Chapter 144: Chapter 144: Champions, Part 6

Michael

The video flickers to blackness. Throat tight, I stare at the blank screen.

Christ…

…. What have we done?

She was raised, treated like stock, threatened with gang-rape at the point of a knife. And then James and I….

Oh… God….

….

You came back, Babe….

…. Why?

Why did you come back?

Numbly I sit, sorting through my disordered thoughts. After a few minutes, Charlotte returns, sitting next to me, her face calm.

Does she know what I'm thinking?

I hope not…

She’s handling this better than I am….

…. She’s had time to get used to it…

… I suppose….

“What was going through your head when you did that?” I ask. “When you stood, naked on that podium, and they bid for you?”

She sucks at her lips. “Um, I was a bit spaced-out actually. Mainly, I was thinking that the numbers I was hearing were more money than I’d ever seen in my life, and half of it was mine. All I had to do was keep my nerve for a week….”