Prince Charmer

Chapter 1

Ariella Johnson never thought she'd be an ex-con but here she was finally, after ten years, walking out of a prison in Texas. It all started more than ten years ago when she was leaving a club in Deep Ellum in Dallas. She'd gone out with her friends after a long work week and she was leaving the club by herself. Her friends weren't ready to leave yet but she was tired and ready for bed. Although she'd had several alcoholic drinks throughout the night, she'd stopped drinking two hours before she left the club so she was sober enough to drive home. On the walk to her car, she was jumped by a much bigger male who tried to pull her into an alley. Arielle practiced martial arts, for health reasons and for protection, so she fought back. Her attacker wasn't backing down and eventually pulled out a gun. In the ensuing struggle, she wound up disarming him so he whipped out a knife and sliced her left forearm.

It was a life-or-death struggle for her and in the fight, she wound up killing her assailant by accident. She was bruised, bloody, cut up, and terrified. Not wanting to hide what had happened, she immediately whipped her phone out and called the police. An ambulance was brought as well to look her and her assailant over. The paramedics cleaned her wounds, put in dissolvable stitches, and bandaged her wounds up. The police took her statement, the coroner was called, and the police talked to everyone nearby to see if they'd seen anything. There was a camera that caught part of the incident so they took the footage to review it. She wasn't arrested but they took her contact information in case they had any more questions or they needed to execute an arrest warrant. The DA, after looking over her case, decided to make an example out of her even though most of the cops thought it was a classic case of self-defense. The DA, however who had a dislike for people practicing martial arts, thought she should be punished for killing another person. She was charged with first degree murder which shocked her.

She had a good savings so she hired the best lawyer she could. He made a solid case for self-defense and pressed that she had only defended herself from an attacker who was intent on sexually assaulting her and possibly killing her as he'd brought out a gun and when he was disarmed, a knife as well. Her life was in the balance of twelve strangers and she was very nervous. After nearly twelve hours of deliberation, they finally came back with a verdict of manslaughter which carried a sentence of ten years in prison. Arielle felt like her whole world had just fallen out from under her. She was going to be a criminal the rest of her life! As she was taken back to the jail to await her transfer to the state prison, she cried. Sobbed at her fate. She was thankful that it was only ten years instead of life like the DA was trying for. She hadn't meant to kill anyone! She was just defending herself from an attacker. Prison life was not something she wanted to get used to. It was not somewhere she ever wanted to be or thought she'd wind up. After she graduated high school, she went to college to become a dentist. She was working at a great dental office when her life was turned upside down.

Now, after ten long years in prison, she was finally free. The first thing she did was check her bank accounts. Her money was still there to her relief. She'd lost her apartment so she checked herself into a local hotel to decide what she wanted to do. She wanted a fresh start where no one knew what had happened or that she was a criminal. Somewhere she'd never been before. After looking up different states, she opted to head out to California and try to start her life over. Northern California seemed to be a good place to go and after looking up different towns, she settled on restarting in Charming. She had to get her truck from an impound lot. With nothing left, she headed to a local thrift store to try and get some new clothes and suitcases. She'd stop at the local Wal-Mart to get toiletries. She'd lost everything when she went to prison so there wasn't much to take with her to California. Having some clothes, toiletries, a full tank of gas, and a new smart phone, she set the GPS to the Charming Inn. The drive would take roughly two days but she was in no real hurry. She enjoyed the drive, the scenery, and being alone after being couped up in prison the last ten years of her life. She stopped when she needed gas, she never let the tank go below half, or when she wanted to get a bite to eat. Around dusk, she found a hotel and pulled off the highway. The drive so far had been pleasant as she listened to the radio.