The Paper Wife’s Empire novel Chapter 53

A single sentence from his grandparents was worth ten from anyone else—just their anxious voices over the phone felt enough to drown him.

Ethan couldn’t listen anymore. At last, he relented. “I’ll find a chance to bring her home and introduce you,” he promised.

He didn’t give them time to reply—just hung up quickly.

It had been a while since he’d last seen her. Ethan remembered that night. Ramona had promised to come dance with him, but he waited a long time and never saw her. Later, when he called, she hadn’t answered. He got caught up in work, sent her the gift he’d picked out, and the whole thing slipped his mind.

He opened their text thread on his phone. Nothing there—just empty white space. After hesitating for a moment, Ethan dialed Ramona’s number.

Right then, Ramona was at the Covington Group headquarters, in her new office.

Trailing behind her were five young women who’d just wrapped up their resignations from Holt Group. As they stepped into the building, the sunlight caught the brushed gold “Covington Group” letters on the wall, making their eyes water.

“Ramona… is this really Covington Group’s headquarters?” one of them whispered. “I applied here a while ago and never even got a reply. Now we’re just… walking right in?”

Ramona just smiled, pushed open a door, and led them into a reserved workspace. Floor-to-ceiling windows looked out over the city’s financial district—a view they’d only ever seen in magazines.

Once everyone was seated, Ramona spread out the project files Holden had given her, then added a new proposal and slid it across the table.

“This new project is tough. The funding’s been frozen for six months and we’re already on our third set of partners. It won’t be easy.”

“And also, keep following up on the Shelton Group project. I’ll handle things with Mr. Shelton personally. That project is the cornerstone of our team. Holt Group isn’t getting their hands on it.”

“It’s still on?” One of the girls perked up. She’d been working with Shelton Group the longest back at Holt, and had watched Brianna try to snatch it away. She’d thought it was over, but now, relief flooded her face.

Ramona nodded, adding, “As for compensation, your base salary will be double what you had at Holt Group. Benefits are at the highest tier.”

“And whether it’s the Shelton Group deal or this new Covington project, if we pull it off, the team gets fifteen percent of the total profit as a bonus.”

“Wait, Ramona, are you serious? Double the base pay… and profit sharing?”

“I’m serious,” Ramona replied. “But the challenge is real. We’re on a tight deadline. We’ll need to overhaul the proposal, bring in new investors, and revive old partnerships. There’ll be late nights.”

“Late nights aren’t a problem. We spent enough of those at Holt cleaning up Brianna’s messes. At least now we’re working for ourselves. It’s worth it.”

“Exactly! Mr. Shelton trusts us. That deal should’ve been ours anyway. And if we pull off the Covington project, we’ll be the stars of the company!”

Everyone was on the same page. Ramona was offering such high pay. They were all in. Her goals were their goals. No matter what, they’d see this through.

Immediately, they dove into the mountain of data, determined to bring the project back to life within the week.

“Ramona, your phone!”

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