"Well, you're going to swim again. Do you remember how much you loved to swim?" Lorraine asked.

"No," Darla responded. "But I wanna go in the water. I get clean in the water, and then I don't get hit 'cause I'm dirty."

After a few seconds, Darla returned to her delirious state. She stood and began to remove all of her clothes. The nurse jumped to her feet before Darla could remove her panties.

"Now, Darla, remember what we talked about. It's not appropriate to take your clothes off with others in the room. Why are you doing that?" the nurse asked, trying to push Darla to think in a rational way.

"'Cause I wanna show everybody my pussy," Darla responded with a victorious look on her face.

"You don't need to show people your private parts," the nurse assured her.

"Let's go back downstairs," Lorraine said quietly.

When they were out in the hallway, Lorraine turned to Wendy. "I'm so very sorry. What can I do to help you?"

"You can pray for Darla. Just pray that someday soon, Darla will be capable of regaining some resemblance of a normal life. I know that she'll never be the same. In fact, that's what makes her homecoming so bittersweet. She's still lost, and I'm not sure we'll ever find her again. The doctors say that between the drugs and severe trauma, Darla may never fully return. But we're hopeful that over time, she'll regain some of what she has lost," Wendy responded.

On the Clarkes' ride home, Lorraine told Rob all about Darla. "I've never thought about the person Maggie has become. I still see her as the daughter we knew. Even seeing Darla doesn't help. She's not like the other girls we've visited. She's so fucked up. I feel so guilty," Lorraine admitted.

"Why would you feel guilty?"

"Because when we pulled up to that mansion of a home, I thought to myself, 'How bad can it be?' I mean, they have everything money can buy. I just assumed that their daughter was back with them and able to enjoy all the things her heart desired. I feel like a total bitch for judging them the way I did. People with a lot of money hurt the exact same way as everyone else," she said, crying.

"Well, you're not alone. I had the same thoughts. I was ignorant enough to think that somehow their pain wasn't as real as ours was. But you know, the bottom line is that we are all more alike than we thought. So was Darla that bad?" Rob finally asked.

"Oh, Rob, it was just awful. The girl is a mess. She looks nothing like the pictures you saw throughout the house. I'm not sure how Todd and Wendy can stand it," Lorraine said. "I'm not so certain I would be able to function if Maggie ever came back to us in that condition. Everything she was is completely gone. The poor girl is acting out the things those bastards made her do. Her breasts are covered with awful scars. They would punish her by tattooing her breasts, by mutilating her."

For the rest of the drive home, Rob and Lorraine were lost in their own thoughts about Maggie. The beauty of the Wilsons' mansion faded; instead, they pictured dark angels soaring above the stone building-evil had claimed the entire family.

Finally, Lorraine gave voice to the question that was plaguing both of them: "What if Maggie comes home severely damaged and doesn't even remember who we are?"

She looked to Rob for comfort, but his only response was, "I don't know." Once again, he grappled with the question of which was better, Maggie being dead or alive. All Rob wanted was for his daughter to be at peace. If he only knew...

Chapter One Hundred Eight.

Maggie worried about Joey obsessively after leaving her with Dr. Purse, a man she hardly knew-a man who didn't grimace when Rock spoke of turning Joey out to prostitute in a couple of years. Without seeing or hearing from Joey in almost a week, she worried that they'd been duped, and Rock was going to sell Joey or trade her to another pimp. Maggie wouldn't rest until Joey was back in Kensington and she could see for herself that the child was alive and well.

Maggie had finished an early shift at Doubles shortly before midnight. When she returned to her apartment Seth was sleeping on the floor with the television blaring. Maggie had just undressed when one of Juju's friends, another dealer, burst through the door, dragging Juju in with him.

Maggie looked up at her friend, who was splattered in blood.

"What happened?" Maggie screamed so loudly that Seth shot off the floor.

"It's her finger," Juju's dope-dealing friend explained. "They cut it off."

Maggie rushed over and led Juju to the mattress. "Seth, get me two towels. Hurry!" Maggie demanded.

Maggie unwrapped the shirt that Juju's friend had fastened around her hand. Maggie assessed the hand quickly. The pinky finger was missing. With blood gushing from the wound, Maggie wrapped the hand in a towel and ordered Seth to follow her.

Maggie and Seth hurried outside with Juju. Once they reached the curb, Maggie flagged down a cab. They jumped into the backseat. "Episcopal Hospital," Maggie ordered.

"As fast as you can drive," Seth added.

Juju lay across their laps in the backseat of the cab, while Maggie held her hand up in midair. When they arrived at the hospital ten minutes later, Maggie threw twenty dollars to the driver and rushed Juju inside. When the admitting clerk spotted the blood-soaked towels, she immediately jumped to her feet and brought a wheelchair.

"What happened?" the woman asked as she rushed Juju back to the Emergency Room.

"We don't know. She came home like this. I think she's in shock. She won't talk to us," Maggie answered.

Just then, a nurse entered the bay and moved Juju onto a gurney. "OK, well, we're gonna help her. You can go into the waiting room," the nurse said.

"No, we want to stay with her," Maggie responded.

The nurse, too tired from her twelve-hour shift to argue, gave in and nodded. "What's her name?"

"Juju," Seth told the nurse.

"Juju? Can you hear me, honey? You're at the hospital. Your friends brought you here, and you're going to be just fine," the nurse said.

The nurse moved around the bed and elevated Juju's legs. Then she put Juju's arm in a sling that hung just above the bed. She moved quickly, and Maggie felt comfortable that she knew what she was doing. The nurse left the room for a few minutes and came back with several blankets.

"OK," the nurse said to Juju. "We're going to keep you nice and warm. This will help stabilize you. The doctor is coming to see you in a couple of minutes. I'm leaving your friends here with you to keep you company."

When the nurse left the room, Maggie and Seth rushed to Juju's side.

"Can you hear us?" Seth asked in a scared voice.

Juju turned her head toward him. "Yeah, I can hear you."

"Oh my God, Juju. How did this happen?" Maggie asked a little too assertively. "Were you playing that stupid game again?"

Maggie figured that Juju had been messing around with some of the other dealers, playing the five-finger filet game. Players placed one hand down on a table with their fingers spread apart and used a knife to stab back and forth between their own fingers, trying not to hit a finger. Maggie had yelled at Juju several times for playing the game. "It's brainless and only dimwits play it," she'd said. "So knock it off."

Tears filled Juju's eyes, and she slowly shook her head. "No, it was Rock."

"It was Rock," Maggie repeated. "Why would Rock do this?"

"Last night, I lost five hundred bucks somewhere. When I brought him money at the end of the night, I let him know there was money missing. He went crazy. Accused me of stealing from him, even though I told him I didn't. One of his thugs was with him, and he held my hand down on the picnic table in the park. Rock took out his knife and cut my finger off." Juju paused for a long moment. "Rock said that every night I don't pay him his five hundred bucks, he'll cut off another finger."

"OK, we'll get the money. Don't worry. We have about one hundred and fifty dollars saved," Maggie said, trying to give her comfort.

Juju nodded, but she didn't believe Maggie could come up with a way to get the rest of the money.

"Don't worry, Juju. We'll protect you," Seth asserted. "We'll get the money some way, 'cause we can't let anything happen to ya." He laid his head on the edge of the gurney.

Hours later, the three left the hospital and headed back to their apartment. The next morning, as Juju slept, Maggie dressed and left the apartment. She was headed to the house of whores to find Rock. When she arrived, the look on Armando's face was one of pure contempt.

"What the fuck you doin' here?" Armando asked.

"I'm looking for Rock. I need to talk to him," Maggie explained in a calm voice, although her insides felt like they were doing the jitterbug.

Armando disappeared into the back room. A couple of minutes later, Rock emerged. He was wearing an evil grin as he approached. "I bet you're here about Juju, huh?"

"Yeah, I need you to give her more time to get your money. I don't know how, but we'll find a way to repay you the five hundred dollars," Maggie pleaded.

Rock scratched his temple. "I explained to her that she'll lose a finger every day that I don't get my money. The way I figure it, she has nine more days to find it before she has two stumps for hands."

Rock stood firm, his back erect and his chest puffed out. He clearly liked being in control. Maggie scrambled for a way to convince him to give her more time.

"You've known her for a long time, and she even saved your life once. Remember? Couldn't you just give us a few more days? Just this one time?" Maggie asked in a tone that revealed her despair.

"What's in it for me?" Rock asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I don't know. What do you want?"

"I'm not sure yet. But I'll tell ya what. I'll give ya three days to find the money, and later, when the time comes, I'll tell ya what ya owe me for bein' so generous."

Maggie knew it was a bad idea to make a deal without knowing what it was going to cost her. But the alternative was to allow Rock to mutilate Juju's hands. Her chest was tight. She deliberately paced her breathing so she didn't hyperventilate. She rocked side to side, considering her options. There was absolutely no one to whom she could turn. Sure, she had friends on the street, but they were either prostitutes or homeless. Finally, she agreed to Rock's deal.

"OK, you have a deal. Three days, but today doesn't count," she boldly demanded.

Rock's facial features remained rigid, as if he were made of granite. "Yeah, all right. Three days not counting today."

"OK. I'll see you in three days," Maggie confirmed.

Rock grunted and left Maggie in the living room. The other girls had sat there without uttering a word so they could listen to the conversation. As Maggie turned to leave, Trinity, the hooker who'd been so mean to Maggie when she'd first arrived at the house of whores, stood up.

"Looks like ya got yourself in a jam. We all see ya walkin' around this town like your shit don't stink. Well, I guess ya just found out there ain't nothin' special about ya," she said mockingly.

Maggie stepped closer to the girl who had caused her so much angst over the years.

"Really? I seem to recall Rock giving me exactly what I wanted. Maybe you should clean the wax out of your ears. Or how about minding your own damn business?" Maggie shot at her.

"Ha! Ya think ya just won wit' Rock? Ya just wait 'til a monf from now when he screws ya over again," Trinity threw back in a nasty tone.

"Oh, really, Trinity. Tell me, how long is monf anyway? The word is month!" Maggie said.

Trinity had her hands on her hips. Her nostrils flared. "Fuck you, bitch! Ya need to get the fuck outta my face before I pound ya to death," she threatened.

"You're right, Trinity. I'm sorry for whatever I did to you that makes you hate me so much. But you know, maybe you should think about us girls sticking together. Maybe if we stood united, we'd have more say in the things that go on around this town." Maggie turned on her heel and left the house of whores.

It wasn't Maggie's nature to mock people. She learned early on that all of the hookers were pretty much the same, including her. They all lived in hell. They were rarely excited or looked forward to the future. Maggie made it a point to continue to learn as much as she possibly could, but she was an exception. She looked forward to leaving the sex world behind her someday. She wanted to be prepared for what life might bring her, even though in her heart there was little hope that she'd make anything out of herself.

Trinity stood motionless for several minutes after Maggie left the house. At first, it was because she liked the idea of the girls sticking together. But when she saw Rock standing in the doorway, having overhead everything Maggie had said, she couldn't move because she was afraid of what would come next.

Chapter One Hundred Nine.

Later that day, Maggie answered a knock at the door of the apartment Rock owned. Colby was waiting in the hallway.

"Come on in," Maggie said, walking toward the cheap sofa.

"How've you been?" Colby asked. "The last time we were together, Rock busted through the door accusing you of knowing where some guy named Joey was."

"Joey is a girl. She's an eleven-year-old who lives with Rock and his wife, Thelma."

"Oh, so Joey is Rock's kid, then?" Colby asked.

"Yeah, something like that."

"Well, did he ever find her?" Colby pressed.

"Yeah, we found her. She got lost and hid in a shed. She fell asleep and was there too long and ended up getting hypothermia. The doctor said she's going to be fine, though," Maggie explained.

Maggie didn't feel guilty about lying to Colby. Her main objective was to keep herself and the others safe. Colby knew her story didn't ring true, but he was smart enough to know that he hadn't gained her trust yet.

"That's good news, right?" Colby asked.

"Of course."

Maggie wasn't inclined to tell Colby about Juju's ordeal with Rock. Maggie met and held Colby's eyes for a long moment, blushing. She liked Colby. She'd been attracted to him ever since she'd seen him without his shirt. But now, her eyes smoldered with intensity. She nervously began to touch her hair and smooth her skin-tight dress. As she looked Colby over, her legs began to wobble. Colby was just over six feet tall. He wore his dark-brown, wavy hair almost to his shoulders. He had light-brown eyes, full lips that revealed beautiful teeth, and a smile that made her want to melt into a puddle. There was no doubt that she was attracted to him. If she were truthful with herself, the more time she spent with him, the more she wanted him to like her.

However, the realistic side of Maggie kept gnawing at her. To believe that a normal guy would ever become intimately involved with a prostitute was insane. Maggie believed she was ruined, as a person and as a woman. She had convinced herself that no sane, stable man would ever want her. When she'd allow herself to imagine the future, she pictured spending her life with a fat, sleazy, slovenly man who was either into drugs or sex, but more likely both-the type of guy who went out and left his woman at home raising the children he'd never wanted. Because of this picture of the future she'd painted in her head, she'd decided to be single for the rest of her life. She rejected the idea of being controlled by anyone once she was old enough and could break free from Rock.

An hour later, after Colby left, Maggie walked back to her own apartment, preparing for the questions Juju and Seth would have for her. When Maggie walked into the apartment, Seth and Juju were lying on the mattress.

"Did you figure out how we can help Juju? And what about Joey? Did Rock tell ya anything about her?" Seth asked with urgency.

"Hey, sweetheart, you have a lot of questions," Maggie said, trying to avoid answering them.

"Well, what happened?" Juju chimed in. "Is Rock coming back to see me tonight? Oh, God, I just can't lose another finger."

"OK, you two, calm down. First, I got Rock to give us three days to come up with the money. So he promised to leave Juju alone for now. We need to figure out what we're going to do, fast."