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The woman gave me a sad look as if she was trying to apologize. I tried to run, but she put her leg out, making me fall face first. My head hit the concrete, and it felt like someone had just beat me in the head with a steel bat. Before I even had time to process the pain in my head, I felt warm, sweaty hands on my legs, and they were picking me up from the ground.
I kicked and screamed, but my screams were quickly muffled by a stink, sweaty hand wrapping around my mouth. I did the only thing that came to mind and bit his hand so hard, trying to puncture his flesh. He removed his hand from my mouth with the quickness.
“Nooooooo! Hellllllppppp meeeee! Helllllpppppp meeeeeee!” I screamed with every ounce of strength in my body as he tried to throw me in the back of his white van.
“If you keep on screaming, I promise I will kill you,” he said in my ear. I picked up on the same thick, Spanish accent as the woman.
Just thinking about the many things that could happen if someone didn’t stop this caused me to become irate. I continued to kick and scream. Although I wasn’t that big, I could tell that I was giving this man a run for his money. He was breathing heavily as he struggled with me.
“You’re a feisty one,” he said. “My clients will love you.”
At that moment, I realized that this was a sex trafficker. There was no way I could let them take me.
“I am pregnant… stop. Please,” I cried.
The back door to the van was open, and before I was thrown in, I looked over and saw Billionaire running toward us. The way his legs were moving so fast, you would have thought he was related to The Flash.
“Put her in! He’s coming!” the woman said to the man.
My body was thrown into the back of the van, and I could no longer see or hear anything. I screamed, kicked, and cried, unable to believe that this was happening. I looked around the back of the van, and I saw blankets on the floor with dried up blood. A foul smell filled the van, and it was filthy inside.
Sex trafficking was serious, and most victims never made it out, especially in a foreign country. I knew these vans were equipped for people on the outside to not hear or see anything going on inside, but I still put up a fight. Someone needed to know that I was in there, so I started to beat on the walls as I continued to scream. I could feel my body giving up on me, and at one point, it felt like there was no more sound left to come out of me.
All of a sudden, I felt the van shake.
“God, please. Please, God,” I kept on crying.
I dropped to my knees and prayed harder than I have ever prayed in my entire life. I wasn’t sure what was taking place outside of the van, but I heard a bunch of tumbling. It felt like things were being thrown into the van. I prayed to God that Billionaire was outside, and he was coming to my rescue.
After about five more minutes, the door started to shake, and finally, it was tugged open. Billionaire was the first person I saw. The man and woman were both laid out on the ground. Most of the other party-goers surrounded the van, and I heard police sirens getting closer. Nothing needed to be said from me. I looked over at Billionaire and just burst out crying. My body would not stop shaking to save my life, and I felt like I was having a panic attack.
Billionaire reached inside the van and pulled me out. Everyone was watching, and I hated that the attention had fallen on me. I hated it so much that I had my face buried in the crook of his neck.
One hour later
“I’m not supposed to be here right now,” I spoke up after about thirty minutes of silence.
I was already an overly emotional person, but this just had me too emotional. My body had chills. I had honestly been crying for a whole hour straight. So many things were running through my mind, but the biggest thought was that I could have easily become another sex trafficking victim. I watched a lot of documentaries, and just a couple of months ago, I had watched one on Lifetime about the sex trafficking that was happening in the United States and even child abduction. I knew the horrific things that would happen once a person was captured and how the odds of being rescued were severely low.
I thought about my body being sold. I thought about never seeing my family again. Most importantly, I thought about what would happen to my child. I can’t even lie, although I was lying down, and Billionaire was holding me so tight in his arms that he was almost squeezing me, I was still so scared. I couldn’t get that woman’s face out of my head. The fake tears when she approached me, the fake bruises, all of which were things she used to invoke my sympathy. She reeled me right in.
I was so angry with myself as I thought back to how my mom used to tell me in elementary school that I was too nice. I remember at six years old, I went through a stage of wanting everybody to be my friend. My mom had bought me a beautiful black Cinderella book bag. It was custom made by one of her friends at the church. I was the only person at my school with the bag.
There was a very popular girl at the school, and her name was Britain. Britain was so pretty, and at six years old, she was already a mean girl. I knew she was mean, yet I still wanted to be friends with her. I remember her telling me that she would be my friend if I gave her my bookbag, and I did that, only for her to still be mean to me and call me names because of my dark skin. When I made it home that day, of course, my mother questioned me about what happened with my bookbag, and I told her. That was the first time I had ever seen my mother so angry.
The next day, she stormed up to the school with me, demanding that Britain give me back my bookbag. My mama kept telling Britain, “My daughter may be scared of you, but I’m not.” I think everyone from my school was shocked that my mother had behaved that way because they knew her as a first lady and as a pastor herself. I got my bookbag back, and my mama told me that I had to stop being so nice and letting people take advantage of me because one day, my big heart would get me in trouble. Never did I think that at 26 years old, this was the type of trouble she was telling me about.
“You are supposed to be here, Normani. Stop saying negative shit like that, yo. You been talking negative since we got back in the fuckin’ room!” Billionaire said.
I kicked my legs and used all my strength to push him off me. He wasn’t even the person I was mad at, but he was the only person close to me, so I was taking how I felt out on him. Although he had saved me, my emotions just had me all over the place. I sat up in the bed Indian style, and I silently cried.
“Billionaire, you just don’t understand. I’ve never had a situation where I literally saw my life flash before my eyes. In a matter of five minutes, I went from laughing and kissing you to fighting for my life, so I wouldn’t be thrown in the back of a van and sex trafficked. I can’t get the visuals out of my head. What if you never came for me? Baby, what if you never came? I would have never seen you again. Can you imagine the things that would be happening to me right now? It’s going to be a while before I am mentally okay again. I’m still just so scared.” My voice cracked the entire time I was speaking because I’d lost it. Due to all the yelling and crying I had done, my voice was very raspy.
Billionaire sat up in the bed and grabbed my arm, pulling me into him. He set me right in front of him as his legs stretched out on either side of me. He reached up and put his hand on the bandage that was on my forehead from when I fell and my head hit the ground.
After I was captured, all hell broke loose. So many officers arrived on the scene, and although I was in such an irrational state, I still had to give my statement to the police. The whole time I was telling my story, I was not only trying to calm myself down, but I also had to calm down Billionaire. I had never in my life seen him that mad. The guy who had thrown me into the back of the van, Billionaire had damn near killed him. I couldn’t get his face out of my head.
The officers cuffed his hands as he lay on the ground with his life was hanging on by a thread. Never in my life had I seen someone look like that after getting their ass beat. There was blood on just about every part of his body, and the woman was pretty bruised up as well. The ambulance arrived on the scene, and that’s where my face had been cleaned up, and I was given a bandage for my head because, according to them, I didn’t need stitches. While all that was happening, it just felt like I was floating. My body just felt like it was high.
