A few days later, a sea of attorneys gather in my conference room. All of my lawyers are there, as well as Stringer and a few other people I’ve invited for their moral support, even though they have little to do with the event itself.

We are waiting for Jeff and his lawyers to arrive, and my pulse is pounding out of my chest. I try taking deep breaths, but it’s not doing any good. I need this all to be over with.

“It’ll be fine,” Shawna, my lead attorney, says with a ...