"I heard she ate her cat"

Dimitria's eyes were tired of rolling, such were the rumors that went around about the young woman who couldn't maintain a conversation with her peers for longer than five minutes. With absolutely no social life and no being to call friends besides her foster parents, she couldn't spend a day without a weird stare or a look of pity from someone. As she overheard the conversation between two of her coworkers, she couldn't help but walk further away from there. Her patience was wearing thin and no one would want drama in tightly fitted pants and a white shirt.

A deep breath escaped her lips as she opened the door in front of her, revealing the bald head of her employer, a man fit for retirement but desperately pushing himself to a nine-to-five in his undersized suit and buttons crying to shoot out. He had dark brown skin, a short plump stature, wrinkles, and large pores on his skin, and what gave his look away, was the mole at the side of his face. There wasn't much to him besides the fact he had saved her from the torment of graduating from a university and not getting a job.

One quick look at his hands and she saw an envelope in his hands which, in her days of working, never meant something good.

"There's a problem"

"The people here don't like me?"

"Everyone is saying something and it's not their fault" He started "The look and all," he said, waving his hands in the air to describe her birthmarks.

That's what you get for having large engravings over your face. For as long as she could remember, she had dark marks that ran from her forehead to her cheekbones. They were perfectly symmetrical like they were carefully drawn on her face. The contrast between her pale skin and the birthmark was profound, anyone could see it from the corner of their eye and that was one of the many reasons she got so much attention. Plus, no one wanted their customers walking into their organization and seeing that, hence, the job problem

Rejections upon rejections piled over her applications and working for him was a step down from her worth but she didn't have any choice. Bills had to be paid.

"Listen" he paused "I hired you because I saw potential in you but this is a business, people walk in and out, I can't help it_"

"You're firing me?" She cut him off, her heart falling to the pit of her stomach. First job in two years and it's ending in one week.

Great.

"It's not just about the look, your attitude doesn't give you away"

"The people here obviously don't like me, how else am I supposed to act? I didn't choose to look this way, they hate me for it and I'm supposed to walk in here and be sweetheart?"

"Point is" He started "You're not a people person and I think you'd do better if you don't have to talk to them. How about you be my assistant? It'll be just me and you and you'll have a little office right across my d_"

"I didn't go to school to work as an assistant"

"I didn't build an empire to let it crumble, you're taking the offer or not?"

Working as his assistant would mean ten steps lower than her level and she would have to listen to the petty gossip of his immature workers every day of her life. And if she walked away from it, she would be back to her foster parent's home in less than three months, with a framed certificate over her bedstead and nothing to show for it

Thinking of it, the idea didn't look so bad anymore.

"I quit"

"Aw, come on Dim, you're a bright kid"

"I'm not a kid and it's pointless spending one more day in this underpaying pile of mess"

"I worked for that mess"

"I worked for my degree. The only reason you want me here is because none of your immature workers have anything close to mine. I'm not going to show my potential by sitting in front of your office and setting up meetings for you"

It had to be said, she thought. If she would walk out of here without a job to her name, at least she would have the freedom to let the truth out of her mouth. There were a million and one thing that was wrong about Alex's business and with every passing day, it was on the verge of collapsing.

"This is the most I can offer. If you still want to leave, you can pack your things and go."

That was the last she heard of anyone in the building before she packed her things in a big brown box and left. There were just as many looks as she had expected and somewhere deep inside, being the mystery girl on the headline of their gossip was interesting. Maybe they would finally conclude that she didn't eat cats alone but also her boss's ego.

She was welcomed by the gush of fresh air when she stepped outside. Her feet were already beginning to hurt with the undersized black heels she squeezed into and with a box wedged between her arms and purse hanging over her shoulder, she waited for the yellow sign of a taxi. She didn't like standing outside for too long or meeting people in general, scarcely was it ever a good experience for the young woman. From high school days, she was used to looking down to avoid the stares of strangers, and even with that, there was never comfort with anyone besides her foster parents.

Although she was never timid, she didn't like the random questions, funny looks, and the fingers of toothless kids pointing at her.

She halted the first taxi she found and slipped into the small vehicle. She placed the brown box at her side and slammed the door shut, mostly from the frustration of losing her job. After a few seconds of settling in, her green orbs took a glance at the driver, a very young man who looked like he was in his early twenties. He didn't look like he belonged to a taxi, all the taxi drivers didn't have expensive-looking silver watches or clothes that looked like he was from the country club.

"Sorry did I make a mistake"

"You needed a ride and I stopped to help," he said while looking at her through the rearview mirror. Everything about the man was weird and curious Dimitria wanted to get to the end of it. Alive and hopefully not kidnapped.

"I thought this was a taxi" She shuffled around and looked at the side mirror. Suddenly, what looked like a yellow taxi was a black Mustang. Dimitria couldn't believe her eyes, she could've sworn she got into a yellow taxi. Her eyes had never deceived her before and it almost looked like magic, only that it happened in broad daylight.

"I'm sorry, I'll just leave."

"Oh no, you don't have to. I'm more than happy to give you a ride"

She looked at him again, could this wealthy-looking stranger be trusted? The question rang through her head for seconds and the man just sat there with a small smile glued to his face. He could be a kidnapper, she thought, and it would be a bummer to lose her job and be kidnapped on the same day. Her mind had gone through different scenarios of how this 'help' could end up bad.

"If it makes you feel better, I'm Cassian. I'm new to the neighborhood, moved in from California last week"

"Great" She gave a tight smile on her way out of the stranger's vehicle. She was not in for any conversation and the anger boiling in her from losing her job could explode any moment. "Nice to meet you, Cassy"

"Cassian" He corrected "I hope to see you around some other time, you'll make a good friend Dimitria"

All bells went off in her head. In her few seconds of meeting him, she never breathed her name and she may have gotten attention for the way she looked but her name never went further than where she worked. Suddenly, everything he said wasn't so true to her anymore and she may have just escaped a plotted kidnap, only that this kidnapper didn't know how to get his job done. Obviously.

"How'd you know my name?"

"I guess that's a story for another day"

With an arm's stretch, he slammed the opened door shut and for a split second, her eyes grasped the image of his arm. Most importantly, the mark that was on It.

And they looked exactly like the ones she had.

Before she had the chance to utter another word, he zoomed off. So many things happened in the blink of a second and before she could even comprehend it, he was gone. Too far away to catch him and too scary of a situation to try to be with him again. She was on a long trail of questions and she couldn't bring herself to understand who he was and what the point of the brief meeting was.

"Did I just lose the chance to meet my super-rich long lost brother?"