Chapter Two

FREYA

Everybody turned to him.

They were a pile of noise makers, but the young man who just walked into the hall startled them with the figures he pledged.

He was tall and handsome, and his hair was short and blonde. Clad in a tuxedo and a black glass, his mafia status was not hidden.

I knew he was one of them, with the way he uttered the price, and the manner with which he had exercised patience.

“Can you repeat what you said?” the fat guy said with his eyes on the young fellow who just stroke the big deal they were not able to hit.

“Shut up and let the rich do their thing.” The young guy said and strutted up to the podium, on which I was standing with my father sitting beside me.

“I’m buying her for two hundred million dollars. I’m not prizing.” 

His eyes were calm, but not as calm as one would think.

There was fire in those calm eyes, and that fire was the sort that would consume me if I get handed to him.

He was brave, and probably richer than everyone in the hall.

Maybe he owns a casino.

That’s the common business for the rich in our world, and he seemed to be into one of such business.

“Close the deal.” He said to my father with a stern look on his handsome face.

My father stood up.

“Does anyone have anything to say?”

I knew he wanted more, but the hall was still silent.

Two hundred million dollars was head swelling for auctions like this, and for the class of people who were present.

“No one has anything to say?” his eyebrows were creased. “Deal closed.”

Father turned to the man who was standing next to me, weighing me with his eyes.

“How do we the get the money, cash or cheque?”

That was what he knew best; money.

The one he would waste in casinos and come home a debtor.

“You’ve always known I deal only on cash.” He snapped his finger, and a man in black suit walk up the podium with a black suitcase.

The bidding was over, but the men who came for the bidding were still gathered in the hall, probably waiting to see what would transpire between the man and my father.

The man who brought the suitcase to the podium opened it, and we saw packs of hundred-dollar bills which lay trapped in the suitcase.

He came prepared, and he had just gotten me without stressing his muscles.

Father took the suitcase from him and signaled my brother to come up the podium.

My brother walked up the podium with a mean face, and took the suitcase from my father. The transaction was a smooth one, because my opinion was not being considered here, rather, my father’s selfish quest was all that seemed to matter at the moment.

“From now on wards, she is yours.”

I wonder if my father knows this man.

There weren’t acting as though they knew each other, and the man seemed to be a man of few words.

He wasn’t doing the talking, and my father was neither making big talks here. He wanted it smooth, and it had just worked out, because I wasn’t mad enough to fight my way out of the hall and flee for my dear life.

“Take her to the van.” The man said, and the man on suit held my hand and dragged me out of the hall.

Yes.

I’m a modern-day slave, and I have been sold off to a modern-day slave merchant, who had bided the most on me.

I was sad that I wasn’t given the chance to say good bye to my mom and the household before I was placed on the podium.

I didn’t know my father had the plan to sell me off on his birthday, and having felt honored to be the only female in his household who was asked to attend the party, I came, only to get myself tossed into his trap.

The man in suit took me to a big car at the parking lot, opened the door and pushed me into it. He was such a harsh fellow, and I hate him.

Gosh!

I had been sold out for heaven’s sake. 

I had been sold to a race of rash mafias who don’t know how to treat a woman right.

Why in the universe would a mere guard have me handled this way?

If the guard was this rash, what then should I expect from the boss who seemed to be less pleased with words, and better with action.

Soon, I was joined in the car by the man who bought me.

“Your name?” he posed without even looking at me.

I drew a deep breath.

I am now his property, and treating me like I’m one is not a big deal here.

“Freya.” I said with a soft tone.

The driver turned on the car engine, and gradually, he glided out of the parking lot and drove into the big road.

“Freya, pretty name.” He inhaled and relaxed his head on the headrest.

“What can you offer in this car, Freya?”

I didn’t know what he meant by his query, but I had to say something, just not to annoy him.

“I can…I can…”

He his eyebrows creased, but before I could ride on with my stammering, it matured into a glare.

I melted to the other end of the car, wishing the door would open and cast me out into the road, so I would flee from the mean looking young man.

“Is this how good she is?” he mumbled and sat up.

His eyes were staring fixedly into mine, just like that of a lion stalking its prey.

But the difference between him and a lion was that a lion had to stalk his prey before hunting it, but he just bought me off without stalking or even hunting me, yet, he seemed ready to devour me like a lion would do to his prey.