Two weeks prior.

My hands shook badly, my whole body trembling with the cold and fear. The fear was that I would be here for years. I couldn't go back, but I saw no way forward. A hat, scavenged from the trash, lay before me; a few cents lay in it. I begged for anything anyone could give me. It was humiliating. I had sneered at the beggars on the street before I became one of them, as I walk arm in arm with my friends, other rich girls. But I'd do anything for something to fill the ache of hunger in my stomach. The desperation for something to eat almost overtook my morals as I looked at the girls with their skirts hitched up showing torn stockings. They weren't hungry; they laughed.

Then, the most beautiful woman I had ever seen stood before me. I fought to close my gapping mouth when she slowly lowered herself down before me. Her vibrant, wild red hair neatly twisted at the nape of her neck before being allowed to cascade down over her left shoulder over her chest. Her clothes were stylish, latest French fashion, I noticed. I used to wear those clothes. But that was before my mother, Renée, and father, Charles, all but disowned me for my 'promiscuous' ways and thought that linking me, forcing my hand in marriage, with a man I knew nothing of, would be my best option. I was having none of that.

Slowly, the lady in front of me took my chin in her fingers. Her hands were icy, but so were mine. She pulled my face up to meet hers. I gasped in shock when my eyes met hers. They were almost completely black, apart from a dull crimson aura circling the black.

Something in my self-preservation instinct told me to scream, to yell, to fight, but my defiant side kept myself still, never once breaking her stare, a small pout forming on my full lips. After what felt like forever, she smiled.

'You'll do.' Her voice wasn't full and sultry like I thought it would be, but high, angel-like.

She quickly pulled me up and wrapped me in the full length fur coat off she'd been wearing. It felt so soft and utterly amazing against my grimy skin, but freezing cold, like it had just come from lying on the snow. But it wasn't wet. I was about to question her about it but she caught me by surprise first.

'Ignore it, Ms Swan.'

Then I was scared.

'You... You know who I am?'

'Oh, hush my dear. Of course I know you. Who could miss that pretty face of yours?'

I flushed, my pale skin brightening to the lovely rose colour I was known for.

'There you go. It wasn't so hard, was it?'

I gently shook my head, my matted curls shifting uncomfortably across my back.

I groaned as I reached up and snagged my fingers in the mess.

The woman noticed my movements and quickly pulled the hood over my head leaving my face in shadow.

'We'll deal with that later my dear. You... you are now my number one.'

I quickly looked over to her, eyes widened with curiosity. 'You won't take me back will you? To my parents, I mean?'

Victoria smiled at me and shook her head. Something in her eyes told me this was not random, I'd been chosen, and that she would change my life forever.