Chapter 1 - Sold Off

(Angela Moraga)

“Stop the damn car!” I yelled as my elder sister, Isabella Moraga, drove down the wrong path.

“Oh Angela! Do you think that I will allow Richard to date you over me? You are leaving this city and never coming back after I sell you off,” Isabella yelled furiously.

“Isabella, you are misunderstanding everything. Richard and I are not dating. He was only asking me about you, please. Don’t do this,” I cried, as I was tied in the back seat of her car.

How did I end up here?

That Saturday night, Isabella invited me to her boyfriend Richard Henshaw’s birthday party at the Dark Realm Club.

When we arrived, Richard kept looking at me instead of Isabella.

She was twenty-one, a party freak, and we were alike in looks and stature, but she was my elder sister.

I saw the angry looks on Isabella’s face, and I wasn’t happy about it. She loved Richard Henshaw, who was from a powerful mafia family. But she failed to understand that I could not betray her.

Isabella and I were both from the same parents, but she was my elder sister. I never thought that she would read meaning into Richard’s looks.

Even when Richard skipped Isabella and came to meet me for a toast, I knew that she was going to react.

I declined Richard’s offer for a drink with me. He was twenty-four years old and was feared by many.

I wouldn’t have attended his birthday party if not for my sister’s insistence.

She brought me to the club and took me to Richard’s party.

I was a decent girl, and my parents hardly allowed me out of our house except to go to school. My elder sister and I were close, but I wouldn’t have thought that she would want to sell me off or get so annoyed as to think that I wanted to snatch Richard. How could I do that?

After Isabella offered to take me home, she gave me a drink, and that was the last thing I remembered.

I am an eighteen-year-old girl, and I had big dreams to become a surgeon. My dreams and focus were on reading my books; now my sister had interfered.

After I drank the red wine Isabella gave me, even when my intuition told me not to, I trusted my sister. I love her. We discussed and chatted as she updated me on her college life.

Isabella was already in second year, and I was a freshman.

However, after I drank that red wine, the alcoholic taste burned my throat, but to make my sister happy, I finished it.

Later, I passed out, and when I awoke, I saw myself in a moving car—inside Isabella’s black car. She had tied my wrists and ankles, and only God knows where she was taking me.

Isabella had driven past the city where our parents lives. Mom and Dad were going to be worried about me.

“Please, Isabella, don’t do this. Please…” I cried in the back seat of her car, and she didn’t reply to me.

Soon, her car tires screeched to a halt, and my heart palpitations calmed.

“Isabella,” I tried calling her name as she sat in the driver’s seat, dressed impeccably in a lovely red dress.

“Hello, Morgan. I have a special present for you,” Isabella spoke in her soft tone, and my heartbeat increased.

Who is Morgan? Who is my elder sister calling?

“I will be there. I hope the present is as lovely as you say?” the man behind the call asked my sister.

Isabella glanced back at me lying on the back chair, and she grinned.

“You will see for yourself. Hurry up. I heard the auction is tonight, and I don’t want to miss out on selling her off before my parents find out,” Isabella said, clicking on her steering wheel, and I yelled, “I am not for sale! Isabella, don’t do this! Please, let me go! I am your sister, why?”

The call went silent, and the man behind the call replied, “I will be there. Hold up.”

The call ended, and Isabella still didn’t look back at me.

“Why are you doing this? You were the one who took me to Richard’s birthday party. Why do you want to sell me off? What crime did I commit?” I asked my sister, and she scoffed.

“You have always earned Mom and Dad’s love more than me. The same with Top Hills University. I wanted to go there, but Mom and Dad declined. But when you mentioned it, they readily agreed to everything. You steal everything from me, despite being the older sister. The men admire you. So, why should I not sell you off? You are going to become a sex slave to a mafia boss. That’s what pretty bìtches like you are born to become—a whòre!”

I looked at Isabella in stunned silence.

“Isabella, what are you talking about? You didn’t pass the admission result into Top Hills University, and that’s why you weren’t accepted. This has nothing to do with Mom and Dad. Please, let me go. I don’t want to become a prostitute. Please…” I cried, but she didn’t bother to look at me.

She fished out her red lipstick and painted her lips bloody red.

“You do not have to make up to look good. You have everything: big breasts, a sexy shape, and a pretty oval face. I cannot allow you to continue to outshine me. So just relax. We have an auction tonight at 8 p.m. Let’s see who is going to buy you. Just pray it’s not going to be an old man who will purchase you. Hahaha!” Isabella laughed, and I knew that begging her was a waste.

The sound of footsteps approaching the car caught my attention, and I looked at the three men in black clothing who came forward to Isabella’s car to fish me out.

“Welcome, Morgan. Here is my younger sister, but she is causing so much inconvenience for me,” Isabella said, once she got out of the car.

The man named Morgan ordered the men: “Inject her to calm her down.”

“No, don’t do this! Someone help!” I screamed, but it all fell on deaf ears.

As I struggled inside the back seat of Isabella’s car, a man reached for the door and unlocked it; he injected me with a substance that made me pass out.

When I awoke, I heard the loud sound of people cheering and then the white light that flashed on me. I was sitting in front of a crowd. My hands were tied, my lips were taped, my legs were tied up, and I was set up like goods ready to be sold.

“Attention everyone! This young woman is up for grabs tonight. A virgin with fair skin. Her price starts from 1 million dollars!” the auctioneer announced, and I was stunned.

I tried to break free. I couldn’t see the crowd, as darkness covered them all, but the stage was lit with bright lights.

How could Isabella do this to me?

“5 million dollars!” several men bid.

“10 million dollars!” three other men bid.

“20 million dollars!” another man bid, his voice older and colder, and the hall fell into a tense silence.

“20 million dollars going?” the auctioneer asked.

“50 million dollars!” another man's voice bid, raising his paddle, and the hall fell into dead silence.

How could anyone bid 50 million dollars for me? I was shivering on the stage.

“50 million going? 50 million, anyone else?” the auctioneer asked, but no one was ready to raise the bar higher.

“Sold!” the auctioneer slammed the gavel, and I fainted at the realization that I was sold off to someone against my will.

I swore to get my revenge on Isabella if I ever got out of this place.