[ WP ] Today you just realized that multiple decades of your victories and failures were secretly orchestrated by a wealthy friend with an ulterior motive .

My life has always been a rocky road for me. I do n't believe in luck as a thing that can be depended on. Luck is simply a measure of whether events beyond our control have worked out in our favor or not. I've had lucky days and unlucky days. I've had years that have sucked ass and years that have been stellar. Shit happened ( or did n't happen ) and I took a hit because of it. Other times, I was sure I was a going to take a hit and, miraculously, things worked themselves out. Throughout all this, Larry Wold has been my best pal. 
 
 Larry Wold's family owns the Wold Group, a large international conglomerate. Larry and I met in our very first college class on the first day, twenty-nine years ago. We joined a fraternity together and formed a lifelong friendship. 
 
 But what if it was n't luck? 
 
 An envelope showed up at my house one day last month and blew my mind. It turns out my luck was n't exactly'an aligning of the stars' and more like'someone was pulling strings.' Seventeen years ago, I was fired from my job. It was a shitty situation. Management laid off a lot of people in my department and transferred the workload to me and another colleague. When I got burned out from the overwork and made mistakes, they fired me for it. They could n't have picked a worse time: early June. Hiring slows down in the summer because so many people go on vacation. I did n't have a single interview until three months after I had lost my job, and I had been applying every day all over the place. 
 
 But then one day, five months in to my unemployment, money is running low, I'm on my last $ 1,000, and I get a call from Xplan Group, it tuns out they found me on LinkedIn and want an interview. Its a breeze and a week later, they offer me the job. 
 
 But it turns out now that there's more to the story. 
 
 In the envelope I got last month, there were official notarized documents inside showing that Xplan Group was purchased by another company about a month prior to when I was hired by them, seventeen long years ago. I wo n't bore you with the details, but that company was owned by another company, and that 3rd company was owned by a 4th company and that 4th company was named the'Wold Group.' There's also a copy of an email sent from Larry.Wold @ WoldGroup.com to the SVP stating that they are to find and hire me for the Systems Admin position, which had been vacant for about a month at that time. 
 
 It took me a little while to wrap my mind around that. Larry bought another company ( semi-anonymously ) and then ordered them to hire me? I mean, do n't get me wrong, I'm grateful for the job, but I do n't want to be given a job out of pity, I want to have earned a job. If Larry had given me a referral at one of the Wold Group's other companies, then that would be fine, but this? I feel kind of sleazy, like I did n't truly earn that job. 
 
 I checked online in the SEC's filings and sure enough, the data checks out. After I left for another job, Wold Group sold Xplan. I was n't sure what to do. Obviously Larry never wanted me to know what he had done, so I decided to let it slide. But there was still the matter of the envelope. Who sent it? And what was their angle? The address pointed back to an empty lot right here in Raleigh, where Larry and I both live. And there was nothing else in the envelope except the evidence. To be honest, I would rather have not known about this, but instead be unaware. 
 
 The next day I received another envelope. 
 
 The contents were so crazy I did n't know what to think. Ten years ago, my wife and I divorced. We had a son together. The long and short of it is that I caught her cheating on me. 
 
 But according to the envelope, I found a document that outlined a secret agreement between Larry and Zach, my ex-wife's lover. Zach was a golf pro that was giving my wife lessons at a local country club. Apparently, Larry offered Zach $ 150,000 in cash to seduce and start an affair with my wife. Included was a guarantee that he would be hired by one of Larry's companies if he lost the job at the golf club due to the affair, which did happen when I found out about the affair. 
 
 There was also an employment contract between a private golfers club in the DC area and Zach, dated about ten years ago, right after the affair went public and Zach had been fired. Who owns this private golfers club in DC where Zach works? Wold Group. Documentation to that effect was included. In the envelope 
 
 I picked up the phone and started to call Larry, but stopped. I was n't sure what to make of all this. It could n't possibly be true, could it? I can understand the deal with Xplan and Larry wanting to help me get back on my feet, but to screw up my marriage? And maybe he did me a favor. If my ex would cheat on me with Zach, who's to say she had n't done it already with someone else? Or would have done it with someone else in time? Did Larry do me a favor here by setting her up so that I could get rid of her before she sucked all of my life away? 
 
 I had to take sleeping pills that night to get to sleep. The next day, another envelope. 
 
 I stared at this for hours before opening it, worried about what I would find. 
 
 More documents, but this time from Stanford. My son goes to Stanford. Apparently Larry mad a large donation to Stanford when he found out that my son, Tyler wanted to go. Tyler did well in high school, but apparently he did n't do well enough to get into Stanford. Larry set him up for admission and even gave him a scholarship. All tuition paid. 
 
 And so it went on, one envelope a day for weeks on end and the records go back all the way. Larry bribing my coworkers, Larry buying companies to give people jobs and get people fired. Larry hiring PIs to follow me. Larry bribing college professors to pass me or fail me. Larry buying my neighbor's home for millions because the neighbor was an asshole to me and I wanted him gone. Larry hiring people to inflate my ego, then puncture it. Larry's PIs reporting me to police for minor offenses. Larry, Larry, Larry. 
 
 I called some of the people in the documents and they verified the stories. Larry had paid them for this or that. I followed the paper trail and it always pointed to Larry and Wold Group. 
 
 Who am I? Everything about my life has been affected by Larry in some way. And the things I do n't know about... Was Larry the anonymous buyer of my mom's sculptures? Was Larry the guy who sold my dad a rare antique gun at a rock bottom price? Did Larry pay the last owner to sell me my current house below market value? Did Larry's PI run over my dog last year? 
 
 I went to Larry's house last night. I had n't slept in days 
 
 He invited me over for drinks while his wife was out of town. I brought all of the evidence that I had been sent to me along. I had to bring a duffle bag to carry it all. 
 
 `` What are you smuggling a twelve pack, there?'' Larry joked when he saw the bag. `` We're adults man, you can just carry it in the open.'' He laughed. 
 
 `` I... wan na show you something.'' 
 
 When we got to his study, `` Someone mailed me this stuff over the course of a month.'' 
 
 I handed him the documents detailing the Xplan stuff. 
 
 His eyes narrowed as he read it. 
 
 `` Dude... I was just-'' 
 
 `` There's more.'' I pulled out another folder. And another. He barely even glanced beyond the first pages. 
 
 He let out a deep sigh. 
 
 `` Tell me it is n't true... tell me this is a setup.'' I begged him. 
 
 He avoided my gaze, and that was proof enough. 
 
 `` Larry... what... the fuck, man?'' 
 
 He looked at me with a half confused, half amused expression. 
 
 `` Why? Who am I to you? Why did you do all this?'' 
 
 He held his expression for a long time. 
 
 `` Because... you bore me.'' 
 
 ``... huh?'' 
 
 `` You're really boring dude. Every time I did that stuff, I was just trying to make your life more interesting.'' 
 
 ``...'' I just stared at him. 
 
 `` I do n't want a boring best friend. I want a friend that has stuff going on in his life. Good things, bad things. Something for us to talk about! I do n't want somebody who has a quiet content life, like you did. And believe me, your life is much better for it. Do you know how few people have a life as exciting as yours?'' 
 
 I stared at him, slack jawed, for a long time. 
 
 `` Larry...'' 
 
 `` Dude, it's okay.'' 
 
 `` Larry, I'm going to leave, and I do n't want you to contact me again. I do n't want you playing with my life anymore. I have copies of all that stuff. Some of it is illegal, but all of it is bad new for you and for Wold Group. Stay out of my life, and I'll never tell anyone.'' 
 
 And I left him standing in his study as I walked out the door, shocked that it was true and he admitted it. 
 
 If Larry has been manipulating my life since we met on our first day of college, then who am I? What achievements and failures can I claim for myself? Am I just a byproduct of Larry? 
 
 When I got home, I found yet another envelope waiting for me. 
 
 Inside were records that the Wold family had donated a significant amount of money to Yale, where Larry and I went to college. In exchange for the generous donation, Yale agreed to admit both Larry and me ( identified by name and social security number and high school ) as incoming freshmen.
