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At first, the room is silent. I can’t even hear any movement at all despite knowing that I’m surrounded by other women. Knowing that there are people in here that I can’t see or sense terrifies me, even though I know they’re in the same predicament as me.
I curl up on the basement floor, doing my best not to burst into tears.
18
Akim
It’s four in the morning, and I haven’t been able to get anywhere close to sleep since Delilah left. Even though she never lived with me, I still feel her absence so heavily as I try to sleep alone.
I listen to the silence outside my window, periodically interrupted by the sound of a siren wailing through the city streets. Delilah’s face never leaves my mind’s eye, even after I’ve given up on sleeping to have a few beers.
Is this what it feels like to be obsessed with somebody?
I can’t believe how persistent my brain is when it comes to her. I remember every detail of her face, the sweet chirp of her voice, the way she moved against me when she was trying to tease me. All of that feels irrelevant now in the scope of reality, but my heart won’t let me move past it. I’ve never struggled with letting a woman go, not once. I don’t know what makes this time different.
With my impulse toward understanding, I finish my third beer and pull up my laptop. In order to find closure, I might as well find as much information on Luka as possible so that I know what kind of family Delilah will have.
I just want to know that she’ll be taken care of.
When I search his name, all that I find at first are his past arrest records, and it would appear that he’s been extremely prolific in the human trafficking rings in the city. Finding bad people isn’t hard to do in this line of work, but nobody will touch human trafficking. Only the worst of the worst will even consider it.
It doesn’t take long before I’ve unearthed a series of testimonies from women who had been declared missing. They had been persuaded of their relation to Luka by falsified documents that he claimed were provided to him by the adoption agency where these women were registered as children. Because of their lack of family ties, they were easy targets. Nobody to worry about them, nobody to prove him wrong.
As soon as I make the connection, my blood runs cold. How could I have possibly believed that Luka was being honest about Delilah? Why would I let him convince me so easily?!
I feel like such a fucking idiot. I allowed my ego and my pride to put this girl’s life in danger even after I’d developed such a deep bond with her. Now her life might be in danger, and it’s my fault.
* * *
Even though Ifeel like I’ve gathered enough evidence to know that Luka is a snake, I still need to find some kind of confirmation that Delilah isn’t his sister. It feels stupid, but there’s a part of me that would always wonder in the back of my mind. He doesn’t seem to have any reason to target her specifically other than the fact that she’s vulnerable and has no family.
Would he be doing this just because he knows I like her?
Would someone really kidnap somebody’s lover and sell her on the black market for revenge?
I decide to continue looking deeper into the issue despite being tipsy and sleep-deprived, but this time, I search for Delilah’s adoption information in the hopes that I’ll find something useful.
It doesn’t take long before I track down a copy of her intake paperwork from the foster agency that took her in after her parents were killed in a crash. The paperwork specifically states that her parents had no other living children.
Delilah was at home with a babysitter when the crash took place.
She had no siblings.
At first, I’m angry with myself for not doing this sooner. Delilah needed me to be diligent and not allow my anger towards Luka to cloud my judgment. Now, she might pay the ultimate price for my arrogance.
Looking through Delilah’s paperwork feels like a betrayal of some sort, especially when I see photos of her attached to the documents. She’s so young in these pictures, and her eyes are overcast with grief and confusion.
But she doesn’t have anyone else with her.
Luka doesn’t exist on her records.
I move back to my research on Luka, flipping through pages until I come upon an article from a woman claiming to have had her case thrown out by the police when she tried to file it. Luka plays dirty, and he’s managed to avoid jail time so far.
Well, I don’t intend to take him to jail.
I intend to kill him.
There’s no space for negotiating or due process.
