DAPHNE’S POV

They say mothers break quietly behind locked doors, in bathrooms, in the middle of the night when no one can see.

But I wasn’t breaking quietly.

I was breaking in headlines.

The first article hit like a punch to the chest:

“Daphne Rivera: Unfit Mother or Femme Fatale?”

My photo was splashed across the screen, Christian blurred at my side, my tear-streaked face frozen mid-sob outside the police station.

By the time the second headline surfaced, my phone wouldn’t stop ...