Chapter 1: Sold Like Bourbon at Auction

The night my first time was auctioned off, the house mother made sure I couldn’t fight back—she slipped something bitter into my tea.

The air in my cramped room reeked of stale cigarettes, spilled bourbon, and the kind of drugstore perfume that never quite covered up the sweat. My head spun; after that cup of sweet tea, my limbs turned to Jell-O and my thoughts spun out like a bad trip. Out of nowhere, it was like a feed of mean-spirited comments scrolled through my mind, as if I’d gone viral for all the wrong reasons:

[Poor kid, the real Whitmore daughter, but her family dumped her here like yesterday’s trash. If she’d held out one more day, she’d be back in the mansion. Now the fake gets everything.]

[Yeah, and the governor’s son trashed her for "ruining" the other girl’s image, then forced her to marry a homeless guy—straight-up humiliation.]

[Let’s be real, if you’re gonna lose it anyway, why not sneak into that private room on the third floor? The sheriff’s son is hiding out, just got framed by the governor’s crew. Enemy of my enemy, right? You two should just make it happen.]

[For real! He just got back from the Army—guy’s got energy for days. Maybe you’ll get lucky and it’ll piss off the governor’s kid. Grandpa’s desperate for a grandkid, after all!]

[Madeline, this is your shot!]

Somewhere, the house mother’s voice slashed through the thin drywall, shrill and impatient. Heart hammering, I gritted my teeth and bolted, bare feet slapping the scuffed hardwood as I tore out of that little room.

I pushed open the sheriff’s son’s door—