ONE

Bella.

 “Next we have Isabella,” the auctioneer announced with lecherous smile. “She turned eighteen two weeks ago. Height: 5’7 with a sweet weight of just 58kg. Her boobs are 32 inches, her waist is 22 inches, and her hips are a generous 39 inches.” He rambled off without glancing at the paper containing my details. 

“Hair colour is blonde, natural. Blue eyes and all that. The rest of her less interesting details are included in the file before you. And if you’re yet to catch up, she is madame Charlotte's diamond of the season. A look at her and you can already tell what she was trained for.” He smirked, causing the crowd to chuckle.

“Turn around dear, let them get a good look at you. Bidding starts at $1,000,000.” He announced, casting a lustful gaze at me.

“Least I forget, she’s purely a virgin.” He added like it the cherry on top, leaving murmurs of excitement and satisfaction in his wake.

I felt disgust crawl all over me, almost pulling my lunch to the surface, a surface I desperately wished were his face. 

I knew this day would come, madame Charlotte had a calendar hanging on every girls room to make sure she does not forget the age or when to market them.

What I didn’t know would happen was the fear I was feeling. I spent a lot of time preparing for this, I didn’t expect to feel so powerless.

I was on a lit stage, wearing a body hugging black dress and the tallest stilettos known to man, being paraded for over a hundred people. 

There was no difference between I and an animal in the zoo, trapped in a cage with people watching and making comments for their entertainment.

“$1,000,000 going…..” the auctioneers sickening voice interrupted my thoughts.

How did I end up here again? Ah, yes. Kidnapped, I was kidnapped. You see I was a sweet little girl—

$2,500,000 going…”

The fuck!?

My thoughts came to a screeching halt, it took everything in me not to show any form of shock or emotions at all, it was part of my training.

While I might have been locked in here for a decade, I was certain that was a huge amount of money and getting a bid that much too soon….. I glanced to my right to see madamme Charlotte wearing a smug smile as the bidding continued, she always talked about how I would bring her a fortune. 

“Bella is going for $5,000,000. Going…” he drawled out, eyes searching the crowd for a higher bid. I became interested at this point, how much was I worth to these perverts?

“$6,000,000! We have a six over there!” He was almost screaming like a child on Christmas morning, like he couldn’t believe how much gift he was getting. 

More hands rose to the air and I felt my heart rate quicken, this game was slowly shifting points. It went from being about me to being about  them. 

Who had enough money to purchase the prized item on sale, and as I watched more cards raised, I was convinced it was a game of egos and that scared me more.

I wasn’t one to scare easily, I had all of my childlike fears and cowardly acts drained from very early but if there’s one thing I’ve come to understand, it was that people, especially the likes of them did not invest so much into something without seeing a return.

Whoever I’m sold to would spend the first year getting his moneys worths from me. 

“Bella going for $8,000,000….. going….going..”

“$20,000,000.” A cold voice from the crowd said, completely silencing the crowd and sending chills down my spine. 

It was as though someone poured a bucket of ice on the guests and ordered them to sit still and quiet. I couldn’t see who he was but his voice carried an air of darkness and chill that had my heart racing.

Madamme Charlotte’s gasp was very audible and if her eyes got any wider, they’d have dollar signs poking through them. 

No one placed a bet after him.

“Bella sold for $20,000,000.” The auctioneer announced, his voice heavy with disbelief like he couldn’t believe what had just happened.

I was sold for twenty million dollars. Twenty. Million. Dollars. I repeated to myself, letting the reality of what had happened sink into me.

The highest sale madamme Charlotte ever made was $6,500,000. She displays her sales on a notice board on our dormitory gate. 

This was new, this was huge and I didn’t know what this meant for me. I knew I was going to make her some money, I just didn’t know it would be this much and now my brain is on frenzy, trying to figure out what this meant for us.

I was so distracted by my thoughts I didn’t notice being led off the stage and taken to the back door to be prepared for my new owner. 

Owner. It felt odd and degrading but that was what my life had been reduced to.

In that little moment I found myself missing the academy. Here I was a student in the making, I was trained, fed and taught. Nothing was expected of me, past putting up an appearance. I had grown to accept the life but this one….

Here I was to be a slave or whatever my owner wants. I wasn’t going to sit still and be groomed, I was going to be used. My arms rubbed each other in an attempt calm the goose pimples scattered all over them. 

“Don’t rub your arms Isabella.” Madamme Charlotte reprimanded in her unusually calm and serene voice. “It makes you look small and less confident and God knows I don’t bring forth timid girls.

My arms fell to my sides, my spine straightened and I raised my eyes to meet hers. I loved to look her in the eye, it was something she deeply abhorred and I picked on it.

She let out an audible tsk “If only you knew who you’re being sold to, you’d lower your gaze and beg for me to keep you here.”

“You’re offering to let me stay in exchange for all that money? Careful Madame C, we won’t want word getting out that you take girls for yourself.”

Madame Charlotte was high profile, but I’ve paid enough attention to know she was working under someone. She was in this business because someone made it easy.

“That mouth of yours, it’ll be your undoing.” She replied with a look of pity. “She is ready, take her to him.”