The Successful Life

Summary

• The main character wakes in a lavish hotel room, disoriented about where she finds herself. Looking at a paper schedule next to the bed, she learns that she's now a successful guest speaker named Nora Seed OBE.
• She marvels at her own fitness and strength in this life, clearly due to her athletic career. Nora later discovers through online searches that she is an Olympic champion swimmer, now retired, but still deeply involved in the sport and philanthropy.
• She also discovers that her father, previously deceased in her real life, is alive in this reality. He's married to a woman named Nadia and seems fit and happy. Her parents have divorced after her father's extramarital affair. She has also lost her mother in this timeline.
• The fact that she has pursued her father's ambitions instead of her own and that he was still unappreciative despite her success in this life enrages her, making her feel alienated from this life.
• Still, she embraces the opportunities in her new life, enjoying a peaceful session of swimming. Upon returning to her hotel room, she dresses up for her upcoming speech at a conference, trying to act natural with the strangers around her.
• Nora is shocked to learn her brother Joe is alive in this alternate reality. Joe, who she hadn't seen in two years, even introduces her to more people active in her professional life.
• Caught by surprise, Nora tries to match the answers and manners of her alternate self, sometimes uncertain about what to say to fit into her new life.