Introducing The Quiet Acquisition: An 8-Episode Workplace Romance

She ghosted him under a fake name. Three years later, he bought her company.

The Quiet Acquisition is the first serial we are publishing as a Novelly Original. Eight episodes, dropping twice a week. It is a workplace romance written in the register that made Business Proposal and What's Wrong With Secretary Kim work, which is to say: corporate restraint on the surface, a deeply inconvenient love story underneath, and a supporting cast that should probably be paid more than the leads.

Episodes 1 through 3 are live right now. All three are free to read without an account at novelly.app/serials.

The setup

Quinn Reyes built Vine + Verse into the boutique marketing agency every author wants representing their launch. She did it on caffeine, spite, and three hours of sleep a night.

The morning of her biggest pitch she finds out a holding company quietly bought her firm at the parent level. The new CEO walks into her conference room and her stomach drops.

Three years ago, in a borrowed red dress at a gala she should not have been at, she met a man named Hayes Caldwell, gave him a name that wasn't hers, and never showed up to brunch.

He owns her company.

She has eight episodes to keep her secret, save her firm, and figure out which version of herself she actually wants to be.

The cast

Quinn Reyes narrates the season in her own head, which is bad news for anyone hoping the romance will progress without commentary. She founded Vine + Verse, she runs it, and she over-explains things to herself as a coping mechanism. She is the kind of person who keeps an unsigned three-year-old apology letter in her wallet because what if.

Hayes Caldwell is the CEO who bought the parent company, and the man Quinn met in someone else's red dress at a gala called Halcyon. He has known the entire time. He is letting her decide when to stop.

Mira Sato is Quinn's best friend, the actual owner of the red dress, and the person whose name Quinn borrowed at the gala. She is also a freelance creative consultant by Quinn's account and a "consultant slash trespasser with pastries" by Caldwell HQ security's account. She wears Quinn's lipstick now. It is unclear if this was ever returned.

Han-byul Park is the executive assistant who runs Hayes's office, his calendar, and most of his life. She speaks in operational understatement. She does not discuss badge strategy except in emergencies. She is the season's quiet protagonist and we will defend that take.

Theo Caldwell is Hayes's uncle, a board member, and a man whose voice arrives in a room the way good silver gets placed on a table. Carefully enough to remind everyone it could still cut.

The release schedule

Eight episodes total. The first three are out. The remaining five drop every Tuesday.

• Episodes 1 through 3 are live right now and free to read without an account.
• Episode 4 (Mira Arrives) drops Tuesday, May 26.
• Episode 5 (The Door) drops Tuesday, June 2.
• Episode 6 (Two People) drops Tuesday, June 9.
• Episode 7 (The Board) drops Tuesday, June 16.
• Episode 8 (Acquired (Reprise)) drops Tuesday, June 23. Season finale.

Free readers can follow one serial and get notified when each new episode goes live. Reader Plus subscribers can binge ahead, which means future-scheduled episodes unlock the moment you upgrade rather than the moment they release.

What you can expect

It is romance, so there is a romance. It is comedy, so there is a comedy. It is the kind of corporate workplace setting where most of the actual romantic tension happens in a glass-walled conference room while someone reaches for a folder they should not be reaching for.

It is not a slow burn. The kiss arrives in Episode 5. The misunderstanding arrives in the same scene. Episode 6 is the hardest scene of the season, by design, and it requires Quinn to be specifically wrong about something fundamental, which is the engine of the back half.

There are no spoilers in any episode description, including in this post.

You can start reading right now, free, no account needed, at novelly.app/serials/the-quiet-acquisition/1. Episodes 2 and 3 are unlocked the moment you finish the one before.

Episode 4 drops Tuesday, May 26.

We will be here.