180 Days — Chapter 1 Preview

180 Days

Chapter 1

“You have six months to live.”

What a crappy way to start a week — being given a shocking and completely unexpected death sentence.

Naturally it was a beautifully crisp, blue-skies and sunshine winter morning; and Monday morning, to top it off. It had snowed the night before so the ice and slush crunched under my tires as I pulled into the parking lot of the Whistler Building. I navigated my Lincoln Navigator around the four-foot-high snow piles looking for a spot to accommodate the too-big SUV.

I had only expected to be with my doctor for a few minutes. I thought I’d get to work before the bell rang at the New York Stock Exchange. I didn’t need to be there before the bell rang. In fact, I hadn’t needed to for many years. My professional activities had long ceased to be directly related to the trading day, but I liked to be there before the bell rang anyway.

Old habits die hard, even back then.

It had snowed mercilessly the night prior. But I was in a good mood despite the fact that I had spent two hours earlier that morning shoveling 18 inches of snow off of my driveway.

You see, my house was something of a mountain preserve. It sat high up in the northern New Jersey hills overlooking a…