18 years later
18 years later
Alan's pov
"10 out of 100 major accounts have complained about our latest product release. Included in these 10 accounts are 3 of our flagship clients whose logos appear on our website home page." William's worried voice was coming through the phone.
William has been my marketing director for nearly a year now replacing Johnathan who at the age of 62 retired.
"Mr Tracy?"
I lookup
My secretary was waiting at the door.
I hold up my hand, gesturing her to hold on.
"Alright, William I want you to arrange a meeting with our marketing team and figure out a way to fix this."
"Yes, Mr Tracy," William answers back.
Once I've disconnected the call I beckon my security in
"Come in harper."
Harper has been with this company for nearly 6 years now.
She was a petit woman of 37 with grey eyes and blond hair that was always up in a tight bun.
She comes to stand in front of my desk.
"Mr Tracy, your wife called she needs you to stop by the studio and pick up some drawings for her, Chloe has them already you, Henry also called, your meeting with Highstone real estate has been moved from 2:15 to 3:00 it will be held at Daniel instead of Bar Pleiades."
"what's the difference?"
"Daniel is more of a sit down french dinner whereas bar Pleiades is a lot more laidback."
I nod.
Nothing like spend an afternoon eating posh french dishes In a high-class dining room.
Note the sarcasm.
"Is that's Everything?"
Harper looks down at her note pad.
"yes."
Looking at the clock on the wall it reads 6:00.
Wow, it's later than I expected.
I run a hand through my blond hair.
Okay.
I get up from my plush chair.
"Well I best be getting home, Harper can you make sure there is a car waiting for me."
I stretch my limbs and sigh as they crack.
Harper's moves to the closet and brings out my coat and briefcase.
"Already have Mr Tracy, one should be waking for you out front."
He hands me my coat.
I place the papers I need in my cases s close the latches.
I love Harper, she always is one step ahead.
"Okay well, you can go home as well Harper and have a good evening give my best to Abigail."
Harper smiles and nods.
Abigail is her long time partner she introduced me to her once at the office Christmas party 3 years ago.
I wait by Harper's desk as she collects her bag and coat, then the two of us make our way to the lift.
The ride down to the ground floor is silent both of us just trying to get the knots out of our neck.
These last few weeks have been very stressful.
We recently just partnered with Elon musk who was set to begin the first man mission to the red planet in less than a year, however that meant that was put under even more stress.
We had to have every piece of machinery triple checked, and each of these pieces of metal even a tiny little bolt had to be filed properly, forms upon forms to sign.
On top of that, I still have to run Tracy enterprises, so it's been stressful, most days I'll be in the office till the hours of the evening and Harper the great assistant she was stayed late as well sometimes having to go out and pick me up some dinner.
Thankfully I'm heading back to Tracy island for the next few months and will be working from there. To top it all off I will only be called back to the mainland if there is an emergency.
The lift door opens and the two of us walk to the glass entrance doors.
I wave at Barry, who was our head of security.
Quite an intimidating guy at 6'2, and a no-nonsense attitude.
Harper and I leave through the front door.
It's then that we part.
Harper makes her way towards the city subway and I walk towards the black car waiting for me.
I do offer to have a car driver her home, though Harper always refuses.
Taylor my driver opens the door for me.
"Good evening Mr Tracy."
"evening Taylor."
I settle myself down in the back, the leather seats cushion me.
I can finally relax even if it's just for a little while.
"Straight back to the penthouse sir?"
"No we need to make a quick stop at Ophéliá."
"Yes sir."
Taylor steadily pulls out into the evening New York traffic.
I rest my head on the seat and close my eyes for a second.
Never would I of pictured me where I am now.
After my family died, lived with lady P in London until I was 18, during that time I spent much of it mourning my family, mourning the memories that would never happen, mourning the person they would never see me become.
However, lady Penelope took me under her wing, well both her and Parker.
I have so much respect for the two of them, they willingly took a 14-year-old boy who was angry and resentful at the world for taking away his family and brought him into their lives.
Lady Penelope was an aristocratic woman and she gave me many advantages.
She had me attend galas, dinners, charity events with her. She introduced me to many philanthropists who had amazing stories.
She took it upon herself to teach me French, ballroom dancing and a variety of other skills.
She did anything and everything to keep me from brooding.
It took some time but I'm proud to say now I am a pretty decent dancer and am nearly fluent in french.
Once I reached the age of 18 my inheritance finally came in.
Billions and Billions of dollars at my disposal.
Well, I only had 15 million at my disposal, I wouldn't have access to the billions until my 26th birthday.
It was a safety net my father had put in place for all of me and my brothers in case anything was to happen.
I had always been the adventurous type so to the surprise of one, I packed myself a rucksack with clothes and other necessities, as well as all the right documents and my camera then spent the next year travelling the world.
It was the best year of my life I visited nearly every county, well close to every county, met so many amazing people, had a few one time flings, all things considered, it was amazing and eye-opening.
You always see in the news about third-world countries and children who have to walk miles to gather water for their family's or to get to school but to see it first hand is something else.
It also made me realise the little things I had taken for granted.
After my year was up I came back a different person and a better person.
I decided to move into the penthouse which had needed a proper clean up.
After my family's death, I couldn't stand the sight of anything related to them, and any memories.
Tracy island was being inhabited by brains, Fermat, Tin-Tin, Onaha and Kyrano so they kept everything running there.
Tracy farm had been cared for by my gran, well my gran's carer since she was mostly confined to a wheelchair.
Tracy penthouse on the other hand had been left to gather dust.
I must have been standing outside the door for nearly an hour before I had the guts to put the key in the lock.
Behind those doors were memories.
I turned the key and the opens the door.
What greeted me was dust.
Underneath that dust, it felt like walking into a time capsule.
Noting had been moved.
There was still an open magazine on the coffee table, Gordon's favourite jumper was laying on the kitchen counter from where he left it, a sketchbook on the dining table belonging to Virgil.
I felt my knees give out.
The pain in my chest was back, the one that felt like a weight was being pushed into my chest.
I couldn't do it.
I had to get out.
Before I could run away once again, I stood my ground.
No
I had spent enough time running.
I took a deep breath
It took me the rest of the day but I finally was able to hoover and wipe away all the dust.
I knew I needed a new start but before it did that I needed to get my friends and family here.
It took a while but 3 days later my gran, the Hackenbackers, the Belagants as well as Penelope and Parker were at the apartment.
I hug the hackenbackers and Belagants it had been a long time since I had seen them.
Of course, they would visit me when I was living with lady Penelope.
But still, I hadn't seen tin-tin or Fermat in nearly 2 years.
All together we sorted through all the belongings deciding what we would keep, what we would donate and what would go in the bin.
After that had been sorted I called in an interior designer.
Between the two of us, we designed a whole new apartment.
The traditional homey vibe with its stone fireplace and cream walls had Been demolished and in its place a modern contemporary style with state of the art appliances.
It could have not looked more different to how it used to be.
Many would say I was throwing away my father's memories but I like to think of it as starting a new chapter In my life.
My next order of business is getting international rescue back.
First I spoke to brains who assured me that despite being shut down for so long the thunderbirds were still operational including thunderbird 5.
He had been taking them out for small flights around the island to be them from rusting.
Thunderbird 5 would need new repairs but nothing that would take a few trips.
That was a great first step but we still needed pilot's to fly them.
Brains sorted that for me.
Fermat and Tin-Tin hoped that one day I would bring international rescue back, so they had been training in all the thunderbirds just in case.
Brains himself could pilot thunderbird 2 so that was 3 capable pilots and with thunderbird 5 being run through Tracy island they had more than enough to start back up.
I was asked if I would join the team, I would one day but I had something to do first.
In a few weeks, the thunderbirds were back in actions and were greeted to cheers from the public, of course, some people were sceptical and wanted to know where we had been for the last 5 years but it was an easy comeback more or less.
Dealing with the government was a pain, but bottom line, they needed us, they needed our high tech equipment to do the things they did not want to do.
My next order of business was applying for college.
I was set to take over a Fortune 500 company and I had no clue about business or how to run a multibillion-dollar company.
After my time travel in the world, I knew what I wanted to do.
I wanted to help those children, family's and community's and I truly believe Tracy enterprises could truly benefit those Less fortunate than me.
Tracy enterprises already had its hand in a few charity's courtesies of my dad.
But I needed the skills to do so.
So I applied for NYU, I gained my business Administration Associate degree, but I wasn't done just yet.
Next came my Bachelors in business Administration.
All together it took me six years of full-time education to complete it, but it was worth it.
It was through my time at NYU I would meet my future wife.
Ophelia Austin.
I was in my second year of my Associates she on the other hand was studying at FIT in fashion design.
One of the fraternities was hosting a party and some of my classmates had roped me into going.
Ophelia has also been persuaded to go by some friends of hers
I wouldn't say it was love at first sight, but she put all the other girls to shame in my opinion.
Her skin had a slight golden glow to it, and it wasn't fake tan like the other girls it was natural, her hair was the colour of cinnamon it flowed down her back in curls, I had the urge to run my fingers through it, her eyes were what got me though, two beautiful ocean blue orbs that drew me in.
I don't know how to we just stood there gawking at one another.
Finally, Ophelia smiled at me and with a blush on her cheeks came over to introduce herself.
The moment I introduced myself I saw a flicker of recognition in her eyes, of course, everyone and their mother knew about my family.
I expected her to act like all the others and start gushing about my family and how tragic it was, yet she didn't do any of this, she nodded and then asked me what I studied.
She explained to me her dream of starting her fashion label.
After the party had finished, we exchanged phone numbers and agreed to meet up for coffee sometime.
That sometimes would end up being two days later and that one coffee meet up would turn into ten.
After 5 months of us meeting up for coffee nearly every fortnight, I gather up enough courage to invite her to an ice hockey game.
The ranger was competing against the hurricanes.
She agreed.
Throughout the game, I was nervous, what if she didn't like it, but by the end of the game she was cheering just as loudly as me.
I think subconsciously I knew at that point I would marry her.
We would end up going on another four dates before I would officially ask her to become my girlfriend.
She did agree and we started dating.
Things were great for the first year, however, one picture, well several pictures would change that.
Every year FIT students would design one outfit and submit it for the AAS or know as the annual student runway show.
Critics Would include people like Carolina Herrera, Norma Kamali, Gemma Kahng, Calvin Klein, and Bob Mackie.
It also allowed you to get an internship at a leading fashion house which would give you experience and valuable connections.
Needless to say, Ophelia was nervous, she had asked me to come along as moral support.
What both of us fails to notice was the university had allowed journalism students from NYU to come and report on the fashion show.
One of them had heard that I would be attending.
I had managed to evade the paparazzi for nearly 8 years and this student just had struck gold.
The next morning Pictures of me at the runway show, pictures of me and Ophelia kissing and hugging were all over the school news website.
It didn't take long for the press to find them.
The next day my picture is on page 6 of the New Yorker along with Ophelia.
Next few months wherever we went Ophelia and I were constantly hounded by paparazzi we could barely walk down the street without a camera in our face.
It was around this time my grandmother finally succumb to her old age and passed.
Unfortunately, our relationship did suffer because of this. I was in a bad place filled with grief and In my grief, I had left Ophelia to fend for herself, Ophelia has constantly hounded my paparazzi they would wait outside her apartment, they would hurl insults at her, they would try anything to get a reaction.
Ophelia was finding it hard to cope especially when she discovered I hired a bodyguard for her without her knowledge.
It got so bad to the point where I was waiting for the call from Ophelia to tell me she was breaking up with me.
By some grace of God that call never came, instead, We met in a private location to properly talk about everything and make sure we were on the same page.
I Did warn her if she were to be with me then she would always have paparazzi around even after this whole thing blew over, they would always be on the other sidewalk.
It was hard but we made it through and just as I said 3 months later there was a bigger story to follow and we were once again left alone or semi alone.
It was around this time I asked Ophelia to move in with me, once I was sure this was going to last I finally let her in on the secret of international rescue and even took her to Tracy island.
Which was the first time I had been back since the accident so emotions were high but with Ophelia by my side I felt a little better.
Not long after that Ophelia graduated from FIT and with a little help from lady Penelope was able to start her fashion label called Ophéliá.
She became a personal favourite of lady Penelope who was always ordering custom gowns.
With the popularity she was receiving with the help of lady P, She soon was able to buy herself a studio on the upper east side and even participated in New York fashion week.
After 3 years of dating, I at the ripe age of 24 asked Ophelia to marry me.
We had a medium-sized wedding all our friends and family were there, we ended up having it in the rainbow room in New York and of course, the press ate it up.
A year into our Marriage I finally graduated from Business school and we welcomed our first child.
A daughter
Skyler Tracy
Skyler was a mix of both of us, she had her mother's cinnamon locks but my blue eyes.
While Ophelia loved the hustle of New York she wanted Skyler to grow up in a quieter and slower environment, she would suggest we move to the farm in Kansas and just make trips back to New York with Tracy1.
I had another idea.
It was a perfect time as well, I want to honour my fathers legacy and what he strives to build.
So the 3 of us moved back to Tracy Island.
By now international rescue was a running success, Tin-Tin and Fermat had made it a success.
They welcomed me back into the fold and I became the pilot of Thunderbird 3, Tin-Tin would be the pilot for Thunderbird 1 and Fermat was the pilot for thunderbird 2 & 4, brains despite benign in his 60s was still manning thunderbird 5 from Tracy Island.
The next two years seemed to pass quickly.
Ophelia has taken to island life quite well, as well as taking over the cooking as Onaha was getting Too old.
Tracy island had also gone through Redecoration, the kitchen had been upgraded with state of the art equipment and the red couches had been replaced for a grey sectional.
It felt more modern and more Us and the type of environment we wanted to raise Skyler in.
During those 2 years, we figured out a pattern.
Our main home would be Tracy island, and we would run international rescue from there, though we would constantly be making trips to New York, Ophelia for her label and I to Tracy enterprises, I wasn't Chairman or CEO yet but I spent a lot of time there working with Henry and Gary the CFO and CMO learning the ropes so it would be a smooth transition when I did take over on my 27th birthday, Christmas and the new year would be spent on the Tracy farm, ironically Ophelia's side of the family also lived in Colorado on the edge and was only a few hours drive so it made sense.
By the time I was 27, I slid into the Chairman and CEO position with ease everyone accepted me and were happy to follow my plans.
I set up a charity to help the underprivileged citizens be in America or worldwide, and put in a sizeable 15 million to help.
During this time we welcomed our second child.
A son
Aspen Tracy.
He had my features from his blond hair to his blue eyes.
Around this time Fermat and Tin-Tin have a child of their own.
A little girl called Izzy.
It was a surprise to us all, we didn't even know they were together, when we confronted them, they said they wanted to keep it private.
That still doesn't make sense, but a few months after Izzy's birth they would get married in a small ceremony on the Beach on Tracy island.
Despite Ophelia worry's Skyler was thrilled to have a baby brother.
This was good because the following year we welcomed our third child.
Another boy.
Lucas Tracy
Where aspen gained my features Lucas was the spitting image of Ophelia.
It would be another 3 years before we welcomed our fourth child.
A little girl
Esme Tracy.
She didn't look like either me or Ophelia she took after my mother.
It was kinda unnerving how similar they looked.
But it any way that leads me up to today.
Alan Tracy a Strapping man of 33, Chairman and CEO of Tracy enterprises, husband to the brilliant and talented Ophelia Tracy who owns the popular fashion brand Ophéliá, father to 4 amazing children 7-year-old Skyler, 5-year-old Aspen, 4-year-old Lucas and 1-year-old Esme.
Little did I know my whole world was about to get thrown on its axes.