GAP 3: FOREVER STARTS NOW

CHAPTER 61 : SURPRISE

Our journey so far has been like a dream for Sam, and I
We have finished traveling Europe and Asia.

If I were to say a rough estimate, I would say we have 1/3 of the world left unexplored, and for both Sam and I, that's akin to a miracle.

Sometimes, we felt like time was passing by so fast, especially the past 3 months that had been nothing but a blur

Sam and I went home from our trip a month prior to my graduation, and everything felt like a race for time.

True to our agreed plan, the first thing we did was to grow and stabilize Diversity further.
This was the easy part since we both had already talked and planned about it previously.

We also slowly transitioned our lives back from the long vacation to the reality that awaited us.

The good thing was that stabilizing the company wasn't hard at all because it was left in good hands.
Grandma did a good job handling it.
Though it stopped growing, at least there were no major problems.

Changing leadership styles and company mindset and direction was also not needed because we never really officially stepped down from diversity.

Everything was still being funneled to Sam
She wasn't as hands-on as she once were, but all major decisions were still coming from her.

We made our schedules work.
There were a ton of no-no's for us, like staying up late and overworking, so it was a big ask from the rest of the team to adjust to us.
It was a bit cruel to them, but we made sure they got paid handsomely for it.
We just couldn't risk Sam relapsing.

She's off her meds and is more stable now, so we decided it was time for us to face the music and planned to go home.

I tried a couple of times over and in all opportunities to give Sam back the shares of the company, but she vehemently denied it every time.

She insisted that she never takes back what she has already given
Since i decided to accept her and marry her, I had no choice but to get used to having everything she owned included her heart.

(She winked at me and kissed me gently)

Geez, this dork could really make my heart go crazy without even meaning to

Yeah, I lost.
I still have apprehensions about it, to be honest.

I felt it unfair for Sam to practically gift me the company that she had worked hard on to build, but it's not like I could change her mind about it anyway. Sigh.

The best that I could do is to work hard and do better.

I want to grow Diversity and retire with Sam and our kids when I could see Diversity in every part of the world.

It's an ambitious dream, definitely!
Well, I guess I could always use that as motivation to keep on working.

With that resolution in mind, I gave Sam the go signal to formally introduce me to the board and the team.

I already started working with Diversity about a year ago at a limited capacity.

They knew that I was a previous employee, and the higher ups already knew my track record, so when I became their consultant, nobody questioned it

When Sam and I felt that the team had already been adjusted to the changes and who I was, we also came up with plans to tell them little by little what my role would be in the company moving forward.

So, I, being the biggest shareholder of Diversity, was also shared with the board and our employees slowly over the course of the year.

It was a funny story, actually.
She surprised everyone with a memo stating a change in leadership, which confused everybody