Chapter 1: Sold

ANGELA

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

"Oh, Angela! Do you think 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're making a mistake. Richard and I are not dating. He was only asking me about you. Please, don't do this," I cried, tied up in the back seat of her car.

How did I end up here?

That Saturday night, Isabella had invited me to her boyfriend Richard Henshaw's birthday party at the clubhouse.

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

She was twenty-one, a party enthusiastic, and we looked alike in looks and stature, but she was three years older than me.

I saw the angry look on Isabella's face, and I wasn't happy about it. She loved Richard Henshaw, who came from a powerful mafia family. But she failed to understand that I would never betray her.

Isabella and I were from the same parents, but she was my older sister. I never imagined that she would read meaning into Richard's stares.

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

I declined Richard's offer of a drink. He was twenty-four years old and 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 his party.

I was a decent girl, and my parents hardly allowed me out of the house except to go to school. My elder sister and I were close, but I never imagined she would want to sell me off, or that she would grow so annoyed thinking I wanted to snatch Richard Henshaw. 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 of becoming a surgeon. My dreams and focus were on my books; now my sister had interfered.

After I drank the drink Isabella gave me, even when my intuition told me not to, I trusted her. I loved her. We talked and chatted as she updated me on her campus life.

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

After I drank that red drink, the alcoholic taste burned my throat, but to make my sister happy, I finished it.

Later I passed out, and when I awoke, I found myself inside Isabella's car. My wrists and ankles were tied, and only God knew where she was taking me, too.

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, but she did not reply.

Soon her car tyres 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 that clung to her skin like a second skin.

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

Who is Morgan? Who is my sister calling?

"I will be there. I hope the present is as lovely as you say," the deep voice on the call asked my sister.

Isabella glanced back at me lying on the rear seat and 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, her fingers tapping 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 on the line replied, "I will be there. Hold on, Bella."

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

"Why are you doing this? You were the one who took me to Richard's 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 refused. Yet when you mentioned it, they readily agreed to everything. You stole everything from me, despite me 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 exam 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 lipstick and painted her lips bloody red.

"You don't have to wear makeup to look beautiful. You have everything—big breasts, a sexy shape, and a pretty oval face. I cannot allow you to keep outshining 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 isn't an old man who purchases you. Hahaha!" Isabella laughed, and I knew begging her was a waste.

The sound of footsteps approaching the car caught my attention, and I looked out through the window and at the three men in black clothings, who came forward to Isabella's car to pull me out.

"Welcome, Morgan. Here's 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 in 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 a white light flashed on me. I was sitting in front of a crowd.

My hands were tied, my lips were taped shut, my legs bounded against the chair, and I was set up like merchandise ready to be sold.

"Attention everyone!! This young woman is up for grabs tonight—a virgin with a fair skin. Her bidding price starts at one million dollars!" the auctioneer announced, and I felt shocked.

I struggled to break free. I couldn't see the crowd, as darkness bathed them all, but the stage was lit with bright lights.

How could Isabella do this to me?

"Five million dollars!" Several men bid.

"Ten million dollars!" A few others bids, and the hall fell into a hushed silence.

"Twenty million dollars!" An older voice cut through the tension.

"Twenty million dollars, going?" the auctioneer asked.

"Fifty million dollars!" A deep voice reverberated through the hall, raising his paddle, and the hall fell into a dead silence.

How could anyone bid fifty million dollars for me? I was shivering on the stage. Dread cascading down my spine.

"Fifty million, going? Fifty million, anyone else?" the auctioneer asked, but no one was ready to raise the bid higher.

"Sold!" the auctioneer announced, slamming the gavel, and I fainted at the realization that I had been sold off against my will.

I vowed to get my revenge on Isabella after I got out of that place.