Chapter 1:
It is two o'clock in the afternoon, the city seems peaceful for Vincent Cazato who is on the thirty-fifth floor, in the busy Manhattan, sitting on his marvelous office. People on the streets walked around like ants, the cold weather made the streets emptier than usual. Outside the huge wooden doors stood dozens of desks full of dreamers, who dream to one day become one of the few that take the title of Wolf of Wall Street. Phones are ringing incessantly, the chatter of voices outside the room are taking over the thin air of the tall building. Stocks float up and down the large computer screens, Vincent stares motionless at all the money that comes and goes, in this world that in one day you have everything and the other you have nothing. It was a risk that Vincent decided to take every day of his life, even though nothing had ever happened, he always had the cold feeling in his stomach that in a split second everything that he has built could crumble into ashes. Suddenly the door slams open, and one of his most important attorneys and family friend breathed heavily in despair.
"Vince, you are not going to believe this." - almost out of breath.
"What is it, Cooper?" - seeing his friend's condition, he shows a preoccupation with the tone of his voice.
"Lumber Trade went bankrupt. They were frauding the stocks for years, everything we've invested is now completely gone." - he closes the door behind him, as he realizes that people were listening from the outside.
Vincent passes his hands through his hair trying to put things into place. The unimaginable has happened, everything that he has built is now on the edge of crumbling into pieces. His heart was pounding faster at every second, he feels the tears starting to form in the back of his eyes. His hands were shaking as he types his password into his computer, opening the stocks from the company that he invested so much of his money. The numbers on the screen only enforced this crisis, millions invested were now completely gone. Cooper stands in silence by the front door of the majestic office, as he realizes that the situation was rather delicate.
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"Can I have some time by myself, Cooper? This hit me so unexpectedly." - his eyes watered as he pronounced these words.
Cooper leaves the room closing the ornamented wooden doors behind him. Silence takes over the room in an odd manner. Vincent gets into his feet and stands beside his marvelous desk that is adorned with the finest materials. He wraps within his fist a silver statue from Italy that he had acquired during his summer vacation the past year, and without any second thoughts, he thrusts it against the glass window, that shatters into dozens of pieces. The screens that once symbolized a source of fortune, now only showed the downfall of an empire. With all the power that he contained within himself, Vincent slammed his fists on the computer screens, shattering a couple of thousand dollars worth of technology.
In a distant tone, Vincent hears his phone vibrating under his wooden desk. He slowly opens the cabinet afraid of who might be calling him. Turning the phone over he sees it is his wife calling him. He fears her reaction to this situation and hesitates to pick up the phone for he could not bear his shame at this moment. When the call was about to go to the voicemail he picked up his cell phone.
"Hey, honey!" - he answers hesitantly.
"Hey, sweety! I was buying a new purse for the party this weekend, and the credit card was refused. I tried mine, as well as our credit card, and it didn't seem to work. Could you find out what is happening for me please?." - she asks pleasantly.
"Ye…yeah. Sure all do that. Anything else?" - his heart starts to beat faster, his hand starts to sweat as he holds the phone in his hand.
"That's all. How's your day going?"- she asks politely.
"All right." - coldly tries to end the conversation.
"Ok then. I don't want to bother you. Have a good day honey!"
Vincent throws the phone on the wall making a loud noise that echoed through the room. Lying his head on the table, tears start forming in the back of his eyes, the deception that he regurgitated was almost unbearable. Thoughts ran through his head, as this strange pain in his chest grew larger, for him it was more than just the business his entire life was built around this fluctuating world that seemed to be an infinite source of fortune.