Bittersweet Heroine by Yolanda Olson

Prologue
    M y name is Valentina. I am the only woman who worked for Kerstan and successfully paid off my debt. I want to tell you what it’s like to recover from being used for money. I want to tell you that everything gets better and I want to tell you that eventually you’ll be okay, but I can’t. It never gets better and you never get over it. You’re left feeling used, unworthy, and lost.
    My interests no longer lie in the Red Light District. At least they didn’t until I heard rumors of what was happening in his home. An American girl who was basically stolen to work for him, by a man she knew but always was kept away from. A new house owner of no less than three years who treats his girls horribly. The rumor is that his treatment of the girls is all that he wishes upon her, but doesn’t have the heart to inflict himself. That’s why he had Kerstan take her. That’s why she became the best at what she did.
    I don’t want to say that I’m a hero by any means, but I want to save her. Even though I don’t know her, I feel that the best way to destroy what these vile men have put her through would be to save her. Saint Valentina; Patron saint of abused whores, I think to myself with an amused smile.
    As I sit in my small bedroom in my even smaller apartment, I dress myself in my black lingerie. Kerstan’s favorite when he used to send me out and I remember that now I am no longer Valentina, I’m Danique again; the best whore that the Red Light District had ever seen until the American girl, Lieve.
    As I pulled on my striped white and black fitted shirt, my black short flare skirt, and my favorite pair of black high heels, I know that to undo Kerstan and save the American girl, I have to go back into what I left.
    I have to immerse myself back into the Red Light District.
    The only way to really save myself once and for all is to save her too.
    I take one last look around my small bedroom before I turn off the light and leave my apartment. The best place to start this would be the one place I had managed to escape.
    I have to start at Kerstan’s.

One
    I knocked on the door and waited. One of the elderly women that Kerstan used as decoys to his business would open the door, I’d ask to see him, and stay outside. If I walked back into that house voluntarily it would be like asking him to take me back and I refused to give him the ability to have power over me again.
    As expected, one of the grandmothers opened the door and greeted me in shock. She recognizes me, I thought with a tight smile.
    “I wish to speak to Kerstan. Tell him Danique is here,” I said evenly.
    She nodded and opened the door slightly gesturing for me to come in. I shook my head firmly and sat down on the steps. I heard her close the door firmly and the sound of her hurried footsteps.
    It couldn’t have been more than five minutes before the door opened again and Kerstan stepped out.
    “Could this be a dream?” he asked with a chuckle as he descended the steps and stood in front of me.
    “I’m more of a nightmare,” I replied with a smirk.
    “Danique. What brings you back to my humble home?” he inquired, crossing his arms over his chest.
    “I’ve been hearing rumors,” I said conversationally. I glanced up at him, but he didn’t reply, he only raised an eyebrow in curiosity. “There’s a girl, an American that used to be here in this house. I’m wondering where she is now.”
    I already knew the answer, I just didn’t know how to get to where I was going and I needed him to give me the information.
    “Where have you heard rumors that I would have an American working for me?” he asked evenly.
    “I run into old clients from time to time,” I replied with a shrug. “I hear this Lieve is the new Danique and I’m dying to meet the girl who has taken on my legacy and surpassed it.”
    “Jealousy doesn’t look good on you,” he said with a grin.
    “You mistake curiosity for jealousy, Kerstan,” I replied shaking my