Been grinding away at Sterling Capital Group, a boutique investment firm tucked into a gleaming high-rise in downtown Seattle. It’s the kind of place where everyone wears tailored suits and discusses market volatility over artisan coffee. But for someone like me, it’s just a job. A place where I show up early, stay late when needed, and keep my head down. I’m not the guy who speaks up in partner meetings or sch smoozes at networking events. I’m the one who listens, takes detailed notes, and makes sure the numbers add up perfectly.
If you asked my colleagues about me, they’d probably say I’m dependable but forgettable. Just another face in a company full of ambitious climbers. My life outside work isn’t much more exciting. I rent a small one-bedroom apartment in Capitol Hill, the kind with creaky hardwood floors and a view of the building next door. Weekends are for catching up on sleep, maybe grabbing drinks with a couple of old college friends, or occasionally driving out to visit my dad’s grave in Belleview.
He passed away last year. Heart attack sudden and devastating. He was only 58. Growing up, I was always the quiet kid in class. My mom died when I was 10. Cancer that came swift and merciless. Two years later, dad remarried Victoria Chin. She was 24 then, brilliant and ambitious with degrees from Stanford and Wharton. I was 12 and resentful, seeing her as an interloper trying to replace mom. She never pushed, never tried to play mother. She treated me with polite distance, focusing on building her career while dad tried to hold our fractured family together.
Now at 36, Victoria is a legend at Sterling Capital. She made partner at 32, the youngest in the firm’s history. She manages billion-dollar portfolios for tech executives and old money families with surgical precision. Sharp as a blade and unflinchingly decisive, she’s always in immaculate tailored suits, usually charcoal or navy, that make her look ready for a boardroom battle. Her reputation precedes her. No small talk, no wasted words, always three steps ahead of everyone else. We’ve worked at the same firm for 2 years now.
