Novels by Emma's Stories 📚

Jolene's POVLily brought the news in with my afternoon coffee, setting the cup down before she spoke, which usually meant whatever she had to say wasn't going to sit well with me."The board wants a joint appearance," she said. "You and Mr. Whitmore. Some kind of press event to formally announce the partnership's progress."I put my pen down. "When?""End of the week. They're saying it'll help stabilize investor confidence, now that the partnership's actually showing results.""Fine," I said. "Tell them I'll do it.""You don't want to think about it first?""What's there to think about? It's business."Lily gave me a look that said she didn't fully believe that, but she didn't push, just nodded and stepped out to confirm the details.I leaned back in my chair once she was gone, staring at the ceiling for a moment before pulling my laptop closer.A joint appearance with Brian would be filled with cameras. Questions. Reporters trying to dig up whatever scraps of our old marriage they c

Brian's POVI found Tiffany alone two days later, curled up on the couch in the smaller den, scrolling through her phone with the television playing something she wasn't actually watching.I'd been waiting for a moment like this. My mother rarely left Tiffany unsupervised these days, not since I'd walked in on their rehearsal, and I suspected it wasn't out of motherly concern. It was control. Margaret didn't trust her own daughter to keep a secret without someone standing over her shoulder."We need to talk," I said, sitting down across from her.Tiffany didn't look up right away. "About what?""You know about what."She set her phone down slowly, her earlier confidence from the sitting room nowhere to be found now that it was just the two of us. "Mom already told you it's nothing.""Mom lies for a living, Tiffany. You know that better than anyone."Her jaw tightened, but she didn't argue."I'm not here to get you in trouble," I said, softening my tone slightly. "I just want to know w

Brian's POVI came home early for once, mostly because Emma had cleared my afternoon after a client canceled, and I didn't feel like sitting in an empty office pretending to work when my mind was somewhere else entirely.The house was quiet when I walked in, quieter than usual for this time of day. I expected to find my mother in the living room with the television on low, the way she always was in the afternoons, flipping through channels without really watching anything.Instead, I heard voices coming from the small sitting room off the hallway, low and deliberate, the kind of tone people used when they were planning something rather than just talking.I slowed my steps before I reached the door, something about the rhythm of it catching my attention. There was a pause, then a start, then another pause, like someone reading lines and getting corrected between takes."No, say it like you mean it," Margaret's voice came through, sharper than her usual tone."You sound like you're read

Jolene's POVI stared at the notification until the screen dimmed on its own.Vincent glanced over from the driver's seat as he pulled into the driveway. "You good? You've been quiet.""Sure." I locked the phone and threw it in my bag before he could ask anything else.He didn't push, and I was grateful for that. I didn't know what I would even say if he did. That Isaac was back and hadn't bothered to tell me himself. That some small, stubborn part of me had checked my phone every hour that day hoping for exactly this kind of update, and now that it had come, I didn't know what to do with it.I could text him. Ask why he was back without a word. Demand an explanation the way I demanded explanations from everyone else in my life.Or I could do nothing, the way he'd been doing nothing to me for the better part of a week.I chose nothing.By the time I got upstairs and changed out of my work clothes, the urge to check my phone again had settled into something quieter, something I could m

Jolene's POVI answered on the fourth ring, my eyes still on Ernest as he gathered his laptop and slipped quietly out of the office, giving me the privacy he assumed I needed."Brian.""You got my message." His voice was careful, like he wasn't sure what kind of reception he'd get."I did." I leaned back in my chair, keeping my tone flat. "You could have just told me what you actually know instead of a vague warning.""I don't know much yet. That's the problem." He paused. "They met at a restaurant a few days before the summit. Then again at her hotel while she was away with her movie crew. And once at the house, late at night."My chest tightened, though I didn't let it show in my voice. "How do you know all that?""I asked Emma to check with the drivers. It wasn't hard to piece together once I started looking."So Brian had found the same trail Ernest had, just from a different direction. That unsettled me more than I wanted to admit."And you think they're planning something.""I k

Jolene's POVI gave it three days before I broke my own rule.Three days of silence from Isaac, three days of telling myself I wouldn't chase a man who'd already asked for space, and on the fourth morning, I found myself dialing his number anyway, sitting in my car outside the office before I'd even gone in.It rang twice, then went straight to voicemail.You've reached Isaac Graham. Leave a message, or better yet, come find me at the gallery.The cheerful, familiar recording of his voice only made the silence that followed feel worse.I didn't leave a message. I just sat there for a moment, phone pressed to my ear long after the beep had already sounded, before I finally pulled it away and set it down on the passenger seat.That was that, then.I climbed out of the car and walked into the building, chin up, shoulders straight, the same way I'd walked into every room since I became Jolene Beaumont instead of Jolene Whitmore. Nobody needed to know that something as small as an unanswer