Chapter 1 - New Beginnings

**32 Hours Later**

My plane finally landed in Bridgeport after what seemed like forever, I didn't need to claim any bags since I didn't have many clothes to take with me, so I walked outside and got a cab.

"Bridgeport Real Estate Agency please," i said to the cab driver.

"Yes ma'am."

  After just a little while we arrived at the real estate agency and I asked the cabby to wait for me. I met with Miss Veronica, signed all of the papers, paid for the property, and took all of my copies and the paper with the address on it and got back in the cab. I asked the cab driver to take me to City Hall and wait while I was inside. I filled out the paper to change my last name from De Luca to Abruzzi (this was to hopefully keep the I.S.S. from finding me) then I got back in the cab and was on my way to my new home. Even though I only had $934 with me, I knew I could make it here after a lot of work. As we drove through the city and onto the bridge that goes over the river I admired my new surroundings and thought about how I wanted to live my new life.

  I felt the cab come to a stop and I became nervous yet excited at the same time. I turned and looked out the window and immediately thought I was going to have a heart attack.

"This is not my house," I said.

"Ma'am, this is the address listed on the paper you gave me," he said, "16 dean Road."

"No, my property is suppose to be up in the hills," I stated a little aggravated, "Not next to this busy and noisy interstate!"

"I am really sorry ma'am, but you will have to call the real estate company."

Feeling completely let down, I paid the cabby, got my bag and got out of the cab and stared at the house in front of me.

  It was the ugliest house I have ever seen. It was a green and brown log cabin 1 story house. There was only a parking block for a car and along with a minimum backyard, the yard was missing patches of grass and had not been mowed in a long time. There weren't even flowers or bushes, just two old trees. Looking around I noticed only two god things about this property. It had an ok view of Bridgeport and it wasn't to far from the homes of some of the celebrities. But as great as that was I still had to go into my "new home." As I put the rusty key into the lock I could hear the rusty lock coming undone and I immediatly got the feeling of abandonment. When the door swung open all I could smell was the mold, mildew, and standing water. The cabinets were yellow in color, the rugs were worn and falling apart, the t.v. looked like it was from the 1920's, and the only sitting area outside was a picnic table.

I walked into the semi living room, sat on the dusty old couch, and looked through my paper work for the number I needed.

"Bridgeport Real Estate Agency, this is Miss Veronica."

"Hello Miss Veronica, this is Isabella Abruzzi," I said, "I came in and purchased a piece of property from you this morning."

"Yes, hello Miss Abruzzi, how may I help you?"

"We have a little problem. The property I am at right now, at 16 Dean Road, is not the property I purchased. I was suppose to have that property up on the hill that is for sale."

"I'm sorry ma'am but you did purchase the home on Dean Road. The property at 7224 Cherrywood Drive is $3,000 more than what you had to spend."

"What do i need to do to reverse this, to get the property I wanted?"

"Let me place you on hold for just a moment so I can ask my boss," Miss Veronica said.

"Ok."

After about 5 minutes she came back on the line.

"Miss Abruzzi, my boss said that he has a way to get you your property you wanted," She said "If you can fix up the property at 16 Dean Road then he will pay you $50,000 so you can put it towards the other property and to begin building your new home."

"That sounds fantastic, what do I need to do?"

"Well, we are only going to put $50,000 towards the renovations towards the home but if you need more than that then it will have to come out of your own pocket. My boss would also like to have the renovations done within a week."

"That is fine, thank you very much. I will be there within the hour."

  I hung up the phone and breathed a sigh of relief. Within just a few hours things went from disastrous to much better. I called a cab and went to the agency, collected and the paper with the number for the painters and more, and then went back to the house that was now my new project. After calling every company on the piece of paper, I sat down to eat some cereal, work on my blueprints and drawings, and waited for everyone to get here. After washing the dishes there was a knock on the door. I looked out the window to make sure who was there and then opened the door for the workers. I instructed everyone what I needed done and that we had one week to complete it. With my blueprints and drawings on the table everyone got to work. Although this property was only 20x30 there was quite a bit we could do. When i was drawing up my blueprints I kept in mind that they called this property cabin Point and I wanted to keep the cabin feel to it without it looking run down.

  After 4 days of constant work, 3 changes to my blueprints, and lots of curious neighbors, we finally completed all of the renovations to Cabin Point. After we cleaned up I contacted Miss Veronica to let her know everything was done and 30 minutes later she showed up.

"This house looks amazing Isabella!"

"Thank you, it was a lot of work."

"It doesn't even look like the same property."

"That's what I wanted," I laughed "So, now what do we do?"

"Well, my boss told me that if the house turned out great he wanted to see if you could end up selling it," she said "Whatever is made from the sale will fo to you to help you build your own home."

"That sounds good," I said skeptically "But what is the catch?"

"No catch," she stated a little surprised "We just want to make a good impression to our newest citizen. We may even have a job in our architect division for you."

"I appreciate the job offer," I said "but I would like my career to be something a bit different. I can defiantly sell this house for you guys though."

  Miss Veronica thanked me and told me that if I needed anything to let them know. After she left I called a couple that had stopped by a couple days earlier (the Wozny's) and let them know that the house was now for sale for a total of $48,102. They loved the price and we agreed to meet at the Bridgeport Real Estate Agency around 7 the next morning.

The next morning we met at the agency and signed all of the papers.