Chapter 22 #2
“And we take our lumps,” I added, seeing where he was going with this. “We accept whatever sanctions they impose. We look contrite but not defeated.”
“Meanwhile,” Ares continued, “Marta’s digging into Henri’s past. Neville’s tracking the money and the video leak. And we’re quietly gathering evidence of the conspiracy. When we have enough—”
“We go nuclear,” Tashi finished. “Not in a hearing room. In the court of public opinion.”
“Exactly.” Ares smiled, and it wasn’t a pleasant one. “Sun Tzu says, ‘The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.’ We don’t need to beat Henri at his game. We need to change it entirely.”
“Make it about his conspiracy, not our relationship,” Orion said slowly. “Shift the narrative from ‘powerful men exploiting employee’ to ‘CFO orchestrates hostile takeover using revenge vendetta.’”
“And suddenly we’re not the villains,” I said. “We’re the victims of corporate espionage and personal vengeance.”
“But we need proof,” Tashi said. “Real, concrete proof that Henri orchestrated the harassment allegations, the video leak, everything.”
“We’ll get it,” Ares said with certainty. “Henri’s been planning this for months, maybe years. That means he’s left a trail. Money transfers, communications, collaborators. Nobody pulls off something this complex alone.”
“And if Marta finds out Henri knew my mother?” Tashi’s voice was small. “If there’s a personal connection between us?”
“Then that’s the smoking gun,” Orion said gently. “It proves this wasn’t about business or morality. It was personal. Revenge for something that happened twenty-five years ago.”
“Which makes him look obsessive and unstable,” I added. “Not like someone who should be running a billion-dollar casino.”
Tashi was quiet for a long moment, processing. Then she looked up at us with those bright eyes shining with enthusiasm. “We lose the battle to win the war,” she said.
“Exactly,” Ares confirmed.
“And in the meantime?”
“In the meantime,” Orion said, “we prepare for the Gaming Commission hearing. We get our stories straight. We present ourselves as four people who fell in love unconventionally and are being punished for it.”
“We make them see us as human,” I said. “Not as powerful billionaires who think rules don’t apply to them. As people who made mistakes but didn’t break any laws.”
“And we wait for Henri to make his mistake,” Ares concluded. “Because he will. He’s already overconfident. He thinks we’re finished. That makes him sloppy.”
“‘When the enemy is relaxed, make them toil,’” Tashi quoted, surprising us all. “Sun Tzu. I did go to college, you know.”
Ares grinned. “That’s my girl.”
“We go large,” Tashi said.
“Excuse me?” I said.
“My three handsome men own a fabulous casino in the heart of Las Vegas. Let’s have a party.
Call it a ‘Going Away’ party. And then we show everybody that we are committed to our polyamorous family.
We’ll make it the biggest, most romantic event this town has seen, and that will sway public opinion.
And the Gaming Commission will look like idiots for trying to discipline you while we give Las Vegas the biggest publicity boost it’s had in years. ”
The room went silent.
Orion stared at her. Ares had gone completely still. And I—I felt my jaw drop open.
“You want to throw a party,” Orion said slowly. “While we’re facing a Gaming Commission hearing that could strip us of our license.”
“Not just a party,” Tashi said, her expression bright with the same fire I’d seen when she pitched the My Heroes Tour. “A statement. A celebration of love that is unconventional. We invite everyone—celebrities, influencers, media, and locals. We make it impossible to ignore.”
“That’s insane,” Ares said. But I could hear the respect in his voice.
“It’s genius,” I corrected. “Sun Tzu says, ‘Attack where they are unprepared, appear where you are not expected.’ Henri expects us to hide. To lawyer up and fight quietly. The Gaming Commission expects us to show up at the hearing looking contrite and apologetic.”
“So, we do the opposite,” Tashi continued, gaining momentum. “We celebrate. Openly. Proudly. We show Las Vegas and the world that we’re not ashamed of who we love or how we love. We make it a love story, not a scandal.”
“‘Going Away’ party,” Orion said thoughtfully. “As in, we’re saying goodbye to management but not to each other. Not to the hotel we built. Not to what matters.”
“Exactly. We present it in such a grand, glamorous, and Vegas-like manner that the media can’t resist covering it. #TeamTashi is already trending. We give them something to rally around—a fairy tale instead of a scandal.”
“The Gaming Commission meets in two days,” Ares pointed out. “That’s not much time to plan something this big.”
“We don’t need much time,” Tashi said. “We have the venue—the Olympus Royale ballroom is the most beautiful in Vegas. We have the connections—every vendor in this city owes you favors. We have the story—three men who fell in love with the same woman and decided to share rather than compete.”
“We have the marketing director who knows exactly how to sell it,” I added, looking at her with admiration. “You’ve been planning this already, haven’t you?”
“Maybe a little,” she admitted. “I couldn’t sleep last night, so I started thinking. What would turn this narrative around? What would make people see us as people, not as a scandal?”
“A grand romantic gesture,” Orion said. “Public declaration of commitment. The kind of thing Vegas loves.”
“The kind of thing that goes viral for the right reasons instead of the wrong ones,” Tashi said. “We control the narrative by giving them a better story to tell.”
“Henri will hate it,” Ares said with satisfaction. “He’s positioned himself as the one cleaning up our mess. If we throw a party celebrating that mess, we undermine everything he’s said about us being irresponsible and reckless.”
“More than that,” I said, my marketing mind spinning. “If we do this right, if we make it about love and commitment and Las Vegas romance, the Gaming Commission looks like the villain for trying to punish us. ‘Look at these cruel bureaucrats trying to destroy this beautiful love story.’”
“It’s risky,” Orion said. “If it backfires, if people see it as us flaunting our wealth and privilege—”
“Then we’re no worse off than we are now,” Tashi interrupted. “Right now, you’re the powerful men who exploited an employee. At least this way, we get to tell our side. We get to show that this is real. That we’re not ashamed. That we’re fighting for something worth fighting for.”
“Each other,” Ares said quietly.
“Each other,” Tashi agreed. “And if the Gaming Commission wants to strip your license after we’ve just given Las Vegas the biggest PR boost it’s had since the Rat Pack, let them try to justify it.”
Orion was quiet for a long moment, that calculating look on his face that meant he was running through every possible scenario and outcome.
“We’d need to move fast,” he said finally. “Tomorrow night. The night before the hearing. Maximum impact.”
“We have a ballroom that’s booked for a wedding,” Ares said, already pulling out his phone. “But I think we can convince them to reschedule. For the right price.”
“We’ll need security,” Orion continued. “Press management. A guest list that includes the right mix of celebrities and influencers to make it trend nationally, not just locally.”
“And a narrative,” I added. “A story arc for the evening. Something that gives the media sound bites they can’t resist.”
Tashi looked at each of us, and I could see the question in her face. The same question I knew we were all thinking about.
“You’re sure about this?” Orion asked her. “Going public in this way and making our relationship so visible means there will be no turning back afterward. You’ll be in the spotlight forever. People will have opinions about your life, your choices, and your relationship with us. It won’t be easy.”
“Nothing about this journey has been easy,” Tashi said. “But hiding hasn’t worked. Trying to be professional and appropriate hasn’t worked. Maybe it’s time to stop apologizing and start celebrating.”
She stood up, facing the three of us with her chin raised and her shoulders back. Not the uncertain woman who’d arrived at the Olympus Royale a few weeks ago, but someone stronger. Someone who’d been tested and hadn’t broken.
“I’m not ashamed of loving you,” she said. “Any of you. All of you. And if the world wants to judge me for that, let them judge. But they’re going to see that our love is real. That we chose each other. What we have is worth fighting for.”
I looked at my brothers. I saw the same mixture of pride, fear, and determination reflected in my brothers’ faces that I felt in my own.
“Then we throw a party,” I said. “The biggest, most romantic, most talked-about party Las Vegas has ever seen.”
“We make them love us,” Ares added.
“Before the Gaming Commission tries to destroy us,” Orion finished.
Tashi clapped her hands. “Let’s get started.”