"Oh my God, Brooklyn, this is so amazing! When did you find out?"

"About ten minutes ago, just before I tweeted it. I just got the email that the internship was finalized. I still can't believe it, Sophie," I said in a hushed voice.

"Why are you talking so low? Where are you?"

"I'm at the library."

"Oh, they don't give a shit about that stuff anymore, do they? There's always people talking on their phones in the library especially at Fogelman. Every time I'm in there I forget I'm not in the cafeteria. Even the librarians talk loud there."

"I'm not at Fogelman," I said in almost a whisper.

"I can barely hear you now. Where are you? At Kellen or something?"

"No, I'm not at Kellen, I'm at the NYU library and I have to be quiet, Sophie. I don't want to get kicked out of here again."

"Oh, yeah I forgot about that," she laughed. "But you have an excuse now, we have to celebrate! We have to go out tonight, Brooklyn!"

"Okay, Okay, calm down. We're totally going out. I just gotta get a few more things done here and I'll be back in my room. Then we can make all kinds of plans."

"So what are you going to do? What's the plan? You still have eight weeks of class left right?"

"Yeah, but I'll be starting the internship before I graduate. They need someone to start right away so it's probably going to be in the next couple weeks. I'm so excited, Sophie. I mean, you know how much I've wanted this. It's exactly what I'd been hoping for. I'll be able to work on my fashion reporting skills and maybe even publish something soon.

Harper Randyll has columns in all the major fashion publications and on just about every site worth mentioning so I'm sure it won't be long before they let me write for them. But I'll also be able to learn from the best fashion designers in Manhattan. Some of the most innovative designs have come out of Randyll Fashions.

Plus they have offices all over the world. Maybe after a couple years, I'll even be able to study under some of their designers and Milan. I'm so excited, Sophie, I can hardly stand it."

"I'm so happy for you, Brooklyn. You deserve this. You've worked so hard, harder than anyone I know. And over the last few years, even with your mom dying and your dad turning into a total schmuck, you really kept it together. I'm so proud of you. You just have to promise to remember me when you become a famous designer. And let me wear some of your designs."

"Oh, Sophie, you're so sweet. You'll be right there with me. Whatever I wind up doing I'll make sure you're part of it. I'll need an art designer, won't I? I'm just lucky to have such a good friend. Someone who cares so much. I wish I could say the same about my dad. I feel like no matter what I do I'm just an inconvenience or an embarrassment to him. I stopped telling him about wanting to be a designer years ago. He thinks it's all a joke."

"Hey, don't let him bring you down. This is your night. There's no point in letting him ruin it."

"Yeah, you're right, Sophie. I won't let him ... woah ... what the hell? My dad is on the other line."

"You're kidding. Right now? That's so weird that we were just talking about him. What do you think he wants?"

"I have no idea. He never calls me. Hold on, I'll see what he wants and I'll be right back."

"Okay, I'll wait."

"Dad? What's up?"

"Brooklyn, where are you?"

"What? I'm at the library, why?"

"Which library? The one on 14th?"

"No, I'm down across from Washington Square Park at the NYU library. What do you want?"

"When are you leaving?"

"I don't know, about twenty minutes. Why? What's going on?"

"Brooklyn, just be outside the library in twenty minutes, like you said, okay? Can you just do that for me?"

"Yeah, sure. Are we getting lunch or something?"

"No ... not lunch ... just be outside, Brooklyn. I'll talk to you later."

I ended the call with my dad and switched back over to Sophie.

"Well, that was weird."

"What? What did he want?"

"I don't know. He just wanted to know when I was leaving the library. Then he said to wait outside for him. I asked him if we were having lunch or something and he said no. I don't know what is up with him."

"Wow, that's weird. Maybe he wants to tell you about your new mommy," she said in a little girl voice.

"Oh God, don't even joke about that. Most of the girls he's been dating lately are my age. It makes my skin crawl every time I walk into the den at home and see him sitting on the couch in front of the fire with one of them. It makes me wonder what he was thinking about all my friends that I brought home when I was still living there. Was he just drooling all over them?"

"Probably, and then jerking off in the bathroom."

"Ew, Sophie, no! Don't even say that!"

"So, do you think he does one of those online things were he finds a girl and makes an arrangement, then pays them to go on dates? Like a sugar daddy situation?"

"I have no idea and I don't even want to know. The thought of him doing anything with anyone just grosses me out. I don't want to see him at all. I don't understand why he's showing up today of all days."

"Well, don't let it get you down. Just see him and let everything slide off your back. And keep thinking about how much fun we're going to have tonight."

"Okay, thanks, Soph. I'll see you later."

"Okay, later!"

I made a few more posts online about my internship and responded to some of my followers who were excited for me, then packed everything up and headed out the front entrance.

As I walked past the giant columns just outside the entryway, I noticed a black limousine parked on the street right in front of the library which I found odd because no cars were ever parked out there. Two men got out of the limo and walked toward me as I started to cross the street to the park and one of them grabbed my arm.

"Brooklyn Pierce, please get into the car."

I tried to jerk my arm away but as I did a hulking man with a thick neck and pants that were way too tight gripped my arm like a vice and pulled me toward the limo.

"Ouch! What the fuck? What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Haven't you talked to your father? You're supposed to come with us," the giant man said with an impatient tone. Just then my phone rang and I looked up at the thug in the tight pants.

"Do you mind if I get my phone out of my bag?" I asked as I motioned to his hand that was about to pop the skin on my upper arm. He let go of my arm and I pulled my phone out of my purse. It was my dad again.

"Dad? What's going on? Some guys are trying to get me to go with them in a limo. Where are you?"

"I'm not coming Brooklyn. I'm ... you have to go with them. You have to go with them and do whatever they say."

I stood there listening for a few seconds, expecting him to say something that made sense, something that would explain why I had to get into a car with two strange men that looked like they wanted to kill me.

"You're joking, right? Is this a joke? I'm not going anywhere with these guys."

"Brooklyn ... you have to. I don't ... you don't have a choice. Listen to me Brooklyn. If you don't go with them I will be killed. Everyone in our family will be killed. Everyone."

"What are you talking about?" I asked as I turned away from the two giant men and tried to understand what my father was telling me. "Who would ... why would people want to kill us?"

"Brooklyn, if you go with them no one has to die. But if you don't ... oh God, Lena ... your aunt Lena and your uncle Bill and your cousins in Montauk and, oh God their little girl. You don't want little Marnie to die, do you?"

"What kind of monsters would kill a four-year-old little girl, dad?" I asked as I turned back around toward the men, who were now talking to some cops that were parked behind the limo. I was relieved for a second. I thought those horrible men would be taken away by the cops, or at the very least the limo would be towed, but the cops were talking to the two men like they were all friends.

"Dad, who are these men? I don't like the way they're treating me. Please don't make me go with them."

"Brooklyn, please don't be stubborn ..."

"I'm not being stubborn! How can you say that? I'm terrified! These men look like they want to kill me! Or worse!"

"They aren't going to kill you, Brooklyn, I promise. They're just going to take you somewhere for a while and then you can come back home."

"Take me where? For how long? And why would you let them do this? Are you in some kind of trouble, Dad?"

I looked back at the men and the cops they had been talking to were now getting back into their car and driving away. The men walked back toward me and looked like they were going to grab my arms so I backed up a few steps.

"I'm still talking to my dad, do you mind?" I said as I held my phone up to the thick-necked thug.

"Please don't talk to them like that, Brooklyn. You're only going to make it worse."

"Make what worse? What have you done?"

"Everything I've done has been for you, Brooklyn. I ... I borrowed money so you could go to school and live in The Village with your friends and have the kind of life you wanted. I did this for you."

"Don't make me laugh, Dad. You make it sound like I'm the bad guy here. Like I'm the only one that spent any money. I don't think your lifestyle is so cheap, what with all the young girls you pay to ... keep you company."

There was a long silence on the other end of the line and finally my father cleared his throat and started talking again.

"Brooklyn, these people mean business. They are very clear about their terms and they always get what they want. Please believe me when I tell you that you simply don't have a choice and that it will be much easier on you if you just do what they say."

"How could you do this to all of us? How could you make an arrangement with these people when you knew what the consequences would be? Don't you care about anyone but yourself?" I asked as tears started to roll down my face.

The man in the tight pants was now leaning up against the limo, staring at me. I turned back around and tried one more time to try to get my father to explain why this was happening to me.

"But you have a job, don't you? You have the swimsuit business that you and mom started ..."

"You know your mother was the one with the head for business, Brooklyn. And since she died nothing's been the same. I couldn't manage the business like she did. I thought I could make it work. I really did. You have to believe me. I tried, Brooklyn."

"So that's it? Now I just go with some strangers because you can't pay your debts? I can't believe you're doing this to me! I can't believe you're letting these men take me away! Dad? Are you there?"

But there was no answer on the other end. He had hung up. I stood there on the street sobbing and staring at my phone as the two giant men walked toward me again.

"I'd advise you to stop making a scene. It's not going to do you any good," one of the men said into my ear as they each took an arm and walked me over to the limo. The door opened in front of me and I got in the back like I was told. I was in complete shock. I couldn't believe that my father had just given me away to some strange men. He didn't even seem to know where I was going. He didn't even seem to care.

"Here, drink this and calm down. It's going to be a long trip," one of the men said as he took a bottle of water out of the fridge and threw it next to me on the seat. "There's food and soda in there too," he said, then shut the limo door. I couldn't see anything that was going on up front so I looked out the side windows as we pulled away from the curb.

I continued to cry as I watched the streets whiz by and I thought about my dad and how he could possibly do this to his own daughter. Wasn't a father supposed to protect his daughter no matter what?

I knew my mother would never in a million years have let this happen. It was always her dream that I follow what was in my heart and do my own thing. She told me the last time I saw her in the hospital just before she died that all she ever wanted was for me to be happy.

She told me that she thought marriage and money were the things that would bring her happiness in life, that she had been raised to believe that.

She said that she loved the swimsuit business that she and my father had started, but her true dream had been bigger. Too big. She didn't believe in herself enough to think that she could actually go out on her own and be a designer, so she played it safe and sold other people's designs.

That was something we had in common. I was afraid to promote my own designs as well and wound up reporting fashion trends instead of setting them.

But now I didn't know what was going to happen or how much of a life I had left to pursue my dreams. My life might be over in a matter of hours or minutes.

I grabbed the bottle of water off the seat next to me. I didn't even think about whether I should drink it or not but after a few gulps, when I couldn't force my eyes to stay open any longer, I knew I had made a mistake.