~ Chapter 1 ~

London was a far cry from a picturesque city. It's streets were shadowed by the weight of corruption, with crooked police, ruthless politicians, and hardened gangsters running the show. For those who called this murky place home, life was a grim affair, marked by desperation and survival. There was little beauty to be found in the dim, smoke-choked air of those days, yet Florence Warden had no choice but to trudge through the treacherous paths of a city that seemed to swallow hope whole.