Theo ended up in scientific research.

Wyatt opened several restaurants and insisted it made sense because “the family really started in one.”

None of them was forced to carry the Ashford name.

Some kept Ferris.

Others combined both in their own way.

I stopped measuring success by companies acquired or meetings controlled.

I started measuring it by dinners I’d arrived at on time, games I hadn’t missed, and nights when someone who was sick knew they could call me.

Many years later, when Lauren and I celebrated 30 years of marriage, Wyatt reserved a private room at the same Manhattan restaurant where it had all begun.