Chapter 1

“Thief, thief, you're a thief!” The young lady screamed in the lobby of the hotel.

“Ma'am, what's going on?” People gathered around her to question her reason for raising an alarm.

“What's the problem?”

“Call the corps, I've been duped, this woman is a thief,”

“What exactly is the problem, Miss?”

“Yes at least tell us ma'am”

“Let me cut off this bull, and save you all the stress, I did nothing, you know what you're doing and I have no hand in whatever you just did”

“Tell that to the corps when they arrive”

“You won't go scot-free for what you're about to do” “You think framing me would save you?”

She leaned in and spoke into her ears, “You see, things would always go my way, you have no power to stop me from doing whatever I want.”

Catherine stood in front of the lady panicking and watched her blame her for something she didn't do.

Proving herself was only going to make it worse. She was the daughter of a rich man and they'll only listen to the one who holds the dough.

All Catherine remembered was helping this lady with something on her phone, the greatest mistake she ever made was to get dragged into a bank account issue.

The police came and grabbed Catherine like she was some bag of cherries, “Let me go, I'm innocent, I've done nothing, I did nothing” Catherine pleaded her innocence but it was all futile.

“Anything you say will be used against you in the court of law, behave yourself if you don't want to spend the rest of your life in prison."

They threw her into the van and drove off.

************

Catherine sat in a bar situated in the middle of New York city as she drowned herself in the shots and memories of the past.

Catherine was released from prison a few hours ago, with nowhere to go, she went and sat in the bar.

“Ma'am, what should I bring?”

“Another shot of your strongest whisky” Catherine winked at the bar man and took the last shot in front of her. “Why's the bar so empty?”

“Today’s one of the bad market days for us, we get low on customers on days like this, but then, I must say ma'am, you're an active drinker” the bar man commented.

Catherine sat there and laughed to herself , only if he knew where she was coming from, he wouldn't say that.

Her first days in prison were nothing she wanted to reminisce about, but the memories kept on coming.

*************

“Hey, you, softie,” a huge lady sitting at the corner of the room called to her. “What are you here for?”

They all burst into laughter. They laughed for a very long time, then one of them blurted out.

“She stole from the ice cream truck”

“No, she was on Santa's naughty list.”

“I think she ripped off the head of her teddy bear, I hope Mr. Snugly didn't die”

The last comment made the whole room burst into heavy laughter. The lady who spoke last was the one who became the closest with Catherine while she was in prison.

Catherine didn't know if she was embarrassed by the fact that she was in the same room with these kinds of women or if she was embarrassed by the fact that they think she couldn't commit a real crime.

All of them, including herself, were wearing orange overalls.

“Really, why are you here?”The lady asked again.

“I- I- I was framed for theft and duping a very influential company,”

“Framed?” She looked at the other inmates, “Is there still a thing as framed?”

“The moment you're here, we don't care if you were framed or not, you're one of us and we've all got each other's back, till we’re released, you're lucky you didn’t get thrown into the, what we call, Toxic block, softies like you barely get out alive.”

“They get into fights and some don't back down till you see blood or when the opponent is knocked down completely.”

“That's the home for top criminals and murderers, thinking about them gives me the creeps”

They read the fear on my face, “Never worry, we've got you.” They patted Catherine's back and gave her ten shots of very strong alcohol. Catherine couldn't see the name, but it was horrible and too strong.

She took the first ten shots as a welcome initiation, but it went on for days and she got addicted.

*****************

A waitress came up with a drink and offered it to Catherine.

“From the man at the corner, he says hi”

Catherine bent her neck over and saw the man, she waved and he waved back.

The waitress dropped the drink on the table and left.

Moments later Catherine heard a voice behind her.

“Hey” A man walked up to Catherine and asked if he could join her on the counter.

She responded and offered him a seat.

“Hi, what's good?” She was already getting tipsy.

“I bought you a drink, I think we both know how that works,” He said rudely.

“Your drink's still on the table, you can take it back with you” Catherine retorted, she was tipsy but she was also aware of what was going on.

“That doesn't sound nice” He claimed.

“No, you, thinking every girl you come across is a call girl isn't nice” Catherine snapped back at him.

“I bought you a drink, the least you could do was come over to say hi, and then you can continue with your zeal to get drunk”

“Well, I'm sorry to disappoint your ass, I'm not what you're looking for, get out of my sight and let me peacefully drown in my business”

“You wouldn't tell me what I want and what I do not, I know what I want and I know I want you” He insisted.

“Can you please leave or I call the security on you” Catherine said sternly.

“You think the security will listen to you when you're in this drunken state, just put the drink down and let's go to that corner over there and have some fun” the man held on to Catherine's hand tightly and put his mouth in her ears.

She hit him to let her go, but his grip was too hard.

She thought about how she worked out really hard in prison and now it's failing her?

“Don't struggle, you're not as powerful as me” he tried to force himself to kiss her. Catherine struggled but he held her head.

The bar was empty and the bar man was inside.

“Let me go, Let me go,” Catherine shouted.

“Let her go this instant” A voice came from the door of the bar.