
Deadly Silence (complete)
Terra Matthews · Completed · 227.8k Words
Introduction
Vivian, now sixteen, meets her biological family for the first time but isn’t as eager to get to know them. Her past holds too many secrets; secrets that would turn them against her if they ever fount out.
Her family, however, have secrets of their own, ones that clash with those Vivian refuse to speak of. As their two worlds collide she needs to decide if she can trust them with her past, if she can accept who they truly are, and if ‘family’ is even important.
Chapter 1
Things were looking good for this year’s charity gala.
Every year something always went wrong in the week leading up to the event, causing a mad scramble to fix and get everything back on track.
Samuel Devreaux watched his people sorting through the supplies he’d had delivered so when the day came they could begin setting everything up without disrupting the birthday celebration that had reserved the room until mid afternoon of the same day.
It would be a tight squeeze with only two hours to clean it out and set up for the event, but Samuel knew his people were efficient. They would be done with minutes to spare if he had anything to say about it.
The theme song from Law & Order began to play and Samuel glanced down as he fished his phone out of a pocket. He knew without looking at the screen it was his lawyer, Charles Montague. “Yes?” He said once the call connected and he’d brought the phone to his ear.
“Samuel,” his lawyer returned in greeting, voice sounding like he smoked two pack of smokes a day when in reality he’d never so much as touched a cigarette. “Are you at the Bolivar?”
“Where else would I be?” Samuel asked in response, voice almost a little bored as he lifted a hand to correct someone who was putting the chairs in the wrong area of the storeroom. They would be the last thing to set up in the ballroom and needed to be at the back.
“Ah, good, good. I need to speak with you — privately — when I arrive.”
This statement picked at Samuel’s curiosity. “What about?” There were a number of things going through his mind as to what the nature of this meeting could be.
As owner of several luxury hotels and high-end restaurants Samuel had his fair share of good and bad press. Libel lawsuits had been an issue for about a decade, with people spewing rumours he was part of the criminal underworld that secretly ran the city.
It didn’t matter that he was, technically, not part of the criminal underworld but one of those in charge of it; rumours had to be squashed and his good name kept clean if he wanted to continue doing business in the area.
The cops liked to question him about various crimes that happen, but Charles was on point at running interference and making sure they found nothing they weren’t supposed to.
The lawyer was a shark and that was why Samuel paid his retainer’s fee and more — good legal aid was a must for someone in his position and he wasn’t about to skimp on it either.
“I’ll be there in ten,” Charles told his client before hanging up.
Frowning, Samuel looked at his phone for a second before slipping it back into his pocket.
Sweeping his gaze over the room, he then motioned for one of the more senior staff to come over.
“Yes, sir?” She asked, hands clasps behind her back as she stood in front of him.
“You are Claudia, yes?”
He could see some colour coming into her cheeks and held back a smirk. Learning the names of those who worked for him, on both legal and illegal sides of his businesses was part of the charm he’d cultivated around the Samuel Devreaux the world saw.
“Y-yes, sir, I am.”
“Good. I’m leaving you in charge; please make sure everything is sorted correctly or set up will be a disaster.”
“Of course, sir. Thank you.”
Samuel gave the woman a warm smile as he walked past her and exited the storeroom. It was only once no one was in sight that he let the smile disappear and the more comfortable expression of nonchalance settled in its place.
Though his life was going great by all accounts — his businesses were more than a success and his children were almost all full grown and staying out of trouble, for the most part. Yet he felt empty, like none of it mattered.
Every day he put on a multitude of masks to keep people from knowing he was but a shell of who he’d been. Father, boss, criminal, business owner… the masks he wore were flawless after nearly two decades of wearing them.
Nearly two long, agonizing decades.
Hands now in the pockets of his pants, Samuel waited for the elevator to bring him to his office on the seventh floor.
In truth he had one on the ground floor, used to meet with important people of the outside world, but the seventh floor office was for more… sensitive meetings. Since Charles had specified ‘privately’ it was best to use the office suited for more delicate conversations.
Samuel had only just sat down behind his large oak desk when a knock came at the door. Leaning back in his chair a little, he checked the camera feed that showed him just outside the office doors and noted Charles had arrived earlier than promised.
“Enter,” Samuel called out, leaning his elbows on the desk as he interlaced his fingers. Perching his chin just above his hands, he greeted the lawyer with a nod when he entered the office.
Charles Montague was in his mid forties, relatively short for a man and a bit on the portly side. His hair had gone grey at the ripe age of nineteen and he kept it cut relatively short. “Thank you for meeting me on such short notice,” the lawyer said to his client as he took a seat opposite Samuel.
“What’s this about, Charles? I have a lot going on at the moment.”
“I understand, Samuel,” Charles replied as he took out a handkerchief and dabbed at the sweat that had accumulated around his neck. The two men had been on first name basis for years now, their relationship almost in the realm of friendship instead of professional though neither would say as much out loud. “This couldn’t wait.”
A minute of silence stretched between the men before Samuel raised his eyebrows. “Well?” He noted that his lawyer looked uncomfortable, almost uneasy about whatever he’d wanted to talk about.
“I’m not sure how to say this, so I will just say it,” Charles finally sighed as he set his briefcase on his lap, pulling out two manila folders before setting it beside his chair. “A month ago they found some unidentified remains and they’ve finally identified them as belonging to Annie Devreaux.”
As Charles spoke, he placed the first folder on Samuel’s desk, but his client had frozen in place at the mention of his missing wife.
Seventeen years ago she had vanished without a trace. They’d only just been blessed with their third son when it happened. Samuel had pulled everyone in, using every last connection he’d cultivated over the years — and even had the police investigate it as well — only to come up with nothing to show for it.
The woman had disappeared off the face of the Earth.
There was plenty of gossip saying she’d run away or had been murdered by her husband since rumours of Samuel’s dealings in the criminal underworld became rampant in the years following her disappearance but no-one could prove it one way or another. The case had been cold for years, though Samuel always had people working it.
Annie had been his entire world and he still loved her more than he could ever put into words. Her disappearance had broken him, leaving only a shell of who he’d been before.
Their three boys were left without a mother or answers to where she went, and he had struggled raising them how Annie would have wanted.
Now, after all these years, hearing that her remains had been found — that she was dead — was bittersweet.
It gave Samuel closure on her whereabouts, though little else. Had she vanished because she died? Or did that happen later?
Last Chapters
#183 Chapter 183 - Epilogue 5/5
Last Updated: 4/28/2026#182 Chapter 182 - Epilogue 4/5
Last Updated: 4/28/2026#181 Chapter 181 - Epilogue 3/5
Last Updated: 4/28/2026#180 Chapter 180 - Epilogue 2/5
Last Updated: 4/28/2026#179 Chapter 179 - Epilogue 1/5
Last Updated: 4/28/2026#178 Chapter 178 - Vivian
Last Updated: 4/28/2026#177 Chapter 177
Last Updated: 4/28/2026#176 Chapter 176 - Theodore
Last Updated: 4/28/2026#175 Chapter 175
Last Updated: 4/28/2026#174 Chapter 174 - Laurent
Last Updated: 4/28/2026
You Might Like 😍
The Human Among Wolves
My stomach twisted, but he wasn’t finished.
"You're just a pathetic little human," Zayn said, his words deliberate, each one hitting like a slap. "Spreading your legs for the first guy who bothers to notice you."
Heat rushed to my face, burning with humiliation. My chest ached — not from his words alone, but from the sick realization that I had trusted him. That I had let myself believe he was different.
I was so, so stupid.
——————————————————
When eigteen-year-old Aurora Wells moves to a sleepy town with her parents, the last thing she expects is to be enrolled in a secret academy for werewolves.
Moonbound Academy is no ordinary school. It's here young Lycans, Betas and Alphas train in shifting, elemental magic, and ancient pack laws. But Aurora? She's just...human. a mistake. The new receptionist forgot to check her species - and now she's surrounded by predators who sense she doesn't belong.
Determined to stay under the radar, Aurora plans to survive the year unnoticed. But when she catches the attention of Zayn, a brooding and infuriatingly powerful Lycan prince, her life gets a lot more complicated. Zayn already has a mate. He already has enemies. And he definitely doesn't want anything to do with a clueless human.
But secrets run deeper than bloodlines at Moonbound. as Aurora unravels the truth about the academy - and herself - she begins to question everything she thought she knew.
Including the reason she was brought here at all.
Enemies will rise. Loyalties will shift. And the girl with no place in their world...might be the key to saving it.
The mafia princess return
Accardi
“I thought you said you were done chasing me?” Gen mocked.
“I am done chasing you.”
Before she could formulate a witty remark, Matteo threw her down. She landed hard on her back atop his dining room table. She tried to sit up when she noticed what he was doing. His hands were working on his belt. It came free of his pants with a violent yank. She collapsed back on her elbows, her mouth gaping open at the display. His face was a mask of sheer determination, his eyes were a dark gold swimming with heat and desire. His hands wrapped around her thighs and pulled her to the edge of the table. He glided his fingers up her thighs and hooked several around the inside of her panties. His knuckles brushed her dripping sex.
“You’re soaking wet, Genevieve. Tell me, was it me that made you this way or him?” his voice told her to be careful with her answer. His knuckles slid down through her folds and she threw her head back as she moaned. “Weakness?”
“You…” she breathed.
Genevieve loses a bet she can’t afford to pay. In a compromise, she agrees to convince any man her opponent chooses to go home with her that night. What she doesn’t realize when her sister’s friend points out the brooding man sitting alone at the bar, is that man won’t be okay with just one night with her. No, Matteo Accardi, Don of one of the largest gangs in New York City doesn’t do one night stands. Not with her anyway.
Let Them Kneel
Cast out by her pack. Forgotten by the Lycans.
She lived among humans—quiet, invisible, tucked away in a town no one looked at twice.
But when her first heat comes without warning, everything changes.
Her body ignites. Her instincts scream. And something primal stirs beneath her skin—
summoning a big, bad Alpha who knows exactly how to quench her fire.
When he claims her, it’s ecstasy and ruin.
For the first time, she believes she’s been accepted.
Seen.
Chosen.
Until he leaves her the next morning—
like a secret never to be spoken.
But Kaelani is not what they thought.
Not wolfless. Not weak.
There is something ancient inside her. Something powerful. And it’s waking.
And when it does—
they’ll all remember the girl they tried to erase.
Especially him.
She’ll be the dream he keeps chasing… the one thing that ever made him feel alive.
Because secrets never stay buried.
And neither do dreams.
Game of Destiny
When Finlay finds her, she is living among humans. He is smitten by the stubborn wolf that refuse to acknowledge his existence. She may not be his mate, but he wants her to be a part of his pack, latent wolf or not.
Amie cant resist the Alpha that comes into her life and drags her back into pack life. Not only does she find herself happier than she has been in a long time, her wolf finally comes to her. Finlay isn't her mate, but he becomes her best friend. Together with the other top wolves in the pack, they work to create the best and strongest pack.
When it's time for the pack games, the event that decides the packs rank for the coming ten year, Amie needs to face her old pack. When she sees the man that rejected her for the first time in ten years, everything she thought she knew is turned around. Amie and Finlay need to adapt to the new reality and find a way forward for their pack. But will the curve ball split them apart?
Rise of the Banished She-Wolf
That roar stole my eighteenth birthday and shattered my world. My first shift should have been glory—blood turned blessing into shame. By dawn they'd branded me "cursed": cast out by my pack, abandoned by family, stripped of my nature. My father didn't defend me—he sent me to a forsaken island where wolfless outcasts were forged into weapons, forced to kill each other until only one could leave.
On that island I learned the darkest edges of humanity and how to bury terror in bone. Countless times I wanted to surrender—dive into the waves and never surface—but the accusing faces that haunted my dreams pushed me back toward something colder than survival: revenge. I escaped, and for three years I hid among humans, collecting secrets, learning to move like a shadow, sharpening patience into precision—becoming a blade.
Then, under a full moon, I touched a bleeding stranger—and my wolf returned with a violence that made me whole. Who was he? Why could he wake what I'd thought dead?
One thing I know: now is the time.
I have waited three years for this. I will make everyone who destroyed me pay—and take back everything that was stolen from me.
Invisible To Her Bully
The Prison Project
Can love tame the untouchable? Or will it only fuel the fire and cause chaos amongst the inmates?
Fresh out of high school and suffocating in her dead-end hometown, Margot longs for her escape. Her reckless best friend, Cara, thinks she's found the perfect way out for them both - The Prisoner Project - a controversial program offering a life-changing sum of money in exchange for time spent with maximum-security inmates.
Without hesitation, Cara rushes to sign them up.
Their reward? A one-way ticket into the depths of a prison ruled by gang leaders, mob bosses, and men the guards wouldn't even dare to cross...
At the centre of it all, meets Coban Santorelli - a man colder than ice, darker than midnight, and as deadly as the fire that fuels his inner rage. He knows that the project may very well be his only ticket to freedom - his only ticket to revenge on the one who managed to lock him up and so he must prove that he can learn to love…
Will Margot be the lucky one chosen to help reform him?
Will Coban be capable of bringing something to the table other than just sex?
What starts off as denial may very well grow in to obsession which could then fester in to becoming true love…
A temperamental romance novel.
The Lycan Prince’s Puppy
“Soon enough, you’ll be begging for me. And when you do—I’ll use you as I see fit, and then I’ll reject you.”
—
When Violet Hastings begins her freshman year at Starlight Shifters Academy, she only wants two things—honor her mother’s legacy by becoming a skilled healer for her pack and get through the academy without anyone calling her a freak for her strange eye condition.
Things take a dramatic turn when she discovers that Kylan, the arrogant heir to the Lycan throne who has made her life miserable from the moment they met, is her mate.
Kylan, known for his cold personality and cruel ways, is far from thrilled. He refuses to accept Violet as his mate, yet he doesn’t want to reject her either. Instead, he sees her as his puppy, and is determined to make her life even more of a living hell.
As if dealing with Kylan’s torment isn’t enough, Violet begins to uncover secrets about her past that change everything she thought she knew. Where does she truly come from? What is the secret behind her eyes? And has her whole life been a lie?
Surrendering to Destiny
Graham MacTavish wasn't prepared to find his mate in the small town of Sterling that borders the Blackmoore Packlands. He certainly didn't expect her to be a rogue, half-breed who smelled of Alpha blood. With her multi-colored eyes, there was no stopping him from falling hard the moment their mate bond snapped into place. He would do anything to claim her, protect her and cherish her no matter the cost.
From vengeful ex-lovers, pack politics, species prejudice, hidden plots, magic, kidnapping, poisoning, rogue attacks, and a mountain of secrets including Catherine's true parentage there is no shortage of things trying to tear the two apart.
Despite the hardships, a burning desire and willingness to trust will help forge a strong bond between the two... but no bond is unbreakable. When the secrets kept close to heart are slowly revealed, will the two be able to weather the storm? Or will the gift bestowed upon Catherine by the moon goddess be too insurmountable to overcome?
Falling For The Biker: The Vice President's Girl
His eyes darken, flicking to my mouth.
"It's wrong. Your brother would slit my throat for just standing this close. But tell me, little bird" his breath ghosts my skin, "are you trembling because you hate me… or because you've wanted this just as much as I have?"
Wren thought she'd buried the chaos of New Orleans for good—the clubs, the blood-soaked loyalties, the men who lived and died by their kuttes. Seattle gave her everything she ever wanted: freedom, love, a future.
But one betrayal shatters it all.
Dragged home by tragedy, Wren finds herself under the watchful eye of Ezra Jax—the Raven Reapers MC's vice president and her brother's best friend. He's infuriating, dangerous, and far too tempting for a man she should never touch.
And the deeper Wren is pulled back into his world, the more she realizes nothing about her past—or about Ezra—is what she believed.
In the chaos of gang wars, mounting debts, and old betrayals, he becomes the one constant. The more she fights him, the harder she falls. And the more he pushes her away, the more lethal his pull becomes.
Because in this world, love isn't sweet.
It's brutal. Bloody.
And it's bound to break them both.
When loyalty is everything and love can cost your life, will Wren risk her heart on the one man she was never meant to love?












