The first money came from a trade everyone dismissed

Grant Wheeler called him with the kind of fake warmth that sounds like a loan document. “I hear you’ve been lucky. We should work together. The bank has client channels.” “Work together?” Darren leaned by the window and watched traffic move below. “You told me I was just a junior clerk the day you fired me. Now you want partnership?” “Finance is a realistic business.” “Exactly,” Darren said. “So here’s the realistic part: your habit of treating risk as cost and warnings as noise is going to hurt you sooner or later.” Grant’s voice hardened. “Don’t get arrogant, Cole. This was luck.” “Then wait for the next lucky hit.” He hung up. Matt grinned. “That was the first time you sounded rich.” “I’m nowhere near rich.”