Page 124 of Vegas with my Ex’s Best Friends

“I want to hear this,” she says.

I tell them all of it. The offer. The structure. What we gain. What Connor loses. I don’t soften any of it.

Liam stands up halfway through. “So Harrington cleans up the deal and all we have to do is make Connor disappear.”

“That’s the offer.”

“That’s not a deal. That’s a setup.” His voice is sharp now, all the ease gone. “Connor helped build this thing. He doesn’t get erased because he had a bad week.”

“I know.”

Liam stops. Looks at me. “Wait. You already decided.”

“Yes.”

“Then why are we—”

“Because you deserved to hear all of it,” I say. “And so did she.”

He looks at Riley. Then back at me. His shoulders drop. “Alright. Good. Yes.” He rubs his face. “Sorry. I was ready to fight you on it.”

“You wouldn’t be you if you weren’t,” I say.

Andrew, from the window: “We’re with you.”

I call Connor’s room and ask him to come up to the suite. He arrives twenty minutes later—hands in his pockets, face guarded, posture braced for another fight.

“Harrington offered to move forward without you,” I tell him. No preamble. “I turned it down.”

Connor goes very still. “You did what?”

“The original structure stands. You stay in.”

He looks at me. Something passes between him and Andrew—a look I’m not part of and don’t need to be.

“I’m not thanking you for this,” Connor says. His voice has gone rough. “But I’m not walking away from it either.”

“I’m not asking for thanks.”

He exhales through his nose. “Let’s call Harrington.”

We do it together. Speaker on the table, all four of us around it. I tell Harrington the structure stands, Connor stays, and we’re prepared to discuss governance adjustments.

Harrington goes quiet.

Long enough that Liam shifts beside me and I watch Riley hold very still.

“Respect the choice,” Harrington says finally. “But it complicates things. Tighter governance. Slower timeline. Slightly reduced equity on your end—and a board seat on our side. You understand what you’re accepting.”

“I do.”

Another pause. “Then we have a deal.”

When the call ends, the room stays still for a moment. Then Liam claps me on the shoulder, hard—says something that gets swallowed by the exhale he lets out. Andrew sits back and nods. Connor looks at his shoes.

“This was the right call,” Connor says.

Nobody answers. We don’t need to.