One Night With Mr Braxton

The next morning, the nation was ablaze. Pictures from the event ruled social media spaces and every headline dispensed information on the revealed wife of President Braxton. Emma and her husband laid on their bed, curled up and fast asleep while the world ravaged the news on their marriage.

After the event and her introduction, Asher held her hand as they mingled with top notch business and billionaires, only arriving at the dead of the night, freshened up and got to bed. Meanwhile, on the other side of things, The Steele’s were very much shocked to watch Emma get introduced as the wife of Asher Braxton.

Having thought she perished in the fires back then, it felt like she’d risen from the ashes at such a critical time for their benefits. When Mrs. Steele thought of the fact she was indeed well and alive, watching the company go through its trying times, she felt angry. Just who the hell did she think she was, escaping death and leading a happy life?

If there was anything she could tell from the news floating around, Emma was described as the sun in the Braxton’s household, seeing how her praises filled the news reports and many others fawning on just how suitable the couple were for each other. Some even went further, tagging them a match made in heaven- causing her to nearly spit out blood from anger!

Talia and her mother were in the office and for the first time in a long while, they weren’t on each other’s throats.

” What do we do now? How on earth did she escape your eyes? I thought your guys were on her case?” Talia spoke, her face adorned in irritation. Her eyes flicked between her mother and the television that showed an ugly duckling to be a princess.

She wasn’t just angry, she was seething at the guts of the wench to do that. To move on, thinking she could live a stress free life while she fed on her sloppy seconds. She refused to let her win, not in marriage and definitely not in life.

” Incompetent fools! All of them!” Her mother declared, hitting her office desk, ” We need to do something, and quickly, the company is already on its sick bed, we can’t afford people realizing she is Emma Steele!”

Talia narrowed her eyes in thought, of course it was bad news to them. They’d declared her dead, stating she died in the fire. If someone could somehow make the connection, Steele Shoes would be roped into another scandal… Unless they took the initiative.

” I have an Idea.” Talia announced, holding an evil glint and smirk, ” What if we took the bull by the horn?”

” Tell me.”

******

Later that afternoon, Emma was in her home studio when she received a call from Chara. Her lips spread into a fond smile, she dropped her brush and headed out of the place.

” What’s up? I thought you’d never call.”

Emma and Chara related as friends more than employer-employee. It wasn’t an easy transition on Chara’s part but with time she got accustomed to their new-found friendship.

” I’m so sorry. I had a lot on my plate with the supplies and honestly meant to call you last night but slept off on the desk.” Her tone was apologetic.

One thing about Chara, she was a sweet girl, sometimes too sweet for her own good.

” Don’t mind me, take it easy on yourself, I don’t want you pulling late nights.” Emma spoke like a big sister who worried, ” Delegate jobs when your list gets too long, you’re the boss for a reason.” She advised.

Chara released a sigh, ” I know, It’s just that.. No one could really handle it in the way I’d do..” She complained, not ready to admit she got obsessive with her jobs.

” Then ask for a re-do, whatever it means, just.. give yourself a break, okay? It’s good for your soul.” Emma felt delighted when she heard the laughter of Chara, that girl was a walking sunlight.

Suddenly, she stops laughing and clears her throat, Emma immediately knows something’s up.

” Spill it already,” She urged when she delayed to relay the information,

Chara struggled to break the news on what she was seeing but did it anyway. ” There’s a news story about you, Emma.”

She snorted. These days, that was about her new normal, ever since her reveal, she’d become newsworthy, she didn’t see how that was a problem though.

” Of course I am, If you’re only realizing that now- then maybe I need a new assistant.” She joked,

” No, I mean.. a scandal.” Chara informed. ” Your step-mother and sister are calling you out for deceiving them and letting them believe you were dead this whole time.”

From her robotic tone, Emma could tell she was reading the damned thing verbatim. She couldn’t pretend anymore, at least not to Chara whom she hid her identity, lying by omission.

” I can explain.” Emma managed to say, ready to address the situation having felt a disconnect between them since her ghosts were out in the open.

” You don’t have-”

” I do!” She interrupted, ” I should have told you this a long time ago but… I don’t know? I felt maybe you’d hate me for what my family’s company caused yours, and with time, I just lost every courage and will to reopen that chapter of my life.” She breathed.

” Since we are spewing secrets, I bet I’ll need to let you in on mine.” Chara said, surprising Emma. ” I knew that you belonged to the Steele family.” She dropped and Emma’s jaw hit the floor.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

” What?”

” Don’t kill me- but it isn’t that hard to keep such huge thing as your maiden name from you personal assistant- At the beginning of the job, I had taken out time to know everything I could about you, believing that it’d somehow help me ace on the job, so I kinda stumbled upon it.”

” Before or after we got close?”

” After.”

Now she felt like shit.

” Why didn’t you say something? Why are you still helping me with all of this knowing I didn’t trust you with something that huge?” Emma couldn’t wrap ahead around this human.

” Let’s just say I already knew the real you; and it was damn hard to resist the amount of money I’m being paid as your assistant.” It was Chara’s turn to joke and they laughed,

” Damn Right.” Emma looked up, saw little Rooney lurking around the corner and her heartbeat became erratic. He was so cute! ” I’ll call you in a sec.” She ends the call.

Two hours later, Emma was sprawled on the living room floor, setting puzzle pieces with Rooney while Rebecca and Bianca lounged around. It took quite a lot of convincing before the four year old cutie granted her permission to play with him but she was relentless.

She found out she was being lashed at the news for being a fraud and putting her family in pain but somehow didn’t give a shit. Her feelings had long ago stopped being affected by people’s misconstrued opinions about her life. As long as they didn’t disturb her in person, or hindered her progress, she couldn’t be bothered.

Knowing the kind of people her Step mother and sister were, it didn’t take a soothsayer to tell her it was their doing. Spinning narratives to suit their needs, deceiving people and using others to promote themselves- classic Talia.

She wouldn’t be surprised if it was her idea. They seemed to follow the same thought pattern but that wasn’t her problem. At the moment, she was seeking out ways to fill in more spots than the little smarty pants piecing puzzles beside her.

Meanwhile, Bianca felt bored and decided to share childhood stories with the crew, an idea that oddly pleased her. Who wouldn’t want to know what the big bad Asher did as a child?

Not her.

As such, she listened with rapt attention and ate up every single piece of information made available for their consumption.

” Ever since he peed in the pool, he somehow convinced me never to get in there because- if he could do it, then he was scared of the amount of people that did it too! Little boy was traumatized at the possibility of swimming in a pool filled with people’s urine.” Bianca spoke, laughing between words.

Emma let out a laugh too, then heard the hissy voice of Rebecca, muttering something along the lines of -‘what’s funny?’- She was tempted to point out the fact that even if funny hit her in the face, she wouldn’t know.

Instead, she continued with her puzzle, helping the little one who seemed to be warming up to her, one step at a time. Rooney was an intelligent kid, that much was obvious but ever since the day he resumed and spoke a few words with Asher, she hasn’t been able to create a friendship with him.

Something told her the blame was as much on him as it was hers but she paid it no mind. He was a sweet child, that much she knew. It was just a matter of time before they got into stable waters. At that moment, glittering blue orbs, belonging to Rooney flickered to her- no doubt noticing her intense stare- as though he knew she’d been thinking about him, he pitched up a smirk that lasted two seconds,

Only then did she realize he’s finished his part of the puzzle. Okay… maybe he was a lot more than intelligent. Genius maybe?