Forty Pieces of One Cake

NVIDIA's four-for-one split in 2021 turned Ned's two hundred shares into eight hundred. He checked the record, remembered the date and felt a ridiculous burst of triumph before Rae asked whether a cake cut into four pieces had somehow become four cakes. The split changed the share count and corresponding price unit. The actual value had to come from what people paid.

There had been frightening falls along the way, not a smooth line he could stroll beside while growing rich. Ned kept his personal holding separate from the company's working cash and did not use borrowed money to defend every movement. The future memory helped him hold through doubt; ordinary paid work kept his life from becoming one endless screen full of prices.

Rae and Ned chose exclusivity after his other romances had ended. She retained her editing work and a life beyond being the person beside a man with an interesting portfolio. Their private evenings included films they wanted to watch, food he had learned to prepare and jokes about his astonishing ability to describe a fortune while misplacing a perfectly ordinary spoon.

In June 2024, the ten-for-one split turned eight hundred shares into eight thousand. Ned checked the count twice. He had bought two hundred original shares, then held through a fourfold and a tenfold change: forty times as many units. He did not multiply the already adjusted price by forty again to invent a larger fortune.

Later that year he sold all eight thousand at an average USD 125 per share, receiving USD 1 million gross. His original cost had been USD 10000, so the gross gain before costs and personal taxes was USD 990000. The actual trade was a private execution in his changed life, not a magical cheque produced by the word split.

He showed Rae the completed record rather than a screenshot of an unsold holding. She looked at the number, then at him, and asked whether the man who could now buy better shoes might finally take a holiday in them. Ned booked one. Their evening afterward was warm with her familiar perfume, an unhurried kiss and the delightful absence of an explanation about why pleasure could wait.

He also walked into the shop he had passed for years and asked for the shoes he liked, in his actual size, without first locating the cheapest pair. Rae watched him buy a second pair for days he did not intend to work. At dinner she wore a softly cut silk dress and asked whether his expensive new feet intended to take her anywhere interesting. Ned drew her close, kissed her and booked the quiet balcony suite they had admired. By morning she was teasing him about an investment whose best return apparently involved leaving the camera at home.

He did not immediately buy the largest house he could photograph. Part of the proceeds remained reserved for his actual obligations and future decisions. He still worked, but with a freedom that made an ordinary refusal feel luxurious. When Dean requested an impossible last-minute job at the old rate, Ned offered a feasible schedule and stopped treating the man's irritation as a private emergency.

The business had grown through repeated paid accounts and useful software-supported services. By 2025 annual company revenue was USD 3.8 million, with USD 700000 profit after company tax. Earlier retained earnings had funded staff and improvements. Fay's thirty percent represented an actual enterprise, not the remainder left after Ned spent the value of his own memories.

A private buyer proposed purchasing a majority stake, valuing the whole company's equity at USD 8 million. Ned and Fay discussed what each wanted. Fay wanted to keep her share and technical role. Ned wanted less daily management and enough time to enjoy the work he still liked. A sale of some of his personal shares could provide both without pretending the entire company needed to disappear.

The buyer agreed to acquire sixty percentage points from Ned for USD 4.8 million. The resulting ownership would be buyer sixty percent, Fay thirty percent and Ned ten percent. No new company cash was being raised in that secondary sale; the purchase money would go to the person selling those shares. Fay's stake was not secretly included in his price.

Ned took Rae to supper before completion and asked her about a shared home. She wore silver earrings, listened to his plain words and asked whether the kitchen would contain space for dinner rather than backup drives. He promised. Rae kissed him, then said she intended to inspect that particular part of the plan herself.

They laughed over the menu. Ten years earlier he had wanted enough money to be admitted to an impressive room. Now he had sold one successful investment, helped build a valuable company and found a woman who wanted the life after the meeting ended. The next important question was which ordinary room they would choose together.