From "The Honeycomb Comet" by Roger Bourke White Jr.

So you would know my story? How, with a single ship and its crew of a scant three thousand—each with no more physical capability than one of you humans!—I came to be Emperor of your alien planet of nine billion people, most of whom name it after its dirt? And Protector of the rest of your Solar System, with its other billion?

Others have told this tale … and told it, and told it, and told it again over dozens of your years. But though many have wished for the truth from my own mouth, I have resisted, I know not fully why. The theories that your xenopsychologists have published have amused but not convinced me. But now I am old, and my place as Emperor is strangely secured by my ill health—my enemies find it prudent to wait for my natural death! So while all is as good for me as it’s going to get, I am moved to recount the great tale at last.

From "3 LIES" by Helen Hanson

Clint–on quitting his corporate gig and buying a sailboat:

“The day I got the divorce papers, I decided a divorce was exactly what I needed. From her. From work. From the plugged-in world.” He reached down to pat Louie’s firm belly. “I found the No Moor on eBay down in Newport News. I flew down to pick her up and set sail for Boston equipped with a one-week sailing course from my college days. I figured if I didn’t fatten up a shark en route, it was a sign.”

Merlin seemed to absorb the story as if it were what he’d expected, another wayfarer adrift in the current, another unique set of circumstances: Technology-magnate-masquerading-as-seadog? That’s him on the end.

Merlin had no apparent expectations of him, unlike everyone else in Clint’s life.
Save Beth.

With her, he was a face-value commodity. She didn’t treat him like he was ore waiting to be mined and wanted nothing from him other than his company. Women like the one at the medical supply store, or the drunk at the bar, pretended to find him fascinating because he was wealthy. He could torture invalids, slaughter kittens, or use singing bluebirds for target practice and still scare up a date for the weekend.