I shut the office door and finally felt my mind calm down. My monotonous life was continuing. I was saying my farewells to another team. I had grown used to jumping from start-up to start-up over the past eight years. I was tremendously proud of helping risky, but innovative small start-ups meet powerful investors. These ventures led to meeting competent employees and great acquaintances. Most importantly, it helped give great businesses who gave back to people a fighting chance to enter the market. With a strategic plan and a good understanding of how to sway people with words, it led to joyous nights like these. 

Although, these celebrations were fleeting for me. I always came back to empty office space. This was the time where I would clear out my desk for good and vanish. I sighed, finding myself, once again with a heavy heart. Usually, my next destination was predetermined. The offers were stacked high, but my desire to start again was waning. I stretched, feeling it would shake off these feelings. 

Maybe I simply need to take a break. I don’t think I’ve thought that once since I started working at sixteen. I have the means to survive for awhile without working anyways. With that, I rearranged left over documents I always leave behind, making sure everything was in order. I opened every drawer looking for any remaining loose items I’d forgotten over the past two weeks. Upon reaching the the last drawer, something clearly moved. 

To my surprise, I found a file neatly tied together with a small envelope by red thread. There was no doubt that the person who had put it together had done so with such care. One would think I was being delivered a designer item. My name was written boldly in cursive and red ink with no sign of a sender. I flipped it over to see a red wax seal. Upon closer look, the stamp imprinted in the wax was a rose. On the small piece of paper inside was not a letter, but a single question. 

Will you play along, no questions asked? 

I threw the card to the side and opened the file attached. Inside was a contract along with a small card attached by a paper clip. They were simple instructions. 

Deadline: March 13^th 2025 

Contract must be signed before you are given explicit job information

It’s like they knew I was growing tired of my repetitious life. I suppose this is just the kind of change up I was looking for. Every detail of this document pointed to one person. From the small detail of a rose, most specifically an eden climbing rose, to the overall drama of it all it could only be him. 

The one job I’d vied for since college was finally calling my name. I suddenly reminisced over the small conversation I had shared with Asher Park. The formidable billionaire investment mogul who I tried talking into hiring me when I was just eighteen. I hadn’t even spoken two sentences when he simply said, 

“One day, sure. Prove yourself to me and I’ll give you a job alongside me.” 

So much time had passed that I’d assumed he’d forgotten our little conversation.

I laughed while skimming through the contract. There was nothing out of the ordinary. It was written favorably to me in many ways, more than any contract I’d ever signed. A large salary, a job more than befitting to my skillset with a wide range of bonuses. All for what I did best as an investment manager. Of course, these benefits were to be expected from someone as highly praised as Asher Park.

I read more to try and find what explicit job information was missing when I reached one sentence. The sentence that made that little card’s words make sense. There was a main role that needed to be fulfilled. It had nothing to do with what was already outlined to me. It was a highly confidential role that would not be explained to me in this contract, but was a complete dealbreaker if I didn’t comply. Outlined were heavy penalties and fines for disclosing the role to others or failure to meet obligations. The penalties were so outrageous it made my pay and benefits look like chump change. 

Just what kind of work was this man looking to get me involved in? Whatever it is, I know with a great certainty that it can only be something good. It’s the whole reason why I worked this hard. Asher Park was beloved as an investor, no as a person for a reason. His dedication to what he did wasn’t for monetary gain. It was for people. Those who had a gross amount of wealth never considered humanity, but he did. He took into account each and every employee’s ideas and well being and it showed. People who worked at any of the company’s he had his hands in stayed there loyally for the entirety of their careers. If they left it was simply to be promoted within another one of his companies. That’s the type of person I wanted to become and the type of person I wanted to work for and witness for myself. I didn’t want to hear the praises, I wanted to be there front and center and learn from the best. 

Without hesitation, I signed the contract. If there was anyone I could trust in these circumstances surely it was him, right? I looked back at everything that was in front of me and came back to the card I’d earlier tossed aside. A phone number was printed on the back.