L'amante dei serpenti

Chapter 1

Sofia

Thank god it's not too hot out.

I thought to myself as I walked down the street with my friends. It was my second day here and I was happy my father at least allowed my friends to come help get me settled in. I was still pretty upset with my father for making me come to this country and leave behind everything I worked so hard for. I was my father's only child or so he would like to say, I knew he had a couple of bastards running around but he was smart enough to keep them a secret and out of my mother's sight. I had finished medical school 3 years ago and was doing house calls to my father's trusted friends and assisted the injured men whenever something would go squirrely on an operation. When I wasn't closing stab wounds or fishing out bullets from the men in my dad's service I was sitting right next to my father learning the business. I was set to inherit my father's business when he was ready to step down and this whole time I was thinking he would give me my own little piece to run. It turned out I would get my own little share to manage but it just happened to be far away from my family. When I was told of this decision I fought my father tooth and nail to stay home and run something from there. He told me it would be a good learning experience for me and would teach me how to not depend on him as he wouldn't always be here for me. I still hated the idea but I eventually agreed because he had a point. I often depended on him too much and would second guess myself, I needed to learn to be on my own two feet. I guess I would finally put all those years of learning Korean to good use.

"Sofia, look at this dress?"

My friend pulled on my arm to go look at a dress that was hanging from a rack right outside of a store. I let her pull me to the rack where she lifted the dress up and put it up to my body to look at.

"You have to get this, it's stunning on you!"

I took the dress from her and looked it over, it wasn't anything flashy and would be nice for a warm day spent at the beach. I smiled and nodded to my friend just as a sales lady walked out asking if we needed anything. I asked her how much for the dress and when she told me the price I took my backpack off, setting it on the ground and bending down to fish out my wallet. Just as I had grabbed my wallet and was set to zip the backpack up someone came by and snatched it from my hand. The man took off running and I took chase not wanting him to get away with my identification. My father had yet to inform his Korean partners that he was sending someone to oversee the new partnership. He wanted me to get use to the country and keep a watch on the Kwons to see how they worked.

I was running after the man as fast as I possibly could go and often had to dodge other people coming out of the stores. The man looked back and saw me running and tried to run faster running right towards an intersection. He was looking back at me as he was approaching a street that had a no walk symbol flashing. A honking car and squealing tires caught his attention too late as his body came into contact with the vehicle and sent him tumbling over the hood of the vehicle and into the windshield of the car. His body eventually rolled off the hood of the car and landed on the ground with a loud thump. The driver of the vehicle jumped out and ran to him just as I was running up to the man. A crowd was starting to form around the vehicle and the man and I bent down to check to see if he was breathing, which thankfully he was. I looked up and shouted for someone to call an ambulance before turning my attention back to the man. He was conscious and moving his body which was a good sign.

I grabbed my wallet and turned toward the man, "Sir, please stay still and ambulance is on its way."