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“He told me he had an apartment and I could live with him when I turned eighteen. He said he loved me.”

Sean’s jaw flexes.

“When I wouldn’t sleep with him, he got angry. Then he apologized and asked me to go to a party with him.”

The room is silent.

“There wasn’t a party. He took me to an old warehouse.”

My lungs refuse to fill.

I am back inside that building. I smell oil, sweat, and dirty concrete. I hear men speaking in Spanish. I see Greg taking a thick envelope from a man wearing a red shirt.

“What happened inside?” Sean asks gently.

“I heard one of them say five thousand dollars. Greg told him I was a virgin.”

Arthur pushes away from the table and walks to the window.

Will’s expression doesn’t change, but his hand closes around his fork until his knuckles turn white.

“They bought you,” Taylor says.

“Yes.”

Sean looks as if he wants to kill someone.

I understand that look. I’ve seen it on the men hunting me.

The difference is that Sean’s anger isn’t directed at me.

“What happened next?” he asks.

“They tried to put me in a van.”

I close my eyes.

“Aunt Addy used to tell me that if someone tried to take me, I should grab anything I could and fight. There was a steel pipe on the floor. I hit one of the men in the head.”

“How hard?” Will asks.

“As hard as I could.”

“Good,” Arthur says from the window.

“He fell. Another man said he was dead. I hit that man in the knee, and then I ran.”

“Did you call the police?” Sean asks.

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because I killed someone.”

“You were defending yourself.”

“I didn’t know if they would believe me. Greg knew where I lived. The girl at the foster home helped him. I didn’t know who else was involved.”