Marrying The Protector: My Second Chance

Marrying The Protector: My Second Chance

Xi Jin

5.0
Comment(s)
6.4K
View
24
Chapters

The clerk at the DMV looked at me like I was stupid, or perhaps just clinically insane. She slid my paperwork back under the thick glass partition, her expression flat, and said the words that ended my life: "Ma'am, I cannot renew a license with your married name. Your marital status in the system is listed as 'Divorced.' It has been for three years." My husband, Jackson, had just kissed me goodbye, yet the clerk revealed he remarried three years ago, having a son with his new wife, Candida. My entire marriage, our five years, was a monstrous lie. Stunned, I'd lived a cruel charade, trying for a baby with a man who already had one. Pregnant, Jackson pushed me at a gala, publicly choosing his new family. My pregnancy tragically ended. Every tender word he'd spoken was a performance. He kept me as a "PR shield," letting me mourn a future he'd already built. His betrayal was absolute. With nothing left, I chose to die. A death certificate was arranged, my past cremated. Lena Rose was born in France, ready to paint my pain into power, authoring my own story.

Marrying The Protector: My Second Chance Chapter 1

The clerk at the DMV looked at me like I was stupid, or perhaps just clinically insane. She slid my paperwork back under the thick glass partition, her expression flat, and said the words that ended my life: "Ma'am, I cannot renew a license with your married name. Your marital status in the system is listed as 'Divorced.' It has been for three years."

My husband, Jackson, had just kissed me goodbye, yet the clerk revealed he remarried three years ago, having a son with his new wife, Candida. My entire marriage, our five years, was a monstrous lie.

Stunned, I'd lived a cruel charade, trying for a baby with a man who already had one. Pregnant, Jackson pushed me at a gala, publicly choosing his new family. My pregnancy tragically ended.

Every tender word he'd spoken was a performance. He kept me as a "PR shield," letting me mourn a future he'd already built. His betrayal was absolute.

With nothing left, I chose to die. A death certificate was arranged, my past cremated. Lena Rose was born in France, ready to paint my pain into power, authoring my own story.

Chapter 1

Elena POV

The clerk at the DMV looked at me like I was stupid, or perhaps just clinically insane.

She slid my paperwork back under the thick glass partition, her expression flat, and said the words that ended my life.

"Ma'am, I cannot renew a license with your married name. Your marital status in the system is listed as 'Divorced.' It has been for three years."

The air in the room vanished.

I stared at her mouth, waiting for the punchline. Waiting for her to smile, to apologize, to tell me it was a glitch in their archaic computer system.

Jackson and I had dinner last night. He had kissed my forehead this morning, tender and lingering, before his driver, Leo, took him to the airport.

We were not divorced.

"That's impossible," I said, my voice sounding thin, as if it were coming from underwater. "My husband is Jackson Medina. We have been married for five years."

The woman sighed, the heavy sound of a bureaucrat exhausted by hysterical women.

She typed something else, her long acrylic nails clacking against the keys like hail on a tin roof. She turned the monitor slightly so I could see.

"Final Decree. Granted three years ago. Filed in Nevada."

She pointed a manicured finger at the glowing screen.

"And look here. He remarried the very next day. To a Miss Candida Lewis. They have a dependent listed. A son. Joey."

My knees hit the scuffed linoleum floor before my brain even registered the fall.

I didn't feel pain.

I didn't feel anything.

It was as if my body had turned to stone, while my mind was still frantically trying to catch up to the reality the woman behind the glass was presenting to me.

Three years.

For three years, I had been playing house with a man who wasn't my husband.

For three years, I had been trying to conceive a child with a man who already had a son with someone else.

A memory flashed-sharp and cold. I thought about the way Leo, the driver, had looked at me in the rearview mirror this morning.

It wasn't respect.

It was pity.

He knew. Everyone knew.

I scrambled to my feet, grabbing the counter for support. The line of people behind me was grumbling, shifting their weight, checking their watches. They didn't care that my world had just been incinerated.

To them, I was just the woman holding up the line.

"I need to go," I whispered.

I ran.

I pushed through the heavy glass doors and stumbled out into the blinding afternoon sun. It was cruel how bright the world was. It should have been raining. The sky should have been black.

I collapsed onto the curb near the parking lot, my expensive handbag resting in the dirt.

I pulled out my phone. The wallpaper was a picture of Jackson and me in Bali. He was looking at me with what I had thought was adoration.

Now, looking at it, I saw the lie in his eyes.

It wasn't love. It was performance art.

He divorced me three years ago. Why?

Then I remembered the hospital. The surgery.

Five years ago, a disgruntled employee had lunged at Jackson with a knife. I stepped in front of him. The blade severed something vital.

The doctors saved my life, but they took my uterus.

I remembered Jackson holding my hand, tears streaming down his face, promising me that we didn't need children, that I was enough.

He lied.

He divorced me to marry a woman who could give him a legacy, and he kept me around as... what? A pet? A habit? A shield?

I scrolled through my phone, my fingers shaking so hard I could barely type. I searched for Candida Lewis.

Her profile was public.

There they were.

Photos of Jackson holding a toddler. Photos of family vacations that coincided perfectly with his "business trips." Photos of a wedding I wasn't invited to, happening while I sat at home waiting for him.

A laugh bubbled up in my throat, tasting like bile.

He had told me he would destroy Candida for trying to undercut his business years ago. Instead, he married her.

He used the same soft voice to comfort me about my infertility that he probably used to tell her he loved her.

I wiped my face. My hand came away wet. I hadn't realized I was crying.

I stood up.

The numbness was fading, replaced by a cold, sharp anger. It was a clarity I hadn't felt in years.

I wasn't going to go home and wait for him to explain.

I wasn't going to be the victim he kept in a glass box.

I dialed a number I hadn't called in years.

"Hamilton?" My voice cracked, sounding broken even to my own ears.

"I need your help. I think... I think I've been living inside a massive lie."

Continue Reading

Other books by Xi Jin

More
The Coldhearted Surgeon's Billionaire Revenge

The Coldhearted Surgeon's Billionaire Revenge

Modern

5.0

I stood at the edge of the red carpet, my pulse a steady seventy-two beats per minute. I wasn't the girl they broke eighteen years ago; I was a machine of flesh and bone, calibrated by the sterile lights of the operating theater. But the moment I stepped inside the Hamptons estate, the trap snapped shut. Belle Estrada stood on the stage, her emerald dress shimmering as she pointed a blood-red nail at me. She accused me of corporate espionage, flashing "stolen" lab data across the massive screens for the entire elite crowd to see. The room turned into a shark tank. When the family patriarch collapsed from a massive stroke, Bentley—the man who once watched them ruin me—didn't see a doctor rushing to help. He saw a criminal. He lunged at me, hissing that he would have my medical license revoked and blacklist me from every lab in the country. "This is over," he snarled. "I'll bury you until you're broke and begging." I looked at him and felt nothing but cold, analytical curiosity. They really thought they could steal my life's work a second time. They thought I was still the girl who would cry and beg for mercy while they carved up my future. "You can't blacklist the patent holder, Bentley," I said, my voice cutting through his rage like a scalpel. I held up my phone, displaying the official filing from the USPTO. I wasn't just a guest; I was the sole owner of the very drug they were trying to sell. And standing in the shadows was Julian Vance, the most feared venture capitalist in the city, waiting to collect on his investment. The Everetts wanted a war, but they didn't realize I had already bought the battlefield.

I Designed His Dream House, He Built a Secret Family

I Designed His Dream House, He Built a Secret Family

Short stories

5.0

I was in a high-end mall, browsing a toy store for my friend's daughter's birthday, when my world tilted on its axis. Through the polished glass storefront, I saw him. My husband, Julian. He was in the café opposite, seated beside the sprawling indoor children's play area. He wasn't alone. A woman, Seraphina Vance—a social media influencer whose perfectly curated life I’d occasionally scrolled past—was laughing, her head tilted just so. And between them, a little boy of about four, gleefully mashing a piece of cake into his own dark hair. Julian’s hair. They looked like a family. A perfect, happy family. An icy dread washed over me. I remembered Julian refusing to have a baby with me, citing the immense pressure of his work. All his business trips, the late nights… were they spent with them? I recalled a night six months ago when Noah had supposedly been sick. Julian had stayed out all night, his voice strained over the phone, telling me a "critical client had a medical emergency." The lie was so easy for him. I must have stared too long. The little boy, Noah, noticed me. He picked up a toy water pistol from their table, aimed it directly at me through the café’s open front, and squeezed the trigger. A jet of cold water hit my silk skirt, leaving a dark, spreading stain. Seraphina Vance turned, her eyes meeting mine. There was no surprise, only a flicker of amusement. She offered a saccharine smile. "Oh, dear. He's just playing with you," she cooed, her voice dripping with condescension. My heart hammered against my ribs. I turned and walked away, my legs unsteady. I needed to leave, to breathe, to think. In the underground parking garage, I fumbled for my keys, my hands shaking. As I passed Julian’s sleek sedan, something on the passenger seat caught my eye. A heavy, cream-colored card with embossed lettering. "You are joyfully invited to the Christening of Noah Thorne." It was real. More real than a fleeting email. A physical invitation to a life I never knew existed. How could I have been so blind? My phone felt heavy in my hand. I didn’t call my best friend. I didn’t call a lawyer. I called the director of the Zurich Architectural Fellowship, a prestigious program I had deferred for him, for us. "I'd like to accept the fellowship," I said, my voice eerily calm. "I can leave immediately."

You'll also like

The Ghost Wife's Billion Dollar Tech Comeback

The Ghost Wife's Billion Dollar Tech Comeback

Huo Wuer
4.5

Today is October 14th, my birthday. I returned to New York after months away, dragging my suitcase through the biting wind, but the VIP pickup zone where my husband’s Maybach usually idled was empty. When I finally let myself into our Upper East Side penthouse, I didn’t find a cake or a "welcome home" banner. Instead, I found my husband, Caden, kneeling on the floor, helping our five-year-old daughter wrap a massive gift for my half-sister, Adalynn. Caden didn’t even look up when I walked in; he was too busy laughing with the girl who had already stolen my father’s legacy and was now moving in on my family. "Auntie Addie is a million times better than Mommy," my daughter Elara chirped, clutching a plush toy Caden had once forbidden me from buying for her. "Mommy is mean," she whispered loudly, while Caden just smirked, calling me a "drill sergeant" before whisking her off to Adalynn’s party without a second glance. Later that night, I saw a video Adalynn posted online where my husband and child laughed while mocking my "sensitive" nature, treating me like an inconvenient ghost in my own home. I had spent five years researching nutrition for Elara’s health and managing every detail of Caden’s empire, only to be discarded the moment I wasn't in the room. How could the man who set his safe combination to my birthday completely forget I even existed? The realization didn't break me; it turned me into ice. I didn't scream or beg for an explanation. I simply walked into the study, pulled out the divorce papers I’d drafted months ago, and took a black marker to the terms. I crossed out the alimony, the mansion, and even the custody clause—if they wanted a life without me, I would give them exactly what they asked for. I left my four-carat diamond ring on the console table and walked out into the rain with nothing but a heavily encrypted hard drive. The submissive Mrs. Holloway was gone, and "Ghost," the most lethal architect in the tech world, was finally back online to take back everything they thought I’d forgotten.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book
Marrying The Protector: My Second Chance Marrying The Protector: My Second Chance Xi Jin Modern
“The clerk at the DMV looked at me like I was stupid, or perhaps just clinically insane. She slid my paperwork back under the thick glass partition, her expression flat, and said the words that ended my life: "Ma'am, I cannot renew a license with your married name. Your marital status in the system is listed as 'Divorced.' It has been for three years." My husband, Jackson, had just kissed me goodbye, yet the clerk revealed he remarried three years ago, having a son with his new wife, Candida. My entire marriage, our five years, was a monstrous lie. Stunned, I'd lived a cruel charade, trying for a baby with a man who already had one. Pregnant, Jackson pushed me at a gala, publicly choosing his new family. My pregnancy tragically ended. Every tender word he'd spoken was a performance. He kept me as a "PR shield," letting me mourn a future he'd already built. His betrayal was absolute. With nothing left, I chose to die. A death certificate was arranged, my past cremated. Lena Rose was born in France, ready to paint my pain into power, authoring my own story.”
1

Chapter 1

12/12/2025

2

Chapter 2

12/12/2025

3

Chapter 3

12/12/2025

4

Chapter 4

12/12/2025

5

Chapter 5

12/12/2025

6

Chapter 6

12/12/2025

7

Chapter 7

12/12/2025

8

Chapter 8

12/12/2025

9

Chapter 9

12/12/2025

10

Chapter 10

12/12/2025

11

Chapter 11

12/12/2025

12

Chapter 12

12/12/2025

13

Chapter 13

12/12/2025

14

Chapter 14

12/12/2025

15

Chapter 15

12/12/2025

16

Chapter 16

12/12/2025

17

Chapter 17

12/12/2025

18

Chapter 18

12/12/2025

19

Chapter 19

12/12/2025

20

Chapter 20

12/12/2025

21

Chapter 21

12/12/2025

22

Chapter 22

12/12/2025

23

Chapter 23

12/12/2025

24

Chapter 24

12/12/2025