Forked Roads Back

47 - ARCHIE

TWO YEARS LATER

A LOT HAS HAPPENED in these last two years.

First was WEH appointing Millie and I as owners, with us then appointing Pete and Henry as our advocates in each of the main offices. They had done such a great job in steering the ship so far that Millie and I had absolutely no aversion to them continuing to do so.

Second was selling all of Dad's properties. After an audit took place, it came to our attention that Dad had fourteen properties across the world that had been mainly unused, even when he was travelling. So after a long discussion, we decided to sell all but the apartment in New York. And with the sale of all those, came the idea of donating all proceeds to charities across each location, with particular focus on charities helping to support victims of domestic and child abuse. We knew the houses would be worth millions, and with the opening of the foundation too, in the last two years, we have helped a lot of people.

But it wasn't just the foundation and the donations that took the world by storm, it is the company's success. Especially when it was being run by 'two kids who had no idea what they were doing'. By Christmas that year, WEH was operating as one of the most successful business in the US.

But what was almost more of a surprise - a massive surprise for me - was how much of an interest I started to take in it.

With each new report Pete and Henry would send me, I found myself getting more and more intrigued, more and more involved, so much so that I've now taken a couple of business classes at Columbia, alongside my Art and Art History ones. I'm now starting to understand how WEH became Dad's life, but I'm also trying my absolute hardest not to let it rule my life. With the business being as successful as it is, I can focus on school, or on my personal life, and nothing changes. I've found that balance.

My life had essentially taken a turn I'd never expected it would. Four years ago, I expected myself to have graduated, to be starting a job as an entry level museum curator or something. Now? I'm sat in my glass office, staring out from the 50th floor of an office that looks down at Times Square. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to work out whether I'm awake... or whether this is all just one crazy dream.

But WEH isn't the only thing that's happened in the last two years. Lara happened. And that happened almost overnight.

I got home from London, called her, and she basically hasn't left since. She's brought colour into my life - a different kind of colour - and these last two years with her have been surprisingly refreshing. More refreshing than I would have expected.

Having been discharged and living with her brother, after four months of dating, she moved into the apartment with me and Ollie. Although she's taken a bit of getting used to - she isn't the tidiest person in the world, but then who is compared to two men who are extremely OCD - she's been good for me, we've been good for each other, and it's been amazing having someone I could lean on when things got tough.

She finds the WEH work fascinating, saying I was like a superhero who leads a double life. I study Art and paint all day, and then at night I pore over spreadsheets on how numbers add up in non-EU countries. It isn't quite a superhero lifestyle that they talk about in the movies, but hey, it's interesting to us. And if she wanted to call me a superhero, then I wasn't about to stop her.

But in terms of life, I'm ultimately at a place I never thought I'd be. I think speaking to Matt that day, even having that close call with Tessa, was exactly that kick up the butt I needed. Seeing her, seeing her living her life, seeing her happy, made me realise that happiness was possible for me too.

And now? Two years later... Happiness is finally back within my grasp.

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