Chapter 1

"Please stop" Sarah's mother, Mary cried, as she ran around the room trying to stop the men from packing away the items in their one-room shabby apartment. 

"I will stop only when my money is paid to me in full" Allan said as he pushed her away and lifted their one and only family heirloom. 

"Mummy, why are they packing away our stuff?" Sarah asked with tears in her eyes as she shielded her two siblings from seeing the chaos going on in the room.

"Sarah, take your siblings and go to the toy store down the street now!" Mary barked at her.

"My my, what do we have here? What is your name, girl?" Allan said as he grabbed Sarah's arm forcefully and flung her to his side.

"Let me go,"Sarah cried as she tried to wiggle away. 

"Please let her go. She's just 19 and will be of no use to you", her mother cried.

"Well, she's about old enough to be my wife" he said, with a leering look in his eyes as he stared lustfully at her.

"We will get the money for you please, we just need some time to gather it" Mary pleaded on her knees. 

"We'll see about that, but for the meantime I have to get some form of collateral, don't I ?" He asked as he sat down and forcefully pushed Sarah onto his lap.

Sarah's eyes glistened with tears as she saw the teary eyes of her younger siblings staring helplessly at her. 

She cringed and shifted uncomfortably as she felt his hardness poking through her light dress and smelt the alcohol on his breath. 

"Take the things out of the truck" he said to his boys. 

He pushed her off his lap and walked over to where Mary was. 

"Look at me!" He screamed down at her

Mary shakily lifted up her face to his. He grabbed her chin harshly. " Listen to me lady, either you pay the debt your husband owes me or I will marry that pretty daughter of yours and I give you until noon tomorrow to make either of my requests. If not, I'll make life unbearable for you and these scrawny-looking children of yours. Do you understand me?"

She nodded her head in response. 

"Do not nod, answer me, woman!" He barked.

"Yes, yes, I understand, we'll get you the money by noon tomorrow" Mary said with a breaking voice. 

"Good" he said as he turned to Sarah. 

"I'll see you by noon tomorrow my sweet" he said and laughed. 

"Let's go boys" he ordered, and they walked out.

Mary scrambled up from her position and tried to put the house back in order.

"Take your siblings to the toy store to play, be back at 5" she said to Sarah.

Sarah looked at her mother with all sorts of questions in her mind but decided to keep mute. 

"Come", she grabbed her siblings' hands and ushered them out of the room.

Immediately they left, Mary picked up her purse and ran all the way to the dingy town bar to find her husband.

She pushed the door open with anger. "Where is he?" She asked the bartender.

He motioned with a nod to where Tom was, sprawled on the floor with his back against the wall.

"Get up and fix the mess you created"

"I'll never forgive you if that man takes my daughter away from me because of the huge debt you owe him." 

"You know that's a good idea,we should sell her off to that rich CEO. After all, she's of no use to us."

"She can't even get a job goddammit", Tom said as he struggled to get off the floor. 

"No you will find a way to fix this and leave my daughter out of this!" She screamed at him as she hit him on the head with her purse.

"You've done nothing else than cause us shame and strive since you lost your job"

"I regret the day I met you!" She screamed, still hitting him.

The bartender walked up and grabbed her.

"Now,now Ma, you have to calm down. This is a business place and not a place to settle brawls and domestic fights". 

She turned and found the eyes of everybody in the bar on her. 

"Let go of me" she said to the bartender and stormed out. 

Walking home, she thought of how much life had changed since her husband lost his job in the company he worked for.

He was fired because he had been stealing and was caught by the company's bureau. Unfortunately, he worked for the most influential and dangerous man in Kansas, Allan Stone. 

Tom was fired and asked to pay back the money he stole, which was a very large amount. 

They had sold most of their possessions, even their fairly large house, in order to pay off the debt, but it didn't even account for a quarter of the money.

She arrived at the turn leading to her house and, instead of going in, decided to go and get her children from the toy store.

From a distance, her last child, Mae, sighted her and ran to her.

"Oh my baby I'm so sorry, where's Sarah and Paul?"

Mae pointed in the direction of the backyard of the store.

She walked to the entrance of the backyard with Mae in her arms.

Mary froze with shock at the sight before her.

Sarah was being kissed by a boy she had never seen before.

"What's going on here?" Mary said in a loud trembling voice.

The kissing couple jumped away from each other with shock on their faces.

"Mum, it's not what you think" Sarah said as she tried inching away from Derrick ,her 21-year-old boyfriend.

" No, save it. Where is Paul?" Mary asked. 

"I'll go get him" Sarah said as she went into the store.

"Listen Ma, I'm sorry you had to see that, I really like Sarah" Derrick said.

Mary looked at him intensely, from his disheveled hair to the tattoos peeking out from the neck of his shirt to his shabby and dirty pants with the big hole in the knee.

Her thoughts ran wild. 

She didn't have enough to take care of them, keep her daughter off the streets and keep her away from boys like that who would ruin her future. 

Maybe the marriage wouldn't be a bad idea. If that was the price she had to pay for Sarah to escape what she couldn't and help her siblings.

"Sarah is getting married tomorrow, I don't want to ever see you near her again" Mary said, with bitterness in her tone. 

"What?" Sarah exclaimed. Her big brown eyes rounded in shock. 

Mary turned to see Sarah standing behind her with Paul next to her, looking up at her as though he understood the statement she had made.

"Sarah, please don't take this the wrong way, this will be beneficial to you and us too". Mary said with a plea in her eyes.

"I never thought you would say this, Mom, or even consider it. I will not marry that evil man just because he is rich" Sarah turned and ran off.

"Sarah! Sarah! Come back please", Mary called, but she didn't turn back.

"I'll go get her", Derrick said, and ran off in the same direction.