You will receive the goods once I receive the cash.
And I expect her to be released once you get what you paid for.
Signed,
Supplier
My eyes rake over the words again and again until my vision blurs. Squeezing my eyes shut, a rare smile graces my lips.
This will be the seventh girl that I have purchased to fulfill my obsession.
Lucky number seven.
The number has great significance to me. It was July 7th, 1997 when my uncle rescued me from the hell formerly known as my childhood.
Perhaps this will finally be the one to end my sick obsession,I think to myself.
I've been trying for years to get over this fascination I have with purity and control. So far I've been unsuccessful in finding a cure….if one even exists.
My fixation with cleanliness, order and control started soon after my uncle found me. It started off small with not wanting to eat off dishes or drink from glasses that someone else had used before me even though they had been thoroughly washed. That somehow manifested to wanting perfection in every possible thing around me…including people.
The thought of being with someone who had slept with other people sickened me. I needed someone pure, someone unblemished.
Unfortunately, it's been hard for me to find such women over the years. And that is precisely what led me to my latest supplier, Giovanni Morello. I pay him large sums of money to find exactly what I desire the most.
Now, putting my fate into the hands of corrupt people is not ideal, to say the least, but I have an uncontrollable need that must be met…no matter the cost.
I buy these girls, most of them stuck in a world they don't want to be in, filled with filth and abuse, not much unlike my own past, and I turn them into the perfect specimen right before I take one of the most valued assets they have to offer ---their virginity.
And even though it makes me feel full of shame that I'm, in a sense, helping the supply and demand aspect of human trafficking, the girls I take are all willing. In a way I feel as though I'm actually their savior, rescuing them from a much more horrible fate than what I could ever produce.
After I'm done sleeping with a girl once, I send her on her way with a large sum of cash and a new identity, if she so chooses. Then she's able to live the rest of her life in luxury.
All they have to do is give me one time with them --- their first time. That's all I want. And then I send them off into the world with more money than they could probably spend in a lifetime. I know they receive a small cut from their handlers, but I would imagine it doesn't amount to much, if they even get paid at all. It definitely wouldn't surprise me to learn that the handlers, who are from the seediest underground in the world, are dishonest to the girls I buy.
Unbeknownst to any of the girls that I've purchased in the past, I check on them periodically. All six girls that have left my home are living the life they always wanted but could have never had before they met me. And I suppose in that way, I feel like their knight in shining armor. They just don't realize it while they're here how much of a savior I am to them. No, that realization comes much later...after they leave this place…after they receive their money.
I like to think that this seventh girl, who meets my specifications to a T, is going to be the girl that ends it all for me. Maybe once I have her, I'll finally be satisfied.
I can only hope that is the case.
Lucky number seven.
My eyes flit over the message even though I have it memorized.
And then I do something I haven't done in any of my transactions in the past. I request a picture of Number Seven from my supplier.
My hands tingle in anticipation as I type out the email, encrypt it and send it off into the dark web.
He's never been able to find me a girl that met my specific stipulations, and I'm anxious to put a face to the description he gave me.
I just hope I'm not disappointed…for her sake.
CHAPTER 4
ADELINE
GIOVANNI TAKES MY hand in his and leads me out of the trendy and romantic Michelin-starred restaurant in downtown New York we just dined in. It was one of the fanciest restaurants I've ever been in, and the food was to die for. I'm feeling a little tipsy from the expensive bottle of wine we shared, and I stumble in my heels in the doorway before Gio catches me in his strong arms with a chuckle.
