Land Rover Defender 110 brakes not working

Hey everyone! My name's Haseeb Azhar, I'm 18 and I'm from Pakistan. My father was a government officer and he made my dream come true when the government gave him my dream car, the Land Rover Defender 110. My dad passed away 7 months ago and now all the responsibilities are on me since I'm the oldest son.

So my Defender drives fine but sometimes a problem arises and every time I take it to the specialist but he kinda cons me every time with a huge bill and new problems. A few weeks ago when my sister was coming back from her university, the brakes stopped working but she somehow managed to drive it home safely. I'm going to get it fixed but first I wanna know a few things about the problem before taking it to the workshop so the mechanic doesn't con me again.

So can somebody please explain a few things about the brakes so I would have a slight idea what the guy is working on or maybe I could fix it myself because I don't thing the problem is that big. The paddle goes down and comes back up like normally it does except the brakes don't work. And yeah the paddle is softer and there isn't any hard spot like normally you would feel while pushing it.

A little help would be appreciated, thanks!