Don't Be Afraid, I'll Back You Up

The Auric Bay Guild sits on a fortune too large to count, and for years the state has kept its leader away on assignments of its own. That leader is Vivian Clarke, and the work has taken the time she would otherwise have given her son. When the last of the assignments is finished she comes home meaning to settle back into the family. Her son is lying in a coma. His wife, Lily, is being pushed by her own mother into a marriage with the son of a local tycoon. Vivian goes straight to the in-laws and deals with them, then lets Lily's mother off out of consideration for Lily's feelings. The mother repays that by going behind her back. While Vivian is away she drags Lily to the wedding and pushes her through the ceremony with the tycoon's son. He humiliates Lily in front of the guests, and when that does not get him what he wants he tries to force the wedding night on her there in the hall. Vivian arrives at that moment and swears that everyone who has laid hands on her family will pay the heaviest price for it. Later, when her son wakes from the coma, he says he wants to divorce Lily, and Vivian goes on using the guild's money to keep her daughter-in-law safe.