Shadow Protection

Chapter 1

What is witness protection?

Witness protection is security provided to a threatened person providing testimonial evidence to the justice system, including defendants and other clients, before, during, and after a trial, usually by police.

But for me witness protection was where Victoria O' Sullivan died and Mary Jane Smith was born.

I am ... was Victoria O' Sullivan your ordinary superficial popular girl. The girl everyone wanted to be and the one they envied the most. I was the head cheerleader, a great dancer, smart and the girlfriend of our schools star quarterback and I was beautiful. I had long curly red hair blessed by Irish descent on my father's side, cold intense blue eyes blessed from my mother and the body of a goddess. But like every popular girl I partied, a lot, one party every week. My motto in life was "Live life and have fun you only live once." And that motto cost me that life.

That night I had gone to visit my boyfriend when I saw my sleazy best friend on top of him in his room. It was expected that my best friend was more of a frenemy. She envied me more than anyone and only stuck by me to boost her ratings and I knew she was head over heels in love with him. I just never thought that he would actually sleep with her and to help me deal with that I went home put on my shortest red dress, the reddest lipstick and a black high heeled boot and went off to party. That party I would never forget.

I ofcourse had a fake ID and went clubbing on my own I wasn't completely drunk out of my mind but then I was drugged, almost raped before some plain clothes police officers busted in and took his hands off my body. THE END

That's a night I would rather not reminisce. That night was the stupidest, craziest, scariest, dangerous, character changing and life changing moment of my life.

It turned out that the guy arrested was Aries Severan. Aries Severan was being investigated by the police for numerous assault charges some of them being rape. That particular night they had set up an operation to catch him in the act however instead of going for their target he chose me. In order for him to be sent away for a very long time I had to testify and in that moment Victoria O'Sullivan could no longer live. I wasn't forced to do so but it's easier to blame them for ruining my life than blaming myself even when I know the only one to be blamed is me. My dad supported my decision but my mom hates me for it. It turned out that Aries Severan wasn't a nobody; he was the younger brother of Titan Severan. Titan Severan was a business mogul and was quickly establishing his own dynasty across America. He owned restaurants, hotels, advertising companies, real estate I think he even owns a car company and me putting his brother in jail for rape was on the cover of every newspaper and he was not being painted in a good light.

It was rumoured that he had his own mob or gang or had some connections. The Severan family came from Rome; they basically owned the country and the security personnel they travelled with was no joke. There were always stories of persons trying to endanger the Severan family and they suddenly disappeared even business competitors suddenly backed down from business deals and pulled out of big company buys or investments. I never really paid much attention to the Severan but they were the type of famous that you will know everything about without having to look them up yourself they were just that of a big deal and I just sent his brother to jail.

The police made it clear once I testified I would have to give up my life to keep my family safe. I know my mom practically hates me for ruining the life she built but no matter how scared I was and still am I couldn't let him walk away from what he almost did to me and what he actually did do to the other girls and due to his name he only got 10 years.

No longer was I Victoria O' Sullivan your over average beautiful California girl I was now plain Mary Jane Smith from a tiny town in Chicago who was finishing up high school in Charlottesville. I thought that I would have gone somewhere that wasn't even on the map but they said I would stick out and it would be easier for them to track me so Charlottesville Virginia it was. At least the urban sub urban atmosphere was somewhat familiar. It seemed my mom had enjoyed the change a lot in the end. Our new house was slightly bigger than the last and the furniture was just to her liking and she was also able to alter her appearance to the dream look she always wanted. This was the ideal California girl with short bleached blonde hair and sea green eyes. To me she looked like a college girl. I had meant it as an insult but when I actually told her she was way too pleased. My dad on the other hand had just changed his red hair to black and his brown eyes to grey. Minimalistic but he was still very handsome.