DAMARIS' POV

I stared at myself in the mirror, unable to recognize the girl reflected back at me. The silk dress, Alice’s dress, hugged my body like it was tailored for me. My curls had been straightened and pulled into the same elegant bun Alice wore like a crown. Her lipstick was smudged across my mouth, and for a moment, I looked like someone I wasn’t... Someone I had never wanted to be.

Alice stood beside me, checking her own reflection. We were twins tonight, almost. Just different souls trapped in identical shells.

She tossed a shawl over her shoulders and turned to me. "Stay in the bathroom and don’t make a sound, I will bring him in, get him drunk, make sure he’s too far gone to notice anything. Then I will come get you."

My throat was dry as I listened to her nonsense. "And then what?"

She stared at me with cold eyes. "Then you do your fucking part."

She didn’t wait for me to say anything else, she just slipped out of the dressing room of the hotel suite, heels clicking on the marble floor, leaving me alone in the bathroom with my thoughts and the taste of fear sharp on my tongue... I sat on the closed toilet lid, knees pressed together, fingers gripping the hem of the dress.

I had always imagined my first time differently, I imagined it would happen when I am in love, married and safe.

With someone who looked at me like I was his whole world, not a body to use, not a lie wrapped in silk.

Tears welled up again, but I blinked them away. I couldn’t cry anymore, not when my mom was still locked away in a cell, her body getting weaker by the hour. This was the only way out, the only way.

Minutes passed, then what felt like hours. Laughter drifted in from the suite beyond, I could hear a man’s voice, low, deep, slightly slurred while Alice was giggling.

She was doing it, making him drink, preparing him to take what I never meant to give away.

I curled into myself, wrapped my arms around my knees. My mind spiraled with imagined scenarios, like what if he realized I wasn’t her? What if he decides to hurt me? What if...

The door creaked open, and Alice stepped in, then she shut it fast behind her. Her hair was slightly tousled now, and her lipstick had worn off, she was looking a little flushed and annoyed.

"He’s drunk." She whispered. "Completely gone, you are fine."

I hesitated, frozen to the tile but she grabbed my hand. "Go now, before he falls asleep."

I stood, trembling, and she shoved me gently towards the door. "Just lie next to him, he will think it’s me but don’t talk. Just… get it over with."

The suite beyond was dimly lit, and the man on the bed was sprawled across the sheets, shirtless, one arm slung over his forehead. His chest moved to the rhythm of his breathing, slow even breath.

Even drunk, he radiated something dark and powerful... Vince Montclair.

The man who would never know what I was giving him. My feet carried me to the bed mindlessly, even before my mind caught up. I slipped under the sheets quietly, the scent of expensive cologne and whiskey already thick in the air as he stirred gently.

My heart slammed against my rib cage as he turned toward me. Then, without opening his eyes, he reached out and pulled me close.

And just like that, it began. He claimed my lips as he was, within a few minutes, I was stack naked in the arms of a stranger.

His hands roamed with lazy confidence as his mouth brushed my skin. He mumbled something I couldn’t make out, his voice thick with sleep and alcohol and then, without any warning or notice, he penetrated me, and all my senses was occupied with something more powerful than my worries and thoughts, pain.

Just pain.

I bit my lip to keep me from crying out as I closed my eyes and endured the pain, I stayed still, silent... I made a heavy sacrifice, a priceless one.

When it was over, he didn’t move away. Instead, he gathered me against his chest, his breath warm against my temple as his hand wandered over my hip, then lower, until it found the mark just below my belly button, a raised, curved birthmark shaped like a comma.

His fingers paused there, tracing it once, then twice... He didn’t speak, didn’t question it.

And slowly, his breathing evened out as I lay in his arms, numb. Eyes wide, my body aching, my heart was definitely not here… somewhere far away.

I must’ve dozed off or perhaps I passed out, all I remember was the sound of soft footsteps returning before the light shifted and I felt hands shaking me gently.

"Damaris." Alice whispered. "Wake up."

I blinked, dazed. She was crouched beside the bed, she was already out of the matching dress, she's wearing a robe now.

"Come on." She urged eagerly. "Leave before he wakes up."

I peeled myself away from him carefully, every movement stiff with soreness and shame, he didn’t stir. His hand fell away from my waist, and I slipped off the bed like a shadow.

Alice climbed in after me, tugging the sheet over her.

"Get out of here." She said. "I will take it from here."

I wanted to squeal at her, I wanted to ask her if she even cared about what she had made me do but I couldn’t find my voice.

I just stumbled back to the bathroom, shaking and trembling as I got dressed. My virginity was gone, my body hurt, my mom was still in jail, and I was invisible again.

No one would know what I had done, no one would even care about my sacrifice but it's fine, as long as I get my mom back in one piece.