CHAPTER ONE

ALTHEA ROBERTO

Althea walks down the street of Milan located in Italy, where the riches resided looking for a job to fend for herself, a job to put food in her mouth but the search for the past few days had only been futile. She left Naples a few weeks ago because of this job haunt of hers but still, she was at the start, poor and unsuccessful and it was the most annoying though.

Today had been extraordinarily annoying and frustrating for her as she had gone to three places in search of a good stable job. The first place she went to was on the porch looking only for the boss of the company to stare at her like a hungry dog who has starved for days. She knew what that look stood for but still, she sat in that office speaking about what she could do, hoping that maybe she might be wrong about the man but she was right all along because before she knew it, his hands were already living up to her laps and she slapped him before running out meaning no job there anymore.

The second-place she went to wasn't any different because the man went straight to the point that she didn't need an interview. She shouldn't have been too happy when he said that because while she was jubilating, thinking she had scored herself a fine job, he tabled his intentions. He didn't want a secretary but a mistress. the audacity he had looking her in the face when he had a wife. she simply walked out of his office at least trying hard not to slap him this time.

The third place, the place she had just left was even far worse than the other two, the boss wasn't a pervert like the other two men because he didn't even spare her a glance as she introduced herself. All he asked of her was where she was from and if her family was rich. As soon as he looked at her he laughed and said she failed the interview. When she asked him, the bastard had the guts to say she didn't look like a rich man's daughter and so he couldn't give her the job.

Althea suddenly laughed to herself as she pondered on all that had happened to her that day, a frustrated laugh at that. As she walked through the neighborhood people stared at her because of the way she looked. Her shirt was rough and tucked out of her pleated skirt with the first few buttons undone and her tie just around her neck unknotted. She had one leg of her black heels in her hands as she wore the other on her leg. She knew she looked beyond bad but it didn't matter, she didn't care because it was not like they would just give her a job even if she dressed nicely.

Her stomach grumbled from the lack of food but it didn't matter because she had only a few dollars left and she wasn't ready to spend it on food. The money won't even be enough to fetch her a good filling meal that will satisfy her. She just had to scale through the day and she would go back home to have a little dinner and then rest so she could get back on her feet the next day.

She kept walking on, not bothered by the looks the people in the neighborhood were giving her. As she got to another street, she saw a crowd of people. They were gathered in a place, their eyes glued to something, and at first, she decided to just go her way and ignore them because that's what people do, they don't mind their business but go around poking their noses where they are not needed. She was about to leave the alley but out of curiosity and the thought that it might be something that could cheer her up and get her out of her misery because of what had happened that day, she decided to check what the people were watching.

It was so hard to see what was going on from the back of the crowd because there were too many. What was the point of standing there like a lost person when she couldn't even see what was going on? She pushed and pushed some men who gave her off looks and after struggling, she finally got through them and before she knew it, she was now standing at the front of the crowd, the people behind her and she had lost her left heel in the process of forcing her way but she wasn't bothered by it because now she could see what they were all looking at and the sight she was greeted with was uncalled for, it was barbaric and she wasn't pleased with it.

A woman that looked just her age was screaming as she was being dragged by two huge hefty men and then she looked back at the people watching while all this was happening, they were not doing anything to stop the men or saying anything. These men were huge but still if the crowd tried to help they would win because they were more in number but they weren't trying to save the girl but just focused on watching. She was aggravated and shocked by their attitudes. how could they watch a girl being dragged and molested and still not do anything about it and they weren't saying anything but just watching them. They could call the police if they were too scared to do something but they didn't call the police or even jump in to help her and save her from these two men.

Without thinking, she didn't even know when her legs took her there and she was in the scene herself. She touched the girl by the shoulder, trying to help her up only for the girl to turn and then spray her eyes with the maze. Althea groaned in pain, her hands on her face as she couldn't see anything.