Black Tahiti Pearls & A Black Heart To Match

He lives a life that nurtures the separation of the heart. The money gives you power. The constant travel provides the freedom. Combine the two along with a hearty scoop of charm and it’s easy to see how my Uncle gets virtually any woman he wants, in the States and overseas. Seeing is believing and I’ve seen him in action. I lean up against a back wall at the Sotheby’s Auction House in NYC. I watch him work his magic on a woman half his age. "For me?" The young woman giggles in delight as he strings a rare black Tahiti pearl necklace across the nape of her neck. There is $25,000 worth of rare jewels now dripping on her 20-something-year-old skin. The same black Tahiti pearls my Aunt wears. (If she only knew. Correction...if she would stop denying the knowledge.) I feel nausea stirring in the pit of my stomach. His shrewd arrogance leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. For a man whose business ethics I respect so much, his personal life leaves little to be respectful of.

It’s one thing to cheat on your wife, but to do it so openly and right infront of me, your nephew? To do this to my Aunt? Your wife for the past 30+ years and the mother of your only child? It's not just an affair. It's multiple affairs. It's countless women around the world and it's been going on for numerous years. It's a lifestyle. It's become a shrug.

Fuck you. It’s what I wanted to say. Fuck your millions of dollars. Fuck your white picket fence and fuck the matching Benzs in the garage. Fuck your yacht. Fuck your summer house. Fuck it all. It’s all smoke and mirrors. There is no depth to the life you are living. I just can no longer love what you do.

I look up to your extraordinary business sense, but it’s the only sense you seem to even have. Where is the substance? Where is the heart? Sure it all looks good on paper, but that is all it is – good on paper. It’s surface deep. And it’s only a matter of time before the paper cuts you. I know you don't care. Even if you read this, your response would be a shrug.