"No," the word came out hollow. "That is not true." She shook her head in denial, not trusting Cassian's words. "They were planning to take me to dinner on my birthday!" Her voice came out hoarse and unsteady, overwhelmed by conflicting emotions as she fought to hold back the tears brimming in her eyes. "On my birthday! They smiled at me and waved! Parents who are planning to sell their child do not happily wave at them across the street with—with love in their eyes!"
Something shifted in Cassian's expression. It was brief, barely perceptible around his jaw as it tightened, and gone before she could register it.
"You never once felt they might not be your real parents?" The question landed like a blade between her ribs.
"They were my parents!" she cried ferociously. "I was their daughter."
Cassian said nothing to counter. He simply stated, "You will soon meet the real ones!" Cixi turned her face away in anger. She bit the inside of her cheek until she tasted copper. She would not cry in front of this man, who dared to mock her about her family? And what had he said before?
"Are you telling me that you planned to buy me from my parents when I was seventeen? Is this the reason you are taking me away against my will to fulfil the agreement? Is this how you made billions by buying and selling young girls?" Cixi gritted her teeth while accusing Cassian of being a pimp.
Cassian cocked his head a little as he studied her contemptuous expression. "Aren't you being hasty in your judgment?"
Cassian showed no guilt or shame, which was not what Cixi anticipated.
With their eyes locked, the car turned onto the arterial highway. Ahead, a long bridge stretched over the river. The bridge was two lanes wide, elevated forty metres above the river.
The car traversed the bridge, with streetlights creating streaks outside the window.
Cixi was still processing Cassian's last words when a truck behind them rushed forward and crashed into Cassian's car. The car screeched, and the glass shattered like ice breaking apart.
Cixi's body was thrown forward, but Cassian's arm locked around her securely, absorbing the force with his own body. The car swerved violently, and tyres shrieked against wet tarmac.
Before any of them could recover from the shock, another black SUV hit the car from Cassian's side. Cixi felt herself wrenched sideways as the vehicle skidded across the bridge. Her shoulder struck something hard. Pain erupted along her arm, and the rear door tore open as though an invisible force itself had ripped it away. The force ripped her from Cassian's grip. His hand shot toward her, and for a split second, their eyes locked.
Then another impact crashed into them, and Cixi was flung out through the open door. She rolled across the asphalt. The rough surface tore into her skin until she finally stopped near the edge of the bridge. Pain shot through her legs. Her ankle twisted at the wrong angle, and a sharp burning spread along her elbow and wrist where the skin scraped away.
Through her blurred vision, she saw another truck ram into Cassian's car. The car was shoved across the remaining lane, through the railing, and over the edge. For one breathless second, it tilted over the edge.
Then it disappeared.
A loud splash echoed in the night. Cassian, along with his right-hand man and the driver, plunged into the deep river below.
"No!" Cixi whispered hoarsely. Her lungs refused to cooperate. She tried to push herself up, but she collapsed under the weight of her ankle.
In a moment of distress, she let out a cry before another black SUV came to a sudden stop nearby. The car's back doors opened swiftly, and two men appeared and moved towards Cixi. One of them gripped her arms while the other lifted her legs.
"Who are you?!" she screamed through her pain. She tried to free herself despite the pain, but they were too strong for her.
"Let me go! Help! Help!" she once more shouted, but no one came to rescue her.
They carried her into the SUV and placed her between them. One shut the door while the other pinned her in place, and the car sped away, leaving Cassian and his men underwater.
The third man, in the front passenger seat, was speaking quickly on the phone in a language she couldn't understand.
The SUV was filled with strong odours of diesel and cigarette smoke. Her kidnappers were all tall, with dark complexions, muscular builds, and brooding expressions. Cixi's heart trembled, and so did her body with fear, as she wondered where they were taking her. Her body ached from the injury sustained in the accident; her jeans were torn, and her oversized pullover was dirty and tattered.
"Where are you taking me?" Cixi asked, feeling bewildered. It felt like she was jumping from one frying pan into another, and each time it was worse than the previous.
If she had died before, she wouldn't have had to endure this living nightmare again. Why had Cassian saved her if he couldn't even protect himself? He insisted she was his and that she would be safe with him, but it was all a lie.
Cixi couldn't stop thinking about how Cassian's car had been crushed and swept into the dark, raging river, where the current was strong enough to sweep anyone away. Had he died? Had he really left her with scary people after rescuing her? She cursed her fate. She cursed Cassian for not letting her die.
"Where are you taking me?" Cixi once more questioned while crying.
Cassian had told her no one knew her identity. Were the people from the Mafia world already after her because of him? Her thoughts spiralled, and she spun.
"Put the duct tape on her. She is talking too much," ordered the man in the passenger seat, and both men beside her quickly complied. Cixi gave them a hard time, but soon found herself with her hands bound and mouth sealed. Her wrists throbbed with pain from her wounds, but these men showed no concern. She still clutched Cassian's coin tightly in her fist as if it were her lifeline.
The van drove for what felt like an hour. The streets grew darker, and the civilisation of the city faded until there was nothing but the sound of the engine.
When the van stopped, Cixi's heart jammed with it.
The car's rear door was opened by another man carrying a heavy gun. The cold wind hit her face as they pulled her out. Her bare feet landed on concrete slick with muddy, ice-cold water.
She observed numerous cranes and shipping containers stacked on top of each other. The sea was crashing fiercely. It was a port for industrial activity.
She had seen this before, but not in person. In the documentaries she had watched carefully after her parents' death. The shipping container was one of the methods they mentioned in their discussion of various trafficking routes.
She then heard the screams of people when one of the containers was lifted, and dread filled Cixi's heart instantly. The tears that hadn't stopped spilled more heavily than before.
Her feet refused to take a single step forward, and her body felt unbearably weighty, as if fear weighed her bones down. She felt that at any moment she would lose consciousness from shock, from fear, from the crushing realisation of what was happening. No, this couldn't be happening to her. It couldn't be true...
She screamed, but her voice came out muffled behind the duct tape. The men watched her without a flicker of emotion, as if their hearts had turned to stone long ago.
The scarred man gripped her upper arm and walked her forward, toward the far end of the dock, where a container ship awaited her.
Their footsteps echoed on the wet concrete. She looked around for help and soon realised no one else was at the port except the traffickers.
She did not resist as they walked. She made her body compliant as they dragged her.
The man on her right had a handgun tucked into his waistband under his jacket. The grip was visible when his coat shifted with each step.
They were still thirty metres from the container. And Cixi would not go inside that container. She knew she would be trapped forever.
Many souls die inside those metal boxes before they even reach their destination. And those who survived... they entered another kind of purgatory.
So she coughed. It was small and dry, and the scarred man paid it no attention. She slowed her pace slightly. She coughed again, harder this time, bending forward, letting her body fold toward her knees.
"Move," the scarred man ordered.
She coughed once more, dropping lower, and in one motion, her bound hands snatched the gun from the man's waistband. She stumbled before spinning to face them.
She held the gun, pointing at one of the men. Her hands shook so violently that the barrel traced circles in the air.
Then the men laughed, throwing their heads back. Cixi was not discouraged by their laughter. They always laughed at her; there was nothing new in it.
She immediately stripped the duct tape from her mouth and instantly raised her gun. She breathed heavily with an open mouth before gulping dryly.
"Don't come near me." Her voice came out barely above a whisper, then suddenly louder. "Or I'll shoot!"
The men stopped laughing as they studied her. The person at whom Cixi pointed the gun laughed alone in a low, gravelly sound without an ounce of fear. "Do you even know how that works?" He gestured at the gun with an open palm, as though she were holding a toy.
"Let me go!" She screamed defiantly. "Or DIE!"
"Look around, girl." The man spread his arms wide. "Who do you see? Where do you think you will run?" He stepped forward. "And how far?"
She stepped back.
He stepped forward.
And she stepped back again.
It kept going on until the heel of her bare foot met the edge of the dock. Behind her was the black, churning sea, fifty feet below. Cixi knew she could not outrun them. There were too many of them at the port.
So she pulled the trigger, and everything that had happened to her surged back in a flood—the bullies, the video, Nelson's gold tooth, her parents' death, the gunshots, the birthday cake, three years spent in cold apartments with empty fridges, and twelve dollars and twenty-three cents, and in the end, Cassian's face.
If this were life... if this were what the universe kept forcing her to confront... then she wanted no part of it. She pressed the trigger, and fired once, twice, and a third time at the man before another bullet struck Cixi, and she fell into the ice-cold water.