Page 1 of The Forbidden Secret

Chapter One

Evelina Bianchi

I had not seen the outside world beyond my cell for what felt like weeks.

Weeks.

I had spent my time counting the cinder blocks in my cell.

Two hundred and twenty-three. It would be less if I had counted only the whole blocks.

I noted everything about the guard rotations, but without a window or any way to tell the time of day, keeping any notable pattern became increasingly difficult. Even the meals were inconsistent. Someone would regularly bring breakfast and dinner. Sometimes, a guard would offer a snack for lunch, and occasionally, I would be given a to-go container from some fast-food restaurant.

Occasionally.

Usually, they gave me peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and carrot sticks—a meal that I used to love that quickly grew despicable.

A woman in boxer shorts and a thin tank top sat on a bed across from me now. She constantly hugged her knees to her chest and cried. I wondered about her story and how she got here, but I didn’t ask. None of the girls ever talked or shared stories. Sometimes, they whispered when the nights grew cold, and the guards left their shifts early, but even those words were brief and impersonal.

It was only because of those whisperings that I knew what my fate was to be.

“Another sale is in three days,” one of the women said from down the line of cells.

“Who are they auctioning this time?” I asked.

Nobody answered. Nobody knew until the day of the auction when the victim was taken to be cleaned, shaved, and paraded before a blinking camera. Then, they came back here until someone came for them.

Someonealwayscame for them.

And those women were never seen again.

I was here longer than anyone else had been. I had seen the process over and over again.

I knew that I was in some kind of human trafficking ring, and I knew my father had been the one to put me here. With three sisters, I always knew the day would come when I became useless to my father, but I never would have expected him to do something likethis.

Every day, I sat on the edge of my bed, waiting. It was all I could do.

But today? Today, the wait was over.

I stood in front of a camera with a blinking green light and didn’t move. I clenched my jaw, trying to decide the best moment to fight. I had seen how lackadaisical the men were with the women who followed them willingly. I had been compiling a plan the whole time I had been here and knew the best way to go about this—the best way toescape.

And escaping was exactly what I would do.

They told me nothing about the sale as I was escorted back to the cell, but the guards seemed impressed. They mumbled to one another in a language I didn’t understand. Maybe Russian?

My cellmate sat on my side of the room when they shoved me inside, and I paused as I looked between her and her usual spot. She nodded toward me, and I obeyed, if only to see what had prompted the change in her.

I sat beside her on the small cot, and she met my eyes. “They say you were sold for the highest price this year. A half million,” she whispered so quietly that the guards didn’t notice. Her words had a slight accent as she listened to the guards and repeated their words. “Clide Newton.”

The name meant nothing to me.

“They say you are the daughter of a mafia lord.” Her forehead crinkled.

“Something like that,” I mumbled back. If he considered me his daughter, I wouldn’t be here.

I had doneeverythingto stay out of his sight. I spent my entire life hiding and keeping my life behind closed doors.

Her eyes were wide as she continued listening. “He buys many girls,” she said.

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