<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline">January 17, 1924</span></span><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">New York City, New York</span><br/><br/>The sound of a phone ringing made the woman stir in bed. She was half asleep, and it took her a moment to find the phone.<br/><br/>"Alô", she replied in Portuguese, before remembering where she was and switching to English. "Hello?".<br/><br/>The person on the other side relaxed when they could understand the woman. "Miss Ribeiro?", the man asked, butchering her last name as though he was being paid to do so.<br/><br/>"Yes", the woman replied.<br/><br/>"You asked to be woken up".<br/><br/>"Ah, yes, thank you", the woman replied, sitting up. "Would you please have coffee and a ham and cheese sandwich sent up?".<br/><br/>The man made a note and replied. "Yes, ma'am, right away".<br/><br/>Thanking the man again, the woman finally got out of bed for good, her dark hair pretty messy. Running her fingers through it, the dark skinned woman walked to the window, looking at the city below.<br/><br/>She had been brought there by Charles Vanderbilt, and put in this hotel she would not be able to afford in any way. Even the matter of the color of her skin was ignored by using the man's name. All she knew by now was that she was going to be hired for something, and nothing more. Heck, for what the man was willing to pay her, Paula was willing to do almost anything.<br/><br/>Pushing these thoughts out of her mind, the young woman took a shower and had breakfast, before sitting down to do some reading and writing. She had just finished a pretty interesting expedition, and was still compiling her notes on it. Maybe she would get another one this time around, and have more to write about. Maybe one day she could even write a book, even though she had no way of ever getting it published. Well, it didn't matter.<br/><br/>The young woman spent the entire day in her room, writing, and left only when it was time to make her way to the dinner she had been invited to. Choosing a figure-flattering dress and letting her hair down - she needed to look good and cause a good impression, after all - the woman asked for a taxi and got to the mansion a few minutes before she was told to.<br/><br/>She had to give her name twice and spell it once before being allowed into some sort of entrance hall where someone else already waited. After being told to wait there by a well dressed man, she smoothed her dress with both hands, feeling very inadequate, and then greeted the other person. "Evening", she murmured quietly, a little restless.</div>