Dumped My Cheating Ex. Now I'm Sleeping Next to a Billionaire CEO novel Chapter 326

James had barely been gone when Abriella’s text lit up Emmy’s phone.

I’m downstairs, babe!

Emmy grabbed her things and hurried out the door. As they wandered through the supermarket aisles, tossing groceries into their cart for their visit to the retirement home, the two friends chatted about everything and nothing.

Suddenly, something popped into Emmy’s mind. “Hey, do you know who that old lady is—the one who lives all by herself in that little house at the retirement home?”

Abriella rolled her eyes like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “That’s Mrs. Nelson. You didn’t know?”

“Wait, seriously?” Emmy was surprised. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“I figured it might freak you out!” Abriella whispered, grinning mischievously. She leaned in, lowering her voice like she was sharing top-secret gossip. “You’ve heard all those wild stories about Mrs. Nelson, right? Back in the day, she was a total legend.”

Emmy’s memory clicked. Everybody in their social circle had heard the stories—a living legend, people called her. Emmy remembered her mother mentioning Mrs. Nelson, and even her mother’s gentle eyes had flickered with both awe and a hint of fear.

They said Mrs. Nelson had picked up a rifle as a teenager and gone off to war, standing her ground in the thick of battle. Even before marrying into the powerful Nelson family, she’d already made a name for herself as a decorated general. But after she became Mrs. Nelson, she somehow switched gears and became a housewife—though she still managed to turn the entire Nelson family upside down.

Rumor had it that her two biggest rivals within the family—her sisters-in-law—met mysterious, untimely deaths. People whispered that Mrs. Nelson might have played a hand, but nobody had ever dared to prove it.

And the Nelson branch her husband belonged to hadn’t been important at all, but she’d taken over, turned everything around, and pushed her own son straight onto the political fast track. Now, he was the top contender for the next presidency.

No wonder Mrs. Nelson’s grandsons, Tyler and Jamie, were so sharp and ruthless. With a grandmother like that, how could they not be?

Then she heard it. Just two words, but her heart skipped a beat.

All done.

That voice was so distinctive—cold, a little rough, and so effortlessly commanding.

Then she heard Tyler, his voice gentle and warm. “Grandma, did you see my brother?”

Emmy froze for a moment. She knew that first voice anywhere. It was James.

There was no mistaking it—that mix of cool indifference and raw energy, casual but wild in a way that always got under her skin. She couldn’t help herself. Almost on instinct, she hurried forward and pushed open the gate to the cottage.