." The man who had saved me from suicide, the man I thought was my brother-in-law, was my husband. My living, breathing husband. And he had watched me suffer, letting me drown in grief, all for his dead brother' s fiancée. My entire world had been a lie. A cruel, twisted joke. But then, a new thought, cold and sharp, cut through my pain. An escape. I would be strong enough to destroy him.

The blinking cursor on Liam Miller' s screen mocked him: "Invalid Certificate Number." He sighed, leaning back in his leather chair, the city lights shimmering behind him. Their five-year marriage certificate, an official document, yet it wouldn' t register for their new foundation. Chloe, his seemingly supportive wife, brushed it off as a "silly computer glitch." He loved her boundless optimism, especially after the devastating news that they couldn' t have children. He founded the "Miller-Davis Foundation for Hope" because she urged him to turn their personal pain into a public mission to help others. The next morning, with Chloe off to Monaco, Liam decided to settle the registration in person. The clerk' s words hit him like a physical blow: "There' s no record of a marriage certificate with this number... According to the state, this marriage never happened." Five years. A small, intimate beach wedding. Crying. Laughing. Families and friends. All fake? His mind raced, replaying every moment. Was their entire life together a meticulously crafted lie? The loving gestures, the shared dreams-were they all just an elaborate act? He stumbled out, the useless paper a scorching brand in his hand. He had to find her. He needed the truth. He didn't pack, didn't call his assistant. He just booked the first flight to Monaco, a desperate, singular thought consuming him: I have to find her. I need the truth. But the truth he found was far more brutal. He watched from the shadows as Chloe, radiant and in white, walked down an aisle, not to him, but to Ethan Vance–his protégé, his mentee. It was another wedding. And she was the bride.

The phantom chill of icy water jolted me awake, but I wasn' t drowning in Lake Champlain; I was safe in my luxurious Boston apartment. My fiancé, Matthew, and his mother stood over my bed, demanding I sign papers to dissolve our shared assets, claiming it was just a formality. But I recognized this moment, a chilling deja vu-I had been reborn just thirty days before "The Great Silence." In my last life, this conversation ended with me refusing, crying, feeling utterly betrayed and abandoned. I remembered how he' d later abandon me to monstrous creatures, using me as a decoy for his pregnant mistress. This time, there were no tears, only a cold, hard resolve. I signed away everything we had built, but my enemies didn't realize they were signing their own death warrants. My plan wasn't just to survive the coming apocalypse, but to exact a ruthless, quiet revenge. I walked out, leaving Matthew clueless, carrying his driver's license-a silent weapon. I drove north to my reclusive father's fortified compound, desperate to warn him and bring my Army Ranger brother home before the world went silent. Days later, Matthew called, desperate and alone, his mother and mistress gone. He begged for help, but I sent him to a decoy cabin, tracked by a hidden camera. Watching him stumble in, not alone as promised, I saw his true nature. The ensuing fight drew creatures, and he resorted to a horrifying act of self-mutilation to survive. He eventually found our true haven, using a child as bait to draw the creatures to our gate. But I had one last, silent trick up my sleeve, linked to his greed and his pride. With a single click, Matthew's old smartphone became his personal alarm, a blaring siren in a world that hunted by sound. His end was swift, brutal, and orchestrated by me. We rescued the traumatized child, Elyse, a silent victim like my own brother, Andrew, who had also mutilated himself to save innocents. Our fortress became a home, a sanctuary of silence and love, as we rebuilt a new family from the ashes of the old world. We became protectors, finding purpose and happiness not in spoken words, but in the enduring strength of our bond.

Nadine reunited with her family, convinced she'd been discarded, rage simmering-only to find collapse: her mother unstable, her father poisoned; a pianist brother trapped in a sham marriage, a detective brother framed and jailed, the youngest dragged into a gang. While the fake daughter mocked and colluded, Nadine moved in secret-healing her mother, curing her father, ending the union, clearing charges, and lifting the youngest to leader. Rumors said she rode coattails, unworthy of Rhys, the unmatched magnate. Few knew she was a renowned healer, legendary assassin, mysterious tycoon... Rhys knelt. "Marry me! The entire empire is yours for the taking!"

Two years of marriage left Brinley questioning everything, her supposed happiness revealed as nothing but sham. Abandoning her past for Colin, she discovered only betrayal and a counterfeit wedding. Accepting his heart would stay frozen, she called her estranged father, agreeing to the match he proposed. Laughter followed her, with whispers of Colin's power to toss her aside. Yet, she reinvented herself-legendary racer, casino mastermind, and acclaimed designer. When Colin tried to reclaim her, another man pulled Brinley close. "She's already carrying my child. You can't move on?"

Since she was ten, Noreen had been by Caiden's side, watching him rise from a young boy into a respected CEO. After two years of marriage, though, his visits home grew rare. Gossip among the wealthy said he despised her. Even his beloved mocked her hopes, and his circle treated her with scorn. People forgot about her decade of loyalty. She clung to memories and became a figure of ridicule, worn out from trying. They thought he'd won his freedom, but he dropped to his knees and begged, "Noreen, you're the only one I love." Leaving behind the divorce papers, she walked away.

"Stella once savored Marc's devotion, yet his covert cruelty cut deep. She torched their wedding portrait at his feet while he sent flirty messages to his mistress. With her chest tight and eyes blazing, Stella delivered a sharp slap. Then she deleted her identity, signed onto a classified research mission, vanished without a trace, and left him a hidden bombshell. On launch day she vanished; that same dawn Marc's empire crumbled. All he unearthed was her death certificate, and he shattered. When they met again, a gala spotlighted Stella beside a tycoon. Marc begged. With a smirk, she said, ""Out of your league, darling."

Abandoned as a child and orphaned by murder, Kathryn swore she'd reclaim every shred of her stolen birthright. When she returned, society called her an unpolished love-child, scoffing that Evan had lost his mind to marry her. Only Evan knew the truth: the quiet woman he cradled like porcelain hid secrets enough to set the city trembling. She doubled as a legendary healer, an elusive hacker, and the royal court's favorite perfumer. At meetings, the directors groaned at the lovey-dovey couple, "Does she really have to be here?" Evan shrugged. "Happy wife, happy life." Soon her masks fell, and those who sneered bowed in awe.

Sunlit hours found their affection glimmering, while moonlit nights ignited reckless desire. But when Brandon learned his beloved might last only half a year, he coolly handed Millie divorce papers, murmuring, "This is all for appearances; we'll get married again once she's calmed down." Millie, spine straight and cheeks dry, felt her pulse go hollow. The sham split grew permanent; she quietly ended their unborn child and stepped into a new beginning. Brandon unraveled, his car tearing down the street, unwilling to let go of the woman he'd discarded, pleading for her to look back just once.