Page 91 of My Brother's Billionaire Best Friends

I stare at her. Mouth open. “Mom!”

She sips her tea like she didn’t just detonate a bomb in the living room.

“Did you just?—”

“I did.”

“You’ve never sworn in front of me in your entire life.”

“I’m old. I get one.”

I blink. Then break into a laugh so loud I startle the cat on the windowsill.

My mom just sits there smiling like the Queen of Zen, watching me come apart one giggle at a time. And for the first time in what feels like days, I let myself believe things might be okay.

22

JACK

Parker Simon would rather walk awaythan be the reason we fall apart. I know in my gut that’s why she left us behind. She’s too good of a person for it to be anything else.

But she’s wrong. This was never about her. It’s Vivian.

Vivian Thatcher, the queen of calculated chaos, who builds her empire one puppet string at a time. Who carved loyalty into her son with knives and demanded he bleed polished apologies when she stabs him in the back.

This is her fault. Not Parker. Never Parker.

And I’m not letting her control me too.

I walk into Gavin’s office late, still steaming from the way the town hall prep went down. It’s almost time for the livestreamed meeting, and every speech sounds like it was designed by Vivian’s ghost. Hollow. Sanitized.

I barely make it three feet into the room before Gavin says, “We need to talk about Edison.”

I stop. “What about him?”

“He’s taking over as CHRO. Effective immediately.”

I stare at him. “You’re joking.”

“I’m not.”

“He’s a suit. He’s been riding Vivian’s coattails for two decades. He’s a ‘smile in your face, knife in your back’ kind of hire.”

“He’s senior, experienced, and the board trusts him.”

“You meanViviantrusts him.”

Gavin’s eyes narrow. “You’re always pushing me to take charge. So, I did.”

“That’s not leadership, that’s mimicry. You picked someone who’s going to nod along while you second-guess yourself.”

Gavin stands. “You think I don’t know what I’m doing?”

“I think you’re trying to do whatshewould do.”

“That’s not fair.”

“No, what’s not fair is pretending Edison’s appointment won’t be seen for what it is—a rollback to when Vivian was in charge. The rest of the C-suite isn’t going to swallow this quietly.”