Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 56208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 281(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 281(@200wpm)___ 225(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
I didn’t stop until it was filled, and then I poured a healthy dose of maple syrup all over my food. And I dug in with my fingers.
The woman, Pia, watched me calmly, without saying a word. Her eyebrows shot up when I wiped my fingers on the beautiful floral dress, but she still didn’t say a word. Then, she started speaking as if everything was perfectly normal, and this fucked-up ritual happened every day. For all I knew, it did, and I just wasn’t privy to that kind of information yet.
“The first thing you must understand,” she said in her husky, melodic voice. “Is that you are no longer the person you used to be. You left that woman outside. Harlow Granger?”
My eyes shot up at the mention of my name. It had been a while since I’d heard it.
“Forget her,” Pia said softly. “She’s dead, she’s gone. And the sooner you realize that the better off you will be.”
So she was in on this. Part of the fucking game, just like the man who had taken me.
I pushed my plate away, having suddenly lost my appetite. A desire to smash my plate over her head took over, but she was so ridiculously pretty I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I couldn’t be responsible for destroying her masterfully put-together face.
“The second thing,” she said, averting her eyes to pat her perfect lips with the napkin, and then folding it again over her plate. “Is that you better do as they tell you, or you will be punished.”
I looked into her eyes, desperately searching for a sign of the girl I still was inside her. But it was all gone. Erased by their fucking brainwashing, by the stories they fed her. She truly bought this shit, and I hated them for turning a beautiful woman like her against a victim like me.
“I pity you,” I told her, the first words I said since she’d walked into the room. “I pity you because you will never know what it means to be free.”
“Neither will you,” she told me with a pleasant smile. “Not ever again. Now, let’s begin.”
5
Harlow
The name you used outside of this house is no longer,” Pia told me with a simple smile, as if what she was saying wasn’t heartbreakingly painful. “You will receive a new name when you are sold to your new owner. Until then, you will be nameless. You are not deserving of a name until you’ve been properly trained.”
“Sold? What the hell are you on about?”
“Exactly what I say. You will be trained and then sold.”
“Do you hear yourself speaking?” I asked, raising my eyebrows. “Seriously, do you even hear yourself? This is ridiculous. I’m not and never will be anyone’s property.”
She gave me a beatific smile as if nothing in the world was wrong at all.
“Like I said, the sooner you accept what’s happened, the better off you will be,” she explained simply. “Girls who do not comply with the rules don’t have the best time at the Mansion.”
“What do you mean?” I eyed her suspiciously, my expression wary.
“Well, you noticed the maid earlier…” A sweet smile lit up her face. She was so ridiculously beautiful it was throwing me off, and I wanted to hate her for it. For thriving in this sick environment when I already felt every bone in my body fighting what they were trying to make me do. “She can’t speak.”
“Is she not allowed to?” I asked, my expression doubtful. Was that the worst she could offer in terms of punishment? Being told to shut up wouldn’t stop me. I would spend the rest of my time there fighting for a way out. “I don’t see how that made her break.”
“She cannot speak,” Pia said, her eyes now sharply turning to mine. “Her tongue has been cut out and her vocal chords severed. She was a prospect here until one of the men went too rough on her. Once she’d been scarred, she couldn’t find a buyer. It was too late to let her go, so she joined the rest of the maids. None of them have tongues. But… I guess it’s a fate better than death, right?”
She laughed melodically. She spoke of this as if it was the most natural thing in the world. As if it was perfectly normal to maim women and make them serve their sick needs. I want to throw up on the spot. She was just as disgusting as the man who had taken me, and I hated her even more than I did him. I promised myself she’d be one of the first people I’d turn in once I got out of that hellhole.
“And you think that’s normal?” I snarled at her. “You’re willing to go along with this madness… and for what?”