Page 121 of Triplet Babies for my Ex's Best Friend

I nod.

Then turn and walk away like I didn’t just completely melt into my boss, because that would be unprofessional, and I am, obviously, the picture of professionalism.

Captain looks at me like he knows.

I point at him. “Not a word.”

He wags his tail.

Useless.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Ethan

There aretwo types of problems. The first can be solved with time, resources, and a sufficiently competent team.

The second involves people.

I’m currently dealing with both.

The boardroom smells faintly of coffee and impatience, which is appropriate given the number of people currently attempting to speak without saying anything useful. The Zurich call has run twelve minutes over, and the Munich delegation has decided this is the moment to revisit a regulatory interpretation we settled three weeks ago.

I let them talk.

Not because I’m interested, but because interruption works best when it ends the conversation, not prolongs it.

“…which is why we believe a more conservative rollout?—”

“No,” I say.

Silence.

It arrives exactly on schedule.

I lean forward slightly, resting my forearms against the table. “We’re not delaying implementation to accommodate hypothetical discomfort. The system has been tested againstevery failure scenario currently available to us. If there are specific concerns, outline them. If not, we proceed as planned.”

A pause. “Our concern is visibility.”

“It’s a safety system,” I reply. “Visibility is the point.”

We move on.

The meeting moves through numbers, deployment timelines, and investor expectations disguised as strategic questions. I answer what requires answering, redirect what doesn’t, and shut down anything that drifts too far from substance.

By the time the call ends, the room has settled back, almost becoming order.

Sara is already making notes. Jeffrey is watching me with the expression of someone deciding whether to say something unhelpful.

He does. “You’re in a mood.”

“I’m working.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

I turn away from him. “I’m aware.”

Sara doesn’t look up. “We have a problem. The demo sequence is still proving unstable.”