Page 44 of The Caged Girl

“Yes, thank you.” I nodded quickly.

“I’m going to go put the deposit down for a custom baby. I’ll be right back, then I want to go shop for the gorgeous hair extensions here. They only do it with real human hair.” Sage stood and walked back to the front desk.

I went back to the beginning of the white leather-bound book. There was an entire page designated to eye colors, hair color, and skin tone. How would they even guarantee all of this, and who even agreed to have these babies?

The nightingales weren’t pregnant; they were down there, caged up to be used as sex dolls.

“Guess what? We get to meet her now.” Sage was jumping up and down excitedly.

I stood quickly. “Wait, now?” I brushed my hands nervously against my dress as I followed Sage and the girl from the front desk.

“Yes, yes! She’s in her fertile window,” Sage shrieked, but was quickly silenced by the lady in a white turtleneck and pencil skirt.

“Ma’am, please, we must keep our voices down. You, of all people, should know why.”

Sage’s face flushed as she straightened her shoulders and clasped her fingers together. “Yes. Of course. My mistake.”

“We will need to change clothes to visit the breeder’s floor. There’s also a contract to be signed, and you may not speak to her, simply type what you’d like for her to read. She’s not permitted to have communications. Words and language can often cause us to have too many…thoughts.”

“Of course. I know.” Sage closed her eyes for a moment, as if she was replaying something in her head.

“Shall we, Demi?”

“Yes.” I followed behind them into a small dressing room.

She opened a closet and there was a row of black dresses—all identical sheath dresses with small labels with sizes.

“These would have looked amazing with my Chanel pearls.” Sage grabbed a size two, and turned away to a dressing room to change.

“Demi?” I looked at the pale woman in front of me with piercing green eyes.

“What is all this?”

She tilted her head and brushed her index finger against my cheek. Leaning in, I could feel her cold, minty breath on my skin. “Hell.” Pulling away, she smiled before handing me a dress. “Let’s all get ready quickly. Raven only has a few minutes before she needs to be fertilized.”

I wanted to just die.

“She’s not a plant. She’s a human being.” I looked at the woman’s name tag. “Kori, how could you…go along with all this?”

“Along with what?”

“She’s being raped, isn’t she?”

“Please do not talk about our precious breeders that way. You know, Demi, I’m not sure you should be joining us, anyway. I’ve been told you have a meeting with Alister Ivory tonight.”

“No, Mrs. Rothschild has specifically asked me to go with her. Please, don’t do this, Kori.”

She smiled at me with her eyes lowered. “One chance. Open your mouth, and you will have the same thing happen to your tongue that happened to Jamie’s.”

“You know what happened to Jamie? Please, please tell me!” I slammed my lips shut as Kori’s eyes widened.

“Demi, let’s go quickly change. Kandi just left us a whole new stash of wigs and hair extensions, too! They got a fresh batch of hair in to make them.” Kori shot me a look before pointing at the other side of the closet.

Each wig had a small name tag, and I knew exactly what that meant. Walking toward the wigs, I selected one. “Karina,” I whispered. I had met her in my brief stint on the Euphoria floor.

Shaking my head, I pushed past Sage and Kori.

“These are gorgeous! I always wondered what I’d look like as black-head. No, wait, that doesn’t sound right? Brunette? No, this is dark black hair… Hmm…it’s fine.”

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