Page 55 of Forbidden Fate

I’m alone.

Denisa speaks some French. She’s the bridge between me and the others. She translates my broken sentences into Romanian.

The five of us pieced it together in whispers when the men weren’t close enough to hear.

Different schools. Different neighborhoods. Different lives. Elena has a boyfriend who wants to marry her.

Andreea has strict parents and a scholarship she’s terrified of losing, even while chained in a room.

Denisa has a younger brother she practically raised.

Ioana barely speaks.

And me?

Colette has no one.

But after talking in hushed tones, we find a common ground.

Belly dancing. We all took belly dancing classes with Irina. She told us all to go to the same bar.

Elena says her boyfriend will pay. Ioana’s mother is selling jewelry to get the ransom. Denisa’s father is trying. Andreea can’t get hold of anyone.

Me? I have no one.

“You lie,” one of the captors says to me. “You lie, you fucking cunt.” He says the last two words in heavily accented English.

“I’m not lying. I have no one.” The words become my mantra.

Until I realize…

A useless girl is a burden. A mouth to feed. A body taking up space. A mistake.

They could easily dispose of me.

So I try a new tactic.

Ştefan.

He’s not the leader. But he brings food sometimes. Water. Cigarettes for Denisa. And he stares at me. Lets his fingers linger a little too long when he hands me bread.

Ştefan has pale eyes and a decent smile. He looks at me a lot. Mostly at my hair—it’s longer and thicker than the other girls’—and my legs. He likes how long they are.

But mostly he stares at my mouth.

So I stop looking away when I catch his gaze on me.

Ştefan may be my ticket out of this hellhole. A ticket I can’t waste, because sooner or later, the others will realize I have no value.

And they’ll get rid of me.

A few days later, Ştefan comes into the room alone with a bag of bread and a bottle of water. He tosses the bread toward the others but keeps the water.

“Colette,” he says, crouching in front of me.

I lift my head.

“You understand me?” he says in English.