Chapter 6 - The Chair Beside Jenna
Emmett entered the reception with one assistant and no visible security.
He greeted Victoria’s father, shook hands with several board members, and congratulated the bride.
Nicholas remained close beside him.
Jenna could not hear their entire conversation, but Nicholas’s body language was unmistakable. He laughed too quickly, nodded too eagerly, and angled Emmett toward Table Three.
Emmett stopped.
His gaze moved across the lawn until it found Jenna.
She was sitting beside Leo, repairing the dragon drawing with a fresh sheet of paper.
For one brief moment, Emmett’s expression changed.
He looked at the children’s table.
Then at the family table.
Then at Nicholas.
He understood.
Nicholas gestured toward the chair beside Victoria’s father.
“Mr. Stewart, we saved the best seat in the house for you.”
Emmett said something Jenna could not hear.
Nicholas’s smile became uncertain.
Then Emmett walked away from him.
Guests turned as the billionaire crossed the reception lawn.
He passed former senators, technology founders, and investors.
He passed the Stewart Global board members.
He passed Table Three.
He stopped at Table 19.
“Is this seat taken?” he asked.
Leo looked at the empty chair beside Jenna.
“It’s for a kid.”
Emmett nodded seriously.
“I was a kid once.”
“That was probably a long time ago.”
Several nearby guests tried not to laugh.
Emmett pulled out the chair.
Nicholas rushed after him.
“Mr. Stewart, your table is near the stage.”
“I saw it.”
“We arranged it so you could speak with Victoria’s father and the members of your board.”
“I speak with them every week.”
Nicholas lowered his voice.
“This is the children’s table.”
“So I’ve been informed.”
He sat down beside Jenna.
Nicholas stood frozen.
Emmett picked up the repaired drawing.
“This is an impressive dragon.”
“Jenna drew the wings,” Leo said.
“She is very good with words and wings.”
Nicholas stared at him.
“You know my sister?”
Emmett looked up slowly.
“Yes.”
Jenna placed her crayon on the table.
The conversations around them had stopped.
Even the musicians seemed quieter.
Nicholas attempted to laugh.
“Jenna occasionally does some freelance writing. Perhaps she submitted something to one of your companies.”
Emmett’s expression became still.
“She did not submit something.”
Nicholas waited.
Emmett rested one hand respectfully on Jenna’s shoulder.
“I’m sitting with the woman who writes every speech you admire.”
Nicholas’s face went pale.
No one spoke.
Emmett continued.
“The Global Innovation Summit address. The Harvard commencement speech. The United Nations Development Forum keynote. The Stewart Foundation anniversary address.”
He looked directly at Nicholas.
“Your sister wrote them all.”
Victoria turned toward Jenna in shock.
Her father lowered his champagne glass.
One of the board members at Table Three began to smile.
Nicholas looked from Emmett to Jenna.
“You never told me.”
“You never asked,” Jenna said.
“I asked what you did.”
“No. You told me what you believed I did.”
“That’s not fair.”
Jenna almost admired the speed with which he tried to make himself the injured person.
Emmett removed his hand from her shoulder.
“Fairness is an interesting subject, Mr. Hart.”
Nicholas’s expression shifted.
He suddenly remembered that the man sitting beside Jenna was also the investor he had spent months pursuing.
“I didn’t mean any disrespect.”
“You told her not to ruin the image,” Leo announced.
Nicholas looked at the child in horror.
Leo continued coloring.
Emmett turned toward Jenna.
“Did he?”
“Yes.”
Nicholas took a step closer.
“This is a family misunderstanding.”
“No,” Jenna said calmly. “It’s a pattern.”
Victoria rose from the bridal table.
“Nicholas, why was your sister seated here?”
“My aunt needed her seat.”
“There are six empty chairs near the back.”
“It was a seating issue.”
“You removed her from the family table.”
Nicholas looked around at the watching guests.
He was losing control of the room, and control mattered to him more than truth.
“Can we discuss this privately?”
Emmett reached inside his jacket.
“I had intended to make this announcement on Monday.”
He removed a sealed envelope marked with the Stewart Global emblem.
“However, recent events have made the timing appropriate.”
Jenna looked at him.
“Emmett.”
He met her eyes.
“The decision is yours.”
She understood what he was asking.
He would not expose her without permission.
He would not turn her achievement into a weapon unless she chose to claim it publicly.
For most of her life, Jenna had stepped backward to keep Nicholas comfortable.
She looked at the family table where her place card should have been.
Then she looked at the children beside her.
Leo could see her.
Emmett could see her.
The question was whether she was finally willing to let everyone else see her too.
Jenna nodded.
May you like
“Tell them.”
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