Novels by Solomon Emmanuel

SophiaThe morning was too still.Like the air was holding its breath.I was perched on the clinic bed, IV line still leaking cool liquid into my arm. My head ached... not sharp, just dull and constant, like a warning hum before something bigger.I watched the door instead of the clock. I did not know what I was waiting for, maybe a sign that the world was ready to stop spinning. Maybe just for Alex to come in and not look like he was trying to carry everything on his shoulders.He was in the doorway a moment later.Hood pulled back, shirt untucked, eyes bloodshot.He didn't speak for a moment. Just leaned back against the frame like he wasn't sure he should come in or give me space. "Coffee?" he asked finally, raising a metal thermos."God, yes."He came over with it.I took it from him with both hands and had a sip. It was awful. Burnt. Too strong. But it was warm. It was real.Alex pulled the chair close, but didn't sit right away. His fingers drummed on the back. "You good to m

SophiaThe morning was too still.Like the air was holding its breath.I was perched on the clinic bed, IV line still leaking cool liquid into my arm. My head ached... not sharp, just dull and constant, like a warning hum before something bigger.I watched the door instead of the clock. I did not know what I was waiting for, maybe a sign that the world was ready to stop spinning. Maybe just for Alex to come in and not look like he was trying to carry everything on his shoulders.He was in the doorway a moment later.Hood pulled back, shirt untucked, eyes bloodshot.He didn't speak for a moment. Just leaned back against the frame like he wasn't sure he should come in or give me space. "Coffee?" he asked finally, raising a metal thermos."God, yes."He came over with it.I took it from him with both hands and had a sip. It was awful. Burnt. Too strong. But it was warm. It was real.Alex pulled the chair close, but didn't sit right away. His fingers drummed on the back. "You good to m

SophiaThe next day after the clinic was like being on the edge of a cliff.Alex was quiet. Still present, but at arm's length. His hands helped with the equipment, his voice came out when needed, but the warmth I'd depended on had gone away.Not vanished.But in suspension.Waiting for something, I didn't know.Maybe for the truth to catch up. Or maybe for something to burst wide open.We left the orchard just after sunrise. Lina was sleeping against my chest, no longer restless. The clinic had given us more than results, it had given us two days of peace.And I didn't know how hungry I was for quiet until it was time to leave it behind."Where now?" I asked.Alex did not look at me when he answered. "Julian says the eastern ridge has a blind spot in Nathan's surveillance net. If we camp there, we can see board activity in real time."I nodded. "Then we camp."The trail was steep. My legs ached before we'd even reached the halfway point, and my breathing was choppy than I'd have pref

SophiaWe sat beside the fire hours after it went out.It was now mere embers, burning softly, as silently as the anger I'd yet to shed.Lina was tightly swaddled under Alex's jacket, breathing even but shallowly, as if she listened in her sleep. Alex remained beside her, a guarding hand on the small of her back. He did not talk. He had not said much since Chloe's smile lit the headlines like a spent sun.I could not tell if it was pressure or peace.Either likely.I rested my elbows on the earth, steadying myself as the pre-dawn chill crept across the clearing. Less than twenty-four hours. Less than twenty-four hours since I'd put my sister's destruction in front of every viewer in the country.And already, I could feel the shift.Not victory.Not yet.But momentum.Julian sent word last night—coded, in a phony headline about crop futures. "Shareholder momentum is shifting. Carter board breaks. Keep pressure."I didn't reply.I couldn't.Because while the world was finally seeing Nat

AlexAs the sun dipped below the ridge, the entire forest was holding its breath. The news was out. The world had seen it.We waited now.We didn't say much that evening. I watched Sophia sitting against the rig's weathered hull, legs outstretched, one hand resting low on her belly as if a secret. She wasn't conscious that she did this. As if her body already knew there was something, someone... growing inside her.God.I hadn't made up my mind what to do with that information.Every time I looked at her, I saw the woman who might bring down empires. And now, I also saw what weight she carried. Not of blood or of lineage. But of the life we might have lived.And I wasn't ready for it.Not because I didn't want it.Because I wasn't sure that I deserved it.Sophia looked up, noticing me staring at her. "You okay?" she asked, her voice cheerful, but there was tension brewing just below the surface, like a note sustained too long.I nodded. "Just thinking."She cocked an eyebrow. "Dangero

SophiaThe cabin felt smaller than it previously had.It wasn't just the walls closing in. It was the weight of his words—"We expose him tomorrow"—and the sound of Nathan on the radio, painting me as a saboteur. Every shadow was more pronounced, every breath harder.I woke up before dawn again, the cold wooden floorboards beneath my feet. Lina was still asleep on the worn rug, curled up in a ball as if she could wish herself away. I walked outside silently. The forest was wet—dew droplets on every leaf, the world trembling with possibility.I clamped my hand across my stomach as a second wave of nausea washed over me. The pregnancy was still a secret that Alex and I shared, and I hated how it seemed to grow with every passing day. Fatigue engulfed me like a blanket that I couldn't shake; my body no longer belonged just to Sophia.I didn't say that fear to Alex yet. I wrapped my arms around myself as wind blew across my shoulders and stared at the mist.A stick snapped behind me. I tur