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Sam nodded slowly, eyes glued to the phone.

“But of course,” he continued, “that poses some additional risk for us, as I’m sure you understand. Our main priority is to have a smooth transition. And if some key members of your team decide to leave after the buyout goes through, then that could put us in a tough situation.”

Sam nodded again. “Right. Well, we—”

“So to mitigate that risk,” Howard cut in, “we’d want you and Caleb both to come to London. And to be here at the headquarters to work with us throughout the transition period.”

Sam stared down at the phone. She opened her mouth to speak, but the words failed as her brain struggled to understand.

“The—transition period,” she repeated slowly. “How long is that, typically?”

“I’d expect a year at least,” he answered. “Perhaps two.”

Something deep in her chest constricted at the words.

“Of course,” he continued, “we’ll include a salary that I think you’ll both find more than fair.”

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t find the words to respond.

Any other time, she wouldn’t have even thought twice about it. The ‘yes’ would’ve sprung from her in an instant.But for some reason, this time, it refused to come out.

Howard cleared his throat, for the first time sounding as if he detected a problem in the conversation. “That is a non-negotiable part of the deal,” he added.

Sam stared at the phone, her brain firing off a thousand different thoughts at once. But none of them gave her a clear answer.

“Of course,” Caleb cut in abruptly. She’d almost entirely forgotten that he was also on the call. “That won’t be a problem at all, right Sam?” He let out a chuckle that sounded all too forced. “The travel is nothing new to us.”

She swallowed against her suddenly dry throat.

“Great,” Howard answered, although she could detect a certain hesitance in his voice. “Well, we’re eager to get things in motion, as I’m sure you are. Everything has already been cleared on our end, so I can have one of our lawyers in Seattle meet with you. I’ll speak with them and see when they can make it there.”

“That’s perfect,” Caleb replied, his words tumbling out in clear elation. “Just let us know when. We’ll be here and have everything ready to go.”

Sam cleared her throat, finally regaining enough sense to speak. “Yes, that sounds good.”

“Wonderful,” Howard said with a tone of finality. “I’ll send you the scheduling details, and then we'll connect again after everything has been signed.”

“Great,” Caleb said quickly. “Thank you. We look forward to hearing from you.”

Howard said something in response before the line went out, but Sam couldn’t comprehend it. Her brain was still stuck on what he’d said—the final term of the deal she’d worked toward relentlessly for the last year.

A few beats of silence passed, and she glanced down, seeing Caleb still on the call.

“Sam?” he asked. “You there?”

“Yeah,” she muttered.

He burst into an explosion of ecstatic laughter. “Oh my god, I can’t believe it!” He yelled something on the other end that came through as a muffled crackle of noise. “We did it!”

A timid smile ghosted across her lips. “Yeah. We did.”

He continued hollering and laughing on the other end for a few moments before dying down.“Holy shit,” he muttered with a deep breath. “It’s finally done.”

“Yeah,” she whispered.

It was done.

A door in her life finally coming to a close, once and for all.