With Chapter 1 out of the way, it’s now time to discuss Chapter 2: “Truth”! Let’s get to it!
Truth? More Like Answers!
Get it? It kind of does feel like I messed up with the chapter names. However, stick with me on this, would you?
Why Truth?
Well, I wanted it to be halfway between giving the reader answers to their questions and also not giving them all the answers. MUAHAHA! Don’t you just love me?
So, it couldn’t be “Answers” just yet – there was more I wanted to sneakily slide into the story.
Pick Up Where We Left Off
This is one of the few chapters I believe that actually goes in chronological order. We start the morning after the first chapter and get into the aftermath of what happened. This is also when we meet who our protagonist is, though indirectly.
We begin with referring to Annabelle as “the Woman” still, leaving her true introduction for later. For the first paragraph, there’s a lot of focus on how she looks and what her injuries are. In all honesty, if this happened in real life, Annabelle probably would’ve been in the hospital and not at home, but then again, this is a fictional piece of literature, so let’s just say it makes sense.
Ah, the Hustle and Bustle of the Morning!
Following a brief description of Annabelle’s attire, the reader is introduced to the morning rush of Paris, France. When I wrote it, I had imagined the scene to look like a combination of these photos:
Now, with these images in mind, let’s continue to follow Annabelle. Much like the ladies in the last photo above, Annabelle rode a bike to work in the morning. How she managed to ride a bike without crashing while suffering from a possible concussion, we’ll never know. Yet, she managed to ride her bike all the way to work and arrive at:
Actualités Dietmar
Which translates to, “Dietmar News”. Originally the name of the central location in my book was actually, “Nouvelles Dietmar”. However, upon further investigation, turns out that Nouvelles refers to like the news you share or print, while Actualités refers to a newscast or news show, or in this case, a business. This is a warning to all: DON’T TRUST GOOGLE TRANSLATE (double-check with other sources before publishing 🙂)
With that PSA out of the way, we can hop back into the story.
As Annabelle enters her work, employees rush up to her asking if she is alright. However, there is one person who asks her, “Was it Kapitän Fitzi?” This might seem a bit strange, considering that Albrecht would, later on, become her husband, but I placed that small detail there to show that not everyone in the office is a fan of Albrecht. It doesn’t do too much to the story besides creating some basis for the distrust many of the characters have for Albrecht.
Let’s Meet Our Leading Man (at least one of them)!
As Annabelle opens the door to her office, she is greeted by a mysterious man. He is first jovial then suddenly turns to worry as he realizes the state Annabelle is in. We learn from Annabelle that this man is Dimitri. We can assume they are friends from their conversation, however, at this point, nothing more has been established.
This is where I’ll have to stop for today! Unfortunately, I’ve had a very busy couple of weeks and couldn’t make it through the entire chapter.
Next week, we’ll pick it up right here! We’ll get through the entire chapter and I’m going to (hopefully) upload some bonus pictures!
Till next week!
L.A.