Anna's POV

My gut feeling came true about us not getting along, when Janet opened her mouth and the first words that came out of her mouth were, "So she's the damsel in distress that you saved, Sir?"I sucked in a breath and a pang of hurt hit me deep into my heart, but I did not have the right to be upset when what she said was true.

However, she must not be the one who should be saying that since she was not the one who saved me.

I asked my pain and met Alex's eyes.

He saw my face then glanced at Janet.

"Language. Janet. This is not your personal dormitory. So please be professional." He snapped at Janet.

Disagreeing with her behaviour. His voice came out tight and stiff.

Janet almost rolled her eyes. She jerked her head at me.

"You are going to work under me. Alongside with other interns." She told me. She handed Janet the file that she entered inside the room with and gave my dress a glance over.

"I'm going to show her around." She told him.

"Okay." He said and turned to look at me.

"She will be your head and you will work under her. If you have any problem then you can talk to her. Have a great first day at work." He told me.

He was so polite. It was hard to believe. I was so grateful that people like him existed.

I gave him a small but professional smile

.

"Thank you, Sir." I replied. He gave a nod and immersed himself in his work.

"I'll lead the way." Janet muttered, like she was bored of our pleasantries.

With that, she turned on her heels and headed out of the room, with me following after her.

My stomach was churning because I was really nervous. Maybe, it was because I never worked in a job like this. Especially with a company, who had such a big name in the market.

My nervousness only increased when Janet led me to one of the biggest rooms where many people were working.

Honestly, at that point I felt like pooping.

Everyone seemed older than me and it did not help that none of them looked friendly.

I swallowed hard.

It did not look good.

Janet clapped her hands twice to draw everybody's attention to herself. Everyone stopped doing what they were doing and gave her the attention she asked for.

"Everyone, listen here. This is Anna. She is a new intern and will work here from now on. Treat her nicely." She announced. The whole crowd listened and nodded their heads to Janet. I could tell it by the looks of these people that they respected Janet.

Or was it fear?

In any case, I should maintain my distance from her and stay out of her way. Messing with her could mean trouble. And I had enough of getting in trouble.

With Janet's last words, all of them got back to what they were doing and resumed their work leaving both of us alone.

"So how much did you learn in your college?" She asked me directly. Her voice completely tone less. Her straight forwardness was a bit too much for me to take. Especially on the first day of work.

"I ... My work ..." I cleared my throat.

"I've done fitting,measurements and stuff. I have done Pattern Making & Garment Construction." I told her. I stumbled in my words a little before I got the words out. She gave me a passive look and pointed to the one section of the collection of dresses.

"I can't give you anyserious work without the supervision of a senior. Therefore, go to that section of loose fitted dresses and adjust them accordingly. If you find it difficult, feel free to ask any of the employees or me, for that matter. However, since I am leaving, you have to ask the employees."

"I will be back to check on you soon." She told me before gesturing for me to go on. It was a bit surprising for me, because our interaction went way better than I thought it would. She spun around and left me alone with a bunch of strangers.

I closed my eyes and brought myself together.

'You can do this. You were one of the brightest students in the class. You could go through this. You will try your best and you will learn.'

I gave myself a pep talk and got to work.While I worked, nobody paid me any attention.

It was like I was not even there or more like I was one of them. It seemed pretty different then the time when, not so long ago, I was introduced to all of them. When their all-collective attention was on me.

It did not matter though I was actually glad that I did not get any special attention since I had a serious doubt that I could handle that.

I got to work.

I kept on working and working and working. Until I lost track of time. But my work came to a halt when I realised that I was stuck in a problem.

One specific difficult dress fitting. I found it difficult.

This was what I was dreading to face.

I glanced around me to catch a glimpse of Janet but could not find her anywhere.

How was I supposed to go on if I could not find somebody to help me with it?

I almost gave up my hope, and I was thinking of finally asking someone for help when my eyes met a cute guy. He gave me a smile and raised his eyebrows, as if asking what was wrong.

I pointed at my work and he walked over to help me with it.

"Hi." He said.

"Hi." I replied to him politely. He looked around at the dress that I was working on.

"So what's the problem?" He questioned.

I told him that I was finding it hard to fit this material on this dress.

"Let me take a look." He said and helped me with the fitting, telling me how to do it properly. He literally solved my problem in minutes. I was really grateful for his help.

"Thank you." I told him and gave him one of my big smiles. His smile turned into a flirty one and he reached out and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear.

"You know, you're really pretty." He said to me. His voice sounded a bit rough.

I almost recoiled from his sentence but controlled myself from doing so. He had helped me a few seconds ago, after all.

The least I could do was to not reject him blatantly.

I gave him a small but Professional smile before taking a step back. He noticed the action but did not comment on it.

"I really need to get to work. This is my first day and I don't want to mess things up." I told him. My message was clear that I did not want his attention and wanted to get back to work.He glanced at my lips before smirking in an arrogant way.

"Sure. I will see you around." He said and went back to his place to work. From then on, I noticed him glancing my way from time to time, but I ignored him. Instead, I chose to focus on work.Few minutes later, I heard someone calling my name.

"Anna Ried. Who's Anna Ried?" An unknown voice called out to me.

My head was occupied with work hence I was not able to hear who was calling me.

My eyes searched for the source of the voice and came to settle on a person. By the look of his outfit, he looked like a receptionist.

I raised my hand to draw his attention to myself. He did. His eyes settled on me.

"I am Anna Ried." I told him. He jerked his head and subtly asked me to come outside. I did.

"Boss is calling you. Go to his office." He told me. Just as he told me, a loud beep sounded across the floor.

"It's lunch time. You should hurry, if you want to have time for lunch." He instructed me before the source of the voice and came to settle on a person. By the look of his outfit, he looked like a receptionist.

There was one problem with that question, I did not have any money for lunch. So I did not have to hurry.Anyway, I reached my boss's office and knocked on his door.

"Come in." He said. I did. I opened the door and walked inside. He was working on a file. Right after a few seconds, he closed it and looked at me.

"Get ready. We are going outside for lunch."

Anna's POV

"Get ready. We are going outside for lunch". He said to me

My shock was a natural reaction to it, followed by shame and pity. By the look of his eyes, I could tell that he knew that I had no money to eat.

I had nothing.

My parents asked me to leave and I did. Without ever taking anything and ended up almost jumping from the bridge.

He knew that I knew what he was doing and that heightened my humiliation to another level.

"Okay." I replied, almost whispered.

He tore his eyes away from me and stood up. He picked up his coat and put it on.

"Let's go." He told my frozen self. There was no denying that my face showed how much I was embarrassed. Still, he did not comment on it and instead walked to the elevator, nonchalantly. I followed him and made sure to look everywhere except his face.

I had a feeling that he knew I was avoiding him for a reason and for what reason but he did not say anything about it.

Anyways, we rode to the ground level in silence and walked over to his car. His driver opened the door for me and I climbed inside his car.

He slid inside from the other side of the car and settled down.

"So is there any specific place that you would like to eat?" He asked.

My face was already hot, his question made me squirm. Why did he have to ask that question? He could take me to a freaking McDonalds and I still would not complain.

"Umm... I can't think about any specific place right now. You decide." I answered him.

He stared at me for a few seconds then instructed his driver to a restaurant that I have not ever heard of.

His driver took us to a place I have never been to. Just by the look of this place I knew, it was a place where celebrities ate and not plebeians like me.

We both got out of his car and he led me inside the restaurant. He did not even ask for a place to sit, no, he just walked straight to an empty table in front of the little fountain in the middle.

He pulled a chair out for me. I sat down and he did the same. Without ever asking for anything, a waiter placed menus and brought two ice teas.

Iced tea. My favourite.

"Sir, do you come here a lot?" I asked him, looking around. People in suits and branded dresses were everywhere. There was no doubt now that we were in an expensive place. It screamed rich.

"Yes. Choose whatever you want to eat. I'm paying." He said and pretended to look inside his menu.

If he was a regular customer here then he would have known what was on the menu.

Anyway, I picked up my menu and searched for the least priced food. I chose a veg burger but it was still way too much for my liking. Maybe we really should have gone to McDonalds. The waiter arrived and we both placed our order.

Alex pursed his lips like he knew why I had chosen the dish. When the waiter left, he told me.

"I told you that I was paying. You should have chosen something more edible."

"I don't want to be any more of a burden than I already am." I mumbled.

He opened his mouth to tell me that I should not feel that way, but I continued with my sentence.

"Plus I am not that hungry. My stomach is still full of breakfast in the morning." I told him. By the look of his face, I could tell that he bit back his words. Instead, he stared off in the distance as he ran his hand through his neck.

"Okay. Tell me about your day. How was it?

Did you find your work easy?" The waiter came back with our order and I waited until he served us and left.

I gave him a small smile.

"It's great. People are helpful." I told him. He took a bite of his food and nodded.

We ate in silence after that when we both were finished with our meal, he ordered two glasses of juice.

"Janet will show you your new home but you need to get your stuff back from your previous house. If you want, then I could send someone else to retrieve it for you.

In case, you don't want to go back and do it yourself." He suggested.

My heart ached at his thoughtfulness.

Do people like him still exist?

HOW do people like him still exist?

And how did they not get contaminated living in this world? Living among corrupted, bad, mean people?

I felt tears prick my eyes. I swallowed hard before answering him.

"No." I shook my head.

"No, you don't need to do that. I will do it myself." I told him.

"Okay." He replied.

For a few seconds, both of us fell into silence then I spoke as he stared in the far distance.

"Umm..." I said to get his attention. He turned to me.

"Thank you for everything you did and are doing for me. It means a lot to me." I thanked him. For a moment, he looked taken aback by my words, like the confession caught him off guard.

Then he straightened in his chair.

"That's alright. You don't need to say thank you. That's what a human should do for another human." He said. My smile turned bitter - sweet.

'You will be surprised by how little humanity has left in people.' I wanted to tell him but I did not. Instead I repeated my words.

"Still, I am so thankful for your help. You helped me when I needed it the most. I will be forever grateful. And thank you for the new house arrangement this fast." I told him.

He did not say anything.

Waiter returned with our glasses of juices and we both drank it in silence. Then, he paid the bill and off we went.

I returned to my work and later Janet came to pick me up and drop me off at my new home. Handing me the keys of the house, she said, "You won't encounter any problems here.

You will live here and every month you could pay me your rent. Like you asked for." She told me.

I thanked her and entered a home that will be mine for the rest of my life.

Well as long as I could afford it.

I was so bloody exhausted that after eating things from the pantry, I just went inside my bedroom and fell on the bed.

I instantly passed out.

I woke up with a jerk, in the middle of the night.

I thought I heard a noise.

Somewhere in the house a glass broke.

Anna's POV

I woke up in the middle of the night. My brain was fuzzy with sleep. One of my eyes was half open while the other one was completely shut.

Then a glass shattered.

Its weight echoed across the quietness around the house.

The sound was enough to vanish my sleep-in thin air and bring back my senses. All the fuzziness whooshed in thin air as I realized that something was inside my house.

Maybe it was a small animal like a raccoon or something.

Why did it annoy me at this late night?

I slid from my bed and stood up. If I do not take care of it now then it will irritate me all night long. Plus I needed to see what this little creature broke.

"What in the world?" I grumbled in a groggy voice. And got out of my bed.

My bedroom was on the first floor so I was going to walk into the hallway that led downstairs.

I stumbled across the door and clutched the doorknob but stopped in my tracks.

My hand froze on the doorknob when I heard footsteps. Heavy footsteps.

It was not an animal. There was no way that it was some small creature.

It was a person's footsteps, because they were walking on two legs and not four.

The steps sounded way too deliberate.

One of the doors opened on the far side of the corner and the footsteps faded inside it. After that, I heard footsteps again. Those footsteps sounded again as another room's door opened and they faded inside.

All of a sudden, I realized that this person was going in every room one by one.

It means that he will enter this room too.

A shiver ran down my spine at that realization.

My whole body started shaking, as fear creeped up inside me and chilled me to my core. My hands shook as I fumbled in my attempt to lock the door quietly. All of it went straight to the gutter when the lock made a noise when I locked my door. It's sound echoed around in the silence of the night.

I let out a curse silently.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of those footsteps getting louder and louder and realized that those footsteps were coming towards my room.

I backed away from the door, my panic settling in. All of a sudden, I heard they quickened their pace until they were running and suddenly, the doorknob started jiggling.

Madly.

A sob caught in my throat but I clasped my hand on my mouth to stop the sound from coming out. I backed away and hid in the closet of my room.

I did not have a phone, nor did I have anything with me that could be used as a weapon. There was a window that led to the outside but I was paralysed with fear that I knew that my feet would wobble and would give away. My whole body was shivering from fear and sweat coated my forehead.

All of a sudden, the jiggling of the doorknob turned into an aggressive bang. The person outside banged on the door twice and jiggled the knob crazily.

"I know that you are in there bitch! I am going to get you, rape you and fucking throw your body somewhere in the woods. Open up!" A deep, heavy voice of a man shouted.

A boom shook the whole room as he tried to break the door open.

I started crying. I had no doubt that this guy would break the door open if he continued like this.

Suddenly, I felt a kick in my stomach and my body tensed. My whole attention was brought to the person inside my womb, that mattered the most in my life.

My baby.

It was that moment I realized that I was not alone this time. If I did not have the guts to then I HAVE to step up to save my baby. My baby deserved to live.

It was not only about me.

If I did not step up then my baby could die.

This thought gave me the adrenaline boost I needed. However, it brought another worry to me. I cannot jump from the window and risk my baby any harm. But if I did not jump from the window then we would die, certainly.

I swallowed hard at that thought.

So what should I do?

Suddenly, I noticed that while I was thinking all of this, the banging had stopped. There was no sounder. Instead of slowing down my heart rate spiked up at the chilling silence.

I opened the door of the closet slowly and peeked outside. It was all silent.

Did he leave?

I had not noticed when the banging stopped.

I wanted to stay inside the closet for the rest of my life but I couldn't. I had to get out. And so I did.

I took a step outside and stood at one spot for a few seconds. I really, did not want to go on but I had no choice.

I took hesitant steps and walked until I reached the door. Cautiously, I placed my ear against the door and listened for any kind of sound. I did that for a whole minute or more.

Still, no moment. Or any sound.

I gathered all my courage and opened the door. No one was in sight.

All of a sudden my eyes darted down, towards the figure who was crouched down by the wall and looking up at me with a smirk on his face.

He was white man around 55 years old with black hair, and he seemed Crazy. His face pale, eyes wide and red.

I froze at the sight of him in fear.

He let out a laugh like a maniac and it broke me out of trance.

He leaped out at me like a panther and this time I ran.

I ran like no other. Because this time my life, and more than anything else, my baby's life was on the line.

So I ran.

Pushing everything I have in it.

I ran straight down the hallway, around the corner and down the stairs and right to the main front door. I had not locked it earlier so it must have been open. So I ran for it.

I opened the door and smashed right into something hard.

Someone's chest.

I glanced up and saw a set of bright green eyes who stared down at me with worry.

I hugged him so tightly.

"Alex, save me."