Chapter 10 - THE NEW PERSPECTIVE
A year later,
Aethelgard Systems went public.
The opening bell at the NYSE,
was rung by my lead engineers.
I stood on the balcony,
watching the numbers tick up,
the valuation crossing the ten-billion-dollar mark.
I wasn't wearing a gown.
I was wearing a tailored suit,
practical and sharp.
Blake was there,
standing in the back of the crowd,
his Ferrari replaced by a more "professional" Mercedes.
He tried to make eye contact,
to give me a thumbs up,
to claim a victory he hadn't earned.
I looked past him,
to the balcony across the floor,
where Gerald Klein stood,
leaning on his cane.
He touched his wrist,
and I touched mine.
The silent mechanical heart of the Celestial Meridian,
was still ticking.
The world was different now.
The family was still in Connecticut,
living off the dividends of the trust I had built.
They were comfortable.
They were quiet.
And they were finally,
painfully,
self-aware.
My father and I had started to talk again.
Not about business.
Not about money.
But about the stars.
He had started to study astronomy,
trying to understand the constellations on my watch.
He was trying to learn the language of his daughter.
I walked out of the exchange,
the cameras flashing,
the reporters shouting questions.
“How does it feel to be the youngest female billionaire in the country?”
I didn't stop to answer.
I walked to the curb,
where my car service was waiting.
“Cancel the car,”
I told the driver.
“I’ll take the subway.”
The driver looked confused,
looking at the chaos of the IPO behind me.
“Are you sure, Ms. Thorne?”
“I’m sure,”
I said.
I walked down into the station,
the smell of ozone and damp concrete,
feeling like home.
I boarded the train,
finding a spot near the center.
The train was crowded.
A man in a worn suit was reading the paper.
A student was listening to music.
I stood there,
holding the metal rail,
the watch glinting under the flickering lights of the subway car.
No one noticed me.
May you like
No one knew who I was.
And that was the greatest success of all.
