Chapter 1: The Price of a Daughter
The dayI was sold, the rain did not stop falling.
It poured like the sky itself was angry-heavy,
unforgiving, cold. | stood in the middle of our tiny
living room, barefoot on cracked tiles, watching
my father kneel in front of a man l had never
seen before.
A rich man.
I could tell by the way his shoes didn't touch the
dirt, by the calm in his eyes, by how everyone in
the room avoided looking at him directly.
"You said you'd give me time," my father begged,
his voice shaking. "Please... just a little more
time."
The man didn't answer immediately. He simply
looked around our house like it disgusted him.
The peeling paint. The broken chair. The unpaid
bills scattered on the table
Then his eyes landed on me.
Slow. Dark. Calculating.
"How old is she?" he asked.
My heart dropped.
"Twenty" my father replied quickly. "She's a good
girl. She-"
"I"Il take her:"
The words sliced through the air.
I froze.
My father froze.
The rain outside seemed to pause.
"Take... her?" my father whispered.
The man reached into his coat and placed a file
on the table. It was thick. Heavy. Final.
"Your debt disappears tonight" he said calmly.
"Every last dim. In return, she becomes my wife.
Contract marriage. Three years."
My ears rang.
Wife?
I stepped back. "No" I said before I could stop
myself. "I won't."
The man finally looked at me properly. Not like a
woman. Like property.
"You don't get to refuse," he said quietly.
I turned to my father, waiting for him to defend
me. To shout. To stand up.
He couldn't even look at my face.
Tears streamed down his cheeks as he
whispered, "Im sorry."
Something inside me left
The man stood. towering. Powerful. "Pack her
things" he ordered. "We leave tonight."
I laughed then. A soft, broken sound. "You think
you can just buy me?"
His lips curved into something that wasn't a
smile.
"I already did."
Outside, thunder cracked across the sky.
As they led me out of the house I grew up in, I
realized something terrifying-
This man wasn't just rich.
He wasn't just cruel.
There was something dark about him.
Something cold.
Something dangerous.
And as his hand closed around my wrist, I
understood the truth too late.
| wasn't married to a man
I was sold to a devil.