“Join the club,” Bennett says. “Efa lived on a different continent.”
“But there are expectations of me,” I say. It’s difficult for my friends to understand how bearing the Alden name means life’s been planned out for me since before I was born.
“Have you ever considered that you don’t need toacceptanyone’s expectations of you?” Fisher asks. “I get you come from a dynasty I can’t possibly understand. But what’s going to happen if you tell everyone that you want to tread a different path?”
As if I could do that. “You should have seen the reaction when I wanted to invest in our business. Or the hotel. My father came around to the idea that I have my own personal investments, but it took time.”
“So you’ve already pushed the boundaries,” Fisher says.
“Pushed. Not broken. I didn’t float the idea of becoming a fruit farmer in Colorado.” I expect grins and laughs but I don’t get any. I was joking. Can’t they see that?
“Is that what you want to do?” Bennett asks, his expression completely serious.
I narrow my eyes at him. “You mean if I had complete control of how to live my life?”
His expression morphs into pity. “Yeah. If you decided your own destiny.”
I pull in a breath. I only allow thoughts of what I want to do with my life to creep in around the edges of my brain. I suppose I don’t want to feel any more restless and unfulfilled than I already do. “I don’t know.”
“Don’t you?” Fisher asks. “Really?”
I sigh. This feels like some kind of intervention or something. Last time I looked, I don’t have a drug or alcohol problem.
I’m privileged. I have every opportunity—within certain carefully defined boundaries. I have everything money can buy, but being with Iris has showed me that there’s plenty that money can’t buy.
Plenty in Colorado that I can’t get in New York City.
“I would like to do some kind of business consultancy,” I say. “When I first bought The Alden Hotel, I enjoyed getting it off the ground. Solving problems and making sure everything fit together and was doing what it should. And then having success at the end of it.” I shake my head, thinking back to that time. It was really rewarding. “It’s not that I don’t think I add value to the charities and foundations that I sit on, but it’s different. A board role is so far removed from the day-to-day. And it’s in the day-to-day that you can really make a difference. I like getting my hands dirty.” I chuckle at the thought. It’s the exact opposite of what my mother would want to hear. “So I’d like to focus onhelping businesses in trouble or startups that are getting off the ground.”
“You’d be great at that,” Leo says.
I pull my mouth into a forced smile, because I don’t want to hear how I’d be good at something I’m never going to be able to pursue. “It’s never going to happen.”
“Why not?” Fisher asks.
Of course, the question comes from Fisher. He’s completely self-made in a creative industry. It’s different for him.
“Because I’m an only child who has inherited a large fortune. That fortune needs to be managed.”
“But you have people to do that,” Byron says.
“Yes, but I have to oversee it all.”
“Agreed, but is there no room for anything else? You seem to have spent a lot of time in Colorado over the past few months. Maybe there’s some space there for you to do your own thing?”
“To spend this time in Colorado, I’ve blown off in-person board meetings and done things by videoconference. I haven’t attended functions that I’m expected to. I’ve been MIA. It wasn’t sustainable. And now? After my father’s stroke? Now the game has changed. Now there’s no disappearing and pretending to be someone else for a couple of months. Now I have my father’s life. A life that’s here in Manhattan.”
“In a perfect world, would you want to base yourself in Colorado?” Byron asks.
“I don’t live in a perfect world.” Iris would say I live in a gilded cage. I sigh. “I was in Colorado for Iris, but I’ve really grown to love being out of the city.”
“So if you had a blank sheet of paper, you’d base yourself in Colorado. You’d do business consultancy. You’d manage your mountain of money.”
“I’d give more away,” I blurt. I don’t know where the thought comes from. It erupts out of me. “I know I’m spoiled andselfish to think so, but all the money, all the legacy—it’s a lot of responsibility. If I have children, I wouldn’t want to burden them with it. And you know what? No one needs all the money the Aldens have. The Aldens are just me and my parents. And there’s so many who could benefit. Not just the museums and ballet companies of America.”
“Who’s stopping you doing all this?” Fisher asks.
Fisher and I couldn’t have had more different upbringings. But that’s what I like most about him. He comes at life from a different angle. He’s creative. He’s clever. He’s a really good guy. He also knows the answer to the question he just asked.
