Chapter 1

“What menu do you want, dear?” Peter asked his wife, as they stood in the waiting line from McDonald’s at Alexanderplatz in Berlin.

“I’ll take the Quarter Pounder menu with mayonnaise and a coke,” Julia, his wife, answered.

“A Happy Meal with a smoothie for Kieran?”

Kieran was their four-year-old son and although he could be quite a handful at times, he was generally a well-behaved and caring boy.

“Yes, and order fruit as his dessert.”

Peter placed their order, ordering a Big Mac menu for himself, and had to wait for the servants to prepare their meal while Julia and Kieran searched for a place to sit. Peter Wagner, born and raised in Germany, had been a successful businessman in his life. He had gained enough wealth at the age of thirty-five to buy a villa the year before. Along with their two cats, Charley and Blackberry, they had a household of five in total. Although Peter did not make enough money to retire early, he did make more than enough to afford several luxurious vacations every year and that he did not have to worry about his finances either.

Peter was a tall man with his six feet and four inches while his wife was quite the opposite, reaching barely five feet. He had brown hair, green-blue eyes, a toned body, and a general handsome appearance. His wife, however, was a twenty-nine-year old redhead with brown eyes, a slim body, and C cup breasts, which looked large on her lithe frame. She generally wore heels to appear taller, but even with heels she barely reached his chest. Her natural hair color was actually brown, but she died it every several months to keep it red. Despite it being Saturday, the couple still dressed well and although they were wearing casual clothes, one could easily see from appearances that they were upper class.

Once Peter spotted his wife and son, he brought their lunch to their table. They had been on a shopping spree for new clothes for Kieran as well as buying some items for their house. The couple made small talk while enjoying their meal when Peter noticed a woman out of the corner of his eye. There seemed something familiar about her and he turned his head to take in her appearance. She had blonde hair that reached until her shoulders, ocean blue eyes with bags under them and shallow cheeks. The woman was about his age and hunched over as she munched on a one-euro hamburger. She wore a worn coat that did not seem particularly warm on these cold January days and even the black fingerless gloves she wore had seen much better days.

A look of recognition crossed his face, however, as he took a closer look at her facial features. She looked a lot like a former college classmate of his, except that his classmate had looked much healthier and far more vibrant than this withdrawn woman, who kept to herself and who did not even look up from her plate. She seemed to chew as slowly as possible, as if to savor every bite. She had a cup of steaming coffee next to her, of which she took the occasional sip as well.

Peter held up his hand to stop his wife from talking for a moment, turning his chair in the direction of the woman. “Excuse me, but are—, are you Judith?”

A scared look appeared in the woman’s eyes as her head shot up and looked Peter straight in the eyes. Recognition crossed her face and she slowly nodded her head up and down, nervously swallowing the bit of burger she had been chewing on.

The businessman wondered what had happened to his former classmate, she seemed the opposite of what she had been during her college days. Shad been very attractive back then and Peter even had an eye on her, however, nothing romantic had ever developed between the two of them. Judith had a boyfriend at the time and Peter had mostly been focusing on his studies. They did became good friends during their study period, however, like with most his classmates; he lost contact with her soon after they graduated. He still had some of his former classmates on LinkedIn, but he had no idea what had become from most of them. Still, despite her current appearance, Peter was thrilled to see his former classmate again.

“Oh wow, how are you? How have you been? Please, come sit at my table,” Peter said, waving her over.

The woman seemed indecisive for a moment, but then picked up her coffee cup and joined them.

“Judith, please meet my wife, Julia, and my son, Kieran. Julia, this is Judith, we went to college together.”

His wife gave the woman a sympathetic nod, she generally accepted friends of her husband without any issues.

“So, how are you?”

“I’m doing fine, considering the circumstances,” the woman sighed. She did not appear ready to tell her life’s story since their college days, but Peter knew she was holding a lot back.

“You can be honest with me, Judith. You know that I always did my best to help you out.”

“Well—, it’s Rick...”

“You mean your boyfriend from when we were still in college?”

“Yeah, I married him after I graduated and instead of getting a job, I became a stay-at-home mom, looking after our two sons. He got to work for J&J Capital Investments and did really well for a long time, until they discovered that he committed a lot of fraud and put the company in a thirty million euro debt. He lost his job and after the trial he had to go to jail while we also lost our house and pretty much everything else...”

“My god, I read about that trial, I just didn’t connect the dots that he was your husband. That happened five years ago, right?”

“Yes, five years already,” the woman said, casting her eyes down to the table. “Life has been hard since then. Without an income I couldn’t care for my children, they’re living with my parents now, but they didn’t have room for me as well. I’ve tried to get a job, but between Rick’s ruined name and me not having any practical work experience, I could forget about getting hired anywhere. I did some menial chores left and right, but since I married in community of goods, I’m also responsible for the debt that Rick caused. I divorced him now, but I still have to pay off millions in debt, far more than I’ll ever make in my life.”

Peter took Judith’s hand in his and rubbed the back of her hand with his other hand, comforting her while tears started to billow down her cheeks.

“I’m so sorry to hear about this. You deserved far better. So what will you do now?”

Judith sniffed, and answered, “There isn’t a whole lot I can do. I’m homeless now, I try to do some work for people and sell the homeless paper on the street so that I can at least pay for shelter in the nights, especially now that it’s so cold, but other than that ... I pretty much live from day to day without a real plan.”

“Damn,” Julia whispered, who had taken pity on the woman as well.

“So what is your plan for tonight then?” Peter asked.

“I don’t know really, I just spent my last euros on a hamburger and a coffee. I don’t even have money for the shelter tonight. I know a place several kilometers from here with hot pipes on the outside of the building. It’s far from comfortable, but it’ll keep me warm enough. I just hope that Herman and his gang aren’t hanging out there tonight.”

Peter gave his wife a look and an unspoken form of communication seemed to go on between the two of them as she nodded her head.

“I have a better idea, why don’t you come with us for the night? We’ll get you a hot meal and a warm bed. It’s supposedly becoming one of the coldest nights this week and we can’t leave you on your own out here.”

“Oh, no, I couldn’t ask that of you,” Judith said, despite her situation, she still clung onto the pride she once had. “It’d be too much, I can’t accept that.”

“Nonsense,” Peter said, “however, if you wish we can make a deal like we used to back in the day.”

Judith’s face brightened, like Peter, she seemed to recall the deals they frequently made at college. It generally revolved Peter doing some chore that she hated doing while she did some other kind of chore that he did not like and in the end, it generally evened out.

“You mentioned how you did some housekeeping chores in the past, how about you do some chores for us and in return you get paid room and food for the night? We can figure out everything else tomorrow.”

“That-, that’s acceptable,” Judith relented, nodding her head.

Kieran choose that moment to announce that he finished his lunch and wanted to go home. Peter motioned Judith to follow, which she did after picking up her backpack from the floor. She already seemed to stand a little straighter than before and a small smile flashed across her face as she wiped the last of her tears away. It was not until now that Peter got a good look at her body. She was five foot six inches tall and he guessed her to have a B cup, although it was hard to tell with all the clothes she wore. Her jeans were faded like her coat and he could see woolen pantyhose below a part of her jeans where shreds had appeared from usage.

It was not long before they reached the parking lot and got into Peter’s spacious Mercedes. Julia offered her seat next to Peter to Judith since the woman was a lot taller than she was. Judith wanted to decline, but Peter told her to take the seat and she gave up the discussion before it really turned into one.

It took Peter the better portion of thirty minutes to drive to his house. He watched Judith’s eyes go wide as he drove up the three-hundred feet long driveway. Tall pine-trees surrounded his property, giving him a lot of privacy. It was as if they drove through fairyland with all the snow covering the pines. The closest neighbor was only a quarter mile away, but between all the trees, you would figure yourself in no-man’s-land. They reached the clearing half a minute later, bringing the villa in view. Judith’s mouth fell open.

“As you can see, I’ve done quite well for myself the past decade,” Peter said. “I still intend to add a large garage to the property in the future, but overall I’m quite happy with how it turned out.”

“Damn, Rick did well before they caught him, but not this well,” Judith said. She gulped as she took it all in.

Charley and Blackberry were already waiting at the door, wanting Julia to feed them, when they entered the house. Charley was a large neutered tabby, while Blackberry was a black British shorthair. As soon as Julia had a moment to put the bags down and take off Kieran’s coat, she’d answer the felines’ prayers.

“Let me give you a tour of the house and show you your room,” Peter offered, after he hung up his coat and took Judith’s so he could hang hers up as well.

Peter started the tour in the spacious den, which was connected to a large hall between the living room and the garage. The hall also had a door leading to the laundry room, where Julia could wash and dry all their clothes. He did not show Judith that room, however, since it was generally a mess.

The den had a large fireplace and there were several leather couches with enough seats to house a dozen people. Despite its size, the room breathed warmness and had a cozy feeling to it. Glass doors set in a solid synthetic frame led to the patio and garden, although it was currently hard to tell which was which since they were all covered in show. A snowman of Kieran’s size decorated the garden and judging the tracks of a sled, it was easy to see that the boy had had a lot of fun with the snow the past days.