A Decade's Love, My True Guardian

On the day she is finally set to marry Alexander Bennett after ten years of devotion, Daniela Harper follows her stepsister Joyce Holt to a storeroom for a promised wedding gift. The door locks from outside. Flames rise, smoke billows, the air reeks of gasoline, and a falling screen traps her. Alexander rushes in, but he scoops up Joyce first and carries her out without a backward glance. Daniela wakes in the hospital with broken ribs and a cast on her arm. A stranger pulled her from the fire; Alexander never returned. She drags herself upstairs and through a glass pane sees Alexander spoon-feeding Joyce soup, smiling a tenderness she waited a decade to receive. Inside the room, Joyce accuses Daniela of setting the fire. Her father Kaden Harper and stepmother Katrina comfort Joyce and threaten to call the police on their own daughter. When Alexander finds Daniela, he demands she apologize to Joyce. He throws her past confidences back at her as a weapon, then watches Katrina slap her. Kaden slaps her again, splitting the bandages on her arm, and orders her to kneel until she admits she was wrong. As soon as the room empties, Joyce leans over Daniela's bleeding form and smirks that she poured the gasoline herself, lit it herself, and destroyed the surveillance footage—no one will ever believe her. Daniela quietly presses record on her phone.

That night, she sends word to her former assistant Lillian Dawson. She has made up her mind: she will not wait. Lillian brings a team to the hospital and spirits her away. Two days later, after waking in the ICU to a flood of online abuse, Daniela meets Alexander at the courthouse in a white dress and signs the divorce papers without taking a cent. Joyce deliberately bumps her still-healing shoulder outside the courthouse, then hides behind Alexander. As Lillian's convoy pulls up to take Daniela away, the recording and hallway footage—backed up by the LX Group's security system—are released across the internet. The audio detonates during a Harper Group executive meeting, where over a hundred executives hear Joyce's vicious confession echo through the conference room. Alexander tells Joyce to shut up. Joyce is helped out, legs buckling. The Harper Group's stock plummets, Kaden lands back in the hospital, and Kaden publicly disowns Daniela in the newspaper. Three months later, a new landmark rises in Olisvane's most prosperous district—the Luxor Tower. Joyce drags Alexander to the building to curry favor with LX's mysterious CEO, clutching a cheap golf club. A stretch Lincoln pulls up. Daniela steps out. Joyce shrieks and starts a live stream. Before she can finish, Cedric Phillips steps from a nearby car. Joyce freezes—she never expected Daniela to know him. A contact Joyce summons to expose Daniela arrives and addresses her as Mrs. Harper instead. Then LX's official website refreshes. The front page declares: Miss Daniela Harper, CEO of LX Group. Joyce's face drains white. Alexander stands frozen. The livestream comments erupt.