Woman on Fire

Content Warning: This section of the guide references sexual abuse and sex trafficking, as well as suicidal ideation and alcohol and heroin addiction.

Jules Roth is attending an important art gallery exhibition hosted by Margaux de Laurent. Margaux moves to the podium to unveil a piece of artwork. When she does, the revelation is shocking. Immediately following the unveiling, Jules is escorted outside. A hood is placed over her head, and she wonders if the painting is worth her life and those of her loved ones.

Chapter 1 begins 18 months prior to the events in the Prologue. Jules arrives at the offices of the Chicago Chronicle and walks in as if she has an appointment. She wants a job, and she goes directly the office of Dan Mansfield, a well-known investigative journalist whom Jules idolizes. She notes his scarred hands and the patch he wears over one eye, the results of an explosion at a meth lab facility he was investigating years earlier. She begins selling herself, but her resume does not impress him, so she reveals that she is Anonymous Girl, the teen who helped uncover a sex-trafficking ring at her high school.