My phone kept ringing.
One of my regular clients even called and asked,
“You’re not working tonight?”
I looked at Emma.
“No,” I said.
Then, after a pause, I added,
“Not anymore.”
The woman in the photograph Emma had shown me was Linda.
I had known her years ago.
She had once lived the same kind of life I did.
Then one day, she simply disappeared.
Everyone assumed something terrible had happened to her.
But the truth was completely different.
Linda had managed to leave that life behind.
Now she worked with an organization that helped women in dangerous or desperate situations.
At around four in the morning, Linda finally called me.
“Monica, don’t open the door. We’re coming.”
Ten minutes later, two cars pulled up outside.
Emma panicked.
For a moment, she thought it was over.
But then Linda stepped out of the first car.
From the second came two support workers and police officers.
It turned out they had already been gathering information about people who were luring young women with fake job offers and then trying to control them.
The messages and addresses on Emma’s phone helped give the police even more information.
Emma was taken somewhere safe.
Before she left, she suddenly turned around and looked at me.
