Chapter 1

1

Isabel Ivy Hudson

I was sold. I hadn't been surer of anything in my life. 

Tonight I was going to be auctioned with others like me. Every nightmare of my life would come true. 

They would make me work all day and abuse me all night. I gulped. My eyes turned to my cold, sweaty palms that were shivering. I gulped again, this time eyeing myself in the stained mirror—with the substances I wouldn't rather think of—for one last time. Who knew when I would be able to see my face again. And how it would look by then. 

For now, I just focused on breathing and breathing.

My eyes followed the warm tear which travelled from my cheek to the valley of my breast. A crooked smile accompanied the journey as I wiped it away. I glanced at my see-through white net gown. My skin was barely cloaked. The smile grew wider. Again. This was the last time a multitude of men would be seeing me almost bare. After tonight, I would belong to a single monster who would introduce me to new ways of torture. 

One humiliation would be over tonight to begin endless. 

"Isabel!" The culprit of my misery called me out. I uncurled my fingers around the hairbrush, putting it back in the rusty drawer. The layers of sweat were imprinted on it. I didn't care. I only cared about walking downstairs without wasting a second, or else, a swollen cheek would be the cause of rejection later. 

I strode down. There was Cora strolling, her nostrils fuming as if she would slit my throat. But we both knew she couldn't. I was her precious bounty as promised to Mr. Goldberg. 

"How many times do I have to tell you to be punctual. Why don't you get me?!" She trudged toward me, her eyes red-rimmed with vexation.

"I was cleaning dirty toilets before getting ready, I'm sorry Mrs. Cullen," My eyes and head stayed lowered, but I made sure to stay unbothered. Enduring her temper wasn't my first time. I had seen it all my life. Her frustrated sigh fanned over my dried brown hair. She turned back on her toes. 

"Such a dumbhead. Jonathan will mash the nerve in his own glorious ways, just fucking wait, you bitch," She slurred. Just fucking wait. That's all I had been doing. Waiting. Waiting for this turmoil to leave me alone. But guess, tonight it was only going to be multiplied. 

"Isabel, what is wrong with you? Why don't you obey her for once?" I heard my good friend Kelly scolding me. Well, not good anymore. She framed our mutual friend Aurora for escaping the orphanage. Which cost her losing virginity at the mere age of sixteen. She was five days older than me. Pity was all I could name for my heartsickness for Aury. 

I turned to stare at her with all the apathy I could pour into my eyes, "I think you never heard me yelling, I'm not her pet," I averted away my eyes. Pain ripped the fragile walls of my heart but I had to pretend I had grown frigid. That's the thing that could save me from insanity around me.

She scoffed, rolling her eyes off me. "As if anybody cares here," She reminded me. 

That. 

That's where we lacked. Girls my age failed to see that there's life out there. A life where we can live the way we want. Freedom, willpower, love, laughter and most of all peace. At least, I had seen the light at the end of the tunnel despite no one ever teaching me how to have a vision. I had always been hoping to see the light of the day without Cora, Peter, Marie and every single monster in my life. 

But right now, Kelly sounded more appropriate than my beliefs. Nobody cared. Not even the Almighty at some point. 

I nodded heedlessly, "Yeah. You're right. Nobody cares," I patted her shoulder, tossing my head to my right. Kelly had red lipstick bled under her lip lines. Which cleared me she just shared a moment with Kason - A bodyguard for nothing. I cleaned her smudged outlines before anyone could take notice of it and mistake her for a strumpet. 

She chuckled, running her thumb over the cleaned area. "Just a kiss," She tittered with a wink. 

She had been in the least of my thoughts and I didn't want to prolong the night. I wanted everything to happen as quickly as time could fly like a bullet train. "Let's don't waste our time any more and end this night sooner," I shared a fazed smile and walked out with her, steps-to-steps, to the backstage.

Kelly was taken away from me by Cora's assistant and I was left to sit backstage on a stool, as I was already bid on the highest amount. 10.4 million dollars. I knew I was promised to a certain man, but thinking about Kelly and twenty other girls. The thought itself was wild. Men would be touching every inch of them before bidding on them. They would feel their breasts, curves, shoulders, backs, private parts, each and every inch. 

This sickened me to my core. I felt pity for every victim being born to a family who didn't want to keep them and proudly discarded us in a shithole, where whores were produced. 

It was a disgrace to my existence that tonight I could be abused in unimaginable ways. I wanted to hide. I wanted to scream. And anything above this, I wanted to run. As far and as away as I could. 

I felt a cold hand clutching my hand. Looking that way I found Lily whose eyes were the most beautiful shade of blue. But for now, it was distorted with waters in them. "Lily," I called her out with a shaken spirit. She looked terrible. Her bluish eyes were puffed out, she looked like a walking skeleton—well, not more than me—I put my other hand on her hand. To which, she noticed and seconds after, burst into sobs, crashing on my chest. 

"I can't do this, Bel. I can't...I," She hiccuped and cried audibly loud, I brushed my fingers in her hair, "This p—place, t—take m—me f—from h—here," Her stutters made no sense at all. I still decided to offer my sympathies. 

"I know it's not easy for any of us. I know how you feel, just let it happen, accepting as it is will lessen the pain," I suggested. Indeed it was a cruel suggestion, but we had no choice but to admit our fates. 

In a blink, I noticed her body stiffening. She fell into a trance of her wayward thoughts as if she lost it. I, on the other hand, began to rub her back and calm her down. My anxiety deepened till the suffocation until she gave in to breathe and move. That's when I found my breathing in check. 

"I'm here with you. Do not think you are alone, I am in this, with you, beside you. You get me?" I enclosed my arms around her and put a peck on her tied hair. She pulled away with tears spilling down like rainfall. I wiped many of them but they weren't leaving her cheeks. 

I wished I could lie to her about saving her, but that false promise would be barbarous. She would never be able to trust again, like me. 

"This is so hard, Isabel. Why do we have to go through with this," She questioned her innocence in one sentence. I couldn't do much more than offer her a defeated smile. I wished I could have an answer to this. I had been asking the same question my entire life. God, do you hear me? Now I ask you again, why? 

"I don't know, Lily. It's just..." I gazed towards the thin beige curtains that passed blinding lights of the stage our way. "...it's our destiny. That's how things were written for us in God's courtroom," I gazed back at her, hoping I made sense to her flurried heart. 

"That's not fair even if it's God who did this to us. He's been cruel to us, how can He? He is the one who made us? I heard in my childhood He never tests us beyond our bearings, then why?" She complained. Her complaints resonated in my head, in my voice. Years back when I used to stand before the bathroom's mirror and have a debate over rights and wrongs, I used to sound like her. But now, things have changed. Nothing felt wrong. Every calamity in my life seemed as if I was worthy of it. 

Crime of being a bastard was enough to prove me guilty. 

"Soon, Lily, everything will make sense. Like Cora said to me, just wait," I sighed. Lily stepped back from me when she heard her name being called. "Go, it's your turn," I muttered. She just nodded, wiping her tears while walking out of my sight. 

I just kept sighing off these burdensome sentiments in my chest. Everything felt nonsensical right now but logical the next moment. My thoughts turned off the second Cora's voice through the speakers deafened me. I drove my head backwards. My eyes closed. Heart raced. Thoughts absurd. I just let her voice pollute me more. 

She was opening the show. I could picture her on the stage, with a mask on, blonde hair tied in an immaculate bun, and a dress tight enough to show each inch of her curves. 

She introduced Bailey foremost. I knew it. Because of Bailey's short height, people wouldn't bid on her for more than a million. A few voices bid on her and the highest was five hundred thousand dollars. Wouldn't be a bad start in the name of this whorehouse. 

Next, she had Anna on the coming right up list. My heart clenched for the poor soul. She was younger than me. I cared for her like a sister, and today I could do nothing. My heart was bleeding. A few monotonous voices bid on her. Obviously, there weren't many. To them being dark skinned was a crime. Such lowlifes deserved to live without skins. Anna was auctioned for nine hundred-thousand. 

I raised from the seat and stepped near the thin curtain. I could hear Anna weeping. I wished I could hug her for the last time. Every vein in my body pushed me to pull her back but I knew it wouldn't end well for me. I couldn't risk my safety.

Sitting back on the stool. I kept hearing the names, the list was everlasting. One after another. Tears were on the edge when I heard Lily's name being announced, "Isabel," The filth in his voice inwardly jerked me. He made me hate my own name. I pretended deaf until his hands caressed my back. Every hair of mine is erected. My breath accelerated. Oh no. He wouldn't harass me again. 

"Are you not listening to me again, little girl," His stinky mouth leapt closer to my ear. 

"No, I can hear you," I maintained my cold tone with shuddering heart beats. 

His hands scooped around my on-displayed breasts and he tugged my back to his front. I gulped. His close proximity suffocated me but I wasn't allowed to scream. I had to bottle it like always. His nose poked the tip of my earlobe, "You have been very disobedient to me. I pray Mr. Goldberg punishes you to death tonight," He chuckled genially. He prayed for my death. Maybe I deserved this. Maybe I did not. The blood running in my veins told me that I deserved it, but the sheer light of purity in my heart blatantly defied all the allegations. While in the middle, I had no idea which notion to follow. 

He placed a peck on the back of my ear, unhooking his arm with one last word, "Amen," and walked away. A tear stormed down my cheek, I was clutching the hem of my dress. No matter what, I did not deserve to live this life. I had this faith that once in a lifetime, when I would meet my parents—the culprit of my never-ending sufferings—that day I would ask them to list all of the imperfections in me that made me a disgrace. Then I would know why I deserved to be treated like a stray widow. 

I crossed my arms around my on-display chest. My body was in a constant state of chills. I couldn't fathom where the strong gusts of wind were coming from, not until I saw a door. 

Not just a door, but an unlocked, shamelessly opened door.