Adriana Cattaneo has always lived a quiet, predictable life in her small bubble-until one day, everything changes. When her 'father' spontaneously announces that they're moving, she is switched to an elite private school in Milan, Italy. But behind the polished uniforms and prestigious halls, dark secrets begin to surface-secrets about her past, her family, and a world she never knew existed. ❝What do you do when an entire world you built to protect yourself starts falling apart.❞

Home in Their Arms The night everything burned, the Mirza family lost three souls - a mother, a son, and a newborn daughter. Zayn Mirza vanished into the shadows, carrying his sister and a promise no one ever heard. Years later, he is a man built from secrets and silence, living between power and danger, while raising his four-year-old sister, Inaaya, as his whole world. To Inaaya, Zayn is more than a brother - he is home, safety, and the arms she runs into with every laugh and every fear. Believed to be dead, the son they mourned lives on - protecting the daughter they never knew survived. When fate forces the past and present to collide, buried misunderstandings resurface, hearts are tested, and a fragile child becomes the bridge between broken souls. In a world ruled by secrets and shadows, one man's devotion and one four-year-old's innocent love redefine what family truly means. Because sometimes, home isn't a place. It's in their arms.

For over a century, the Valenti Mafia has produced only sons. Generation after generation, the powerful family expanded its empire through ruthless leaders, feared heirs, and dangerous men whose names alone commanded respect throughout the underworld. Then, after decades of waiting, a daughter was finally born. Aria Valenti. The youngest child of the Valenti family and the only girl among eight older brothers. To the outside world, she is the family's greatest treasure. To Aria, she is simply a frightened eleven-year-old girl living in a mansion full of men she barely knows. Her brothers are feared throughout the country-mafia bosses, strategists, enforcers, and heirs to a criminal empire. They are not warm. They are not gentle. They do not know how to comfort a child. And Aria is terrified of every single one of them. Having spent most of her life surrounded by nannies, tutors, and distant relatives while her brothers managed the family empire, Aria has grown up believing she is little more than an obligation. She keeps to herself, never asks for anything, and tries her best not to be a burden. But when a small accident reveals just how isolated and vulnerable she truly is, her brothers begin to notice the little sister they have overlooked for years. What starts as concern soon becomes something far more dangerous. Because someone is watching Aria. Someone inside the mafia world is searching for her. And buried within the Valenti family's history lies a secret connected to the last daughter of the bloodline-a secret powerful enough to threaten the empire itself. As enemies close in and old family secrets come to light, Aria finds herself caught between fear and trust, surrounded by eight intimidating brothers who may not know how to express affection-but who would destroy anyone who dares to hurt the only daughter of House Valenti. In a family built on power, loyalty, and blood, one small girl may become the most important Valenti of them all.

He thought he was saving her. He was handing her to the wolves. Ten years ago, the eldest Sokolov brother made a desperate choice to protect his baby sister from the bloodbath of a mafia war. He paid her mother a fortune to take her far away and keep her safe, believing that a mother would do everything for their child. It was a secret he kept from his five brothers-a promise of protection that was supposed to be her salvation. But the money wasn't enough to buy a mother's love. Instead of safety, their sister was sold to the highest bidder-discarded into an abusive household where she spent a decade surviving a nightmare her brothers never knew existed. Now, ten years later, the truth has surfaced, and the girl they traded away has been found. She isn't the innocent child they remember. She is a hollowed-out survivor who looks at her brothers not as heroes, but as the men who paid for her disappearance. The Sokolov circle is finally whole again, but as the six brothers move to burn the world down for what was done to her, they must face the most brutal truth of all: The seventh scar was carved by their own hands.

She had a broken family. Yet she was happy. She didn't have a whole, but she was grateful for the half she had. All Talia has ever known is her life with her mother. The four-year-old only understood that she didn't have a father, unlike her other friends. Then suddenly a tragic accident changes her life and she finds herself being shipped to New York to her older brothers and father. There was a reason they didn't know about her. A reason her mother died protecting. Will it all be for nought? Note: None of the images belong to me.

Amalia Romano is a selective mute. After years of enduring abuse from her step father, who has ridiculed and hurt her mercilessly, she doesn't want to talk, for fear of what might happen if someone doesn't like what she says. But then her step father--who's care she has been in for two years, ever since her mum died--passes away, and her father, who she was taken away from when she was three, agrees to take her in. But she isn't the smiley little girl she used to be. And the Romano men have secrets of their own, ones they want to keep their twelve year old princess away from. 1M VIEWS: Sunday, 12th March 2023 COVER BY: @sugarhighstoned

"We fought an uphill battle. One we had no hope of winning." ~~~ Felicity-Flick as most call her-Carter, has learned a thing or two in her 12 years of life. How to deal with drunk parents without waking the neighbors, how to smoke a cigarette without burning your fingers, and how to be abandoned by your siblings without losing your mind. All skills acquired through heartbreak and survival. Cigarette smoke filled lungs, late night talks on rooftops, make up most of who Flick is. But when her fractured family begins to mend itself, Flick is faced with a new chapter in her life that involves the very people she never wanted to see again. Started: January 10th 2021 Finished: December 2nd 2021

"I was sick of letting the world run me so I decided to run the world." ~~~ Isabelle Cane was taken from her family at 6 months old, leaving behind 7 older brothers and a twin sister. In the 12 years she's been away, Izzy has faced hardships no child should have to deal with. A drug addict mom, the never ending need for money, and a dead best friend make for one hell of a life for Izzy. When her Mom dies unexpectedly, she is placed into the custody of her brothers who have been looking for their baby sister for years now. A new future lies ahead for Izzy but it seems the past will never quite leave her alone. Started: 8/04/20 Finished:

A young girl named Elianna is sweet, small, and simple. Ellianna and her mother have been on their own for as long as she's known. When she suddenly loses her mother in an unfortunate event, secrets about her past are unleashed. Ellianna soon learns that she has 6 older brothers who have been waiting for her to come home. They've been waiting to give her the life she never knew was even posssible. All 7 of her brothers are mostly closed off, but can Elianna be the one to break down their walls? Ellianna has yet to know the secrets that lie within her brothers.......family, love, betrayal, mystery's, rivals, and a mafia?! Find out in Protected! Started 12/12/2020 - FOLLOW MY INSTAGRAM @ny.episode FOR UPDATES!