“So I was told. You’re not the first one to have that, either. But unfortunately, it will not protect you.”
I clap a hand over my mouth as bile rises to my throat. The idea of being paraded in front of a group of men, to be auctioned off like cattle… It leaves me with a visceral reaction. My own body rejecting it, like I can simply puke the whole concept away.
“I-I can’t go back to him,” I say softly when the nausea eases its claws off me.
Adrian must know that. He has to know that I will not ever give him that satisfaction. That I would rather take a lifetime of humiliation and suffering over being with him again.
She nods. “Then I hope your next owner will be kinder.”
Owner. Just like that, the nausea comes ripping back to life.
“Come, my child,” she says, offering me a hand. Her n
