Read it here. Below is an excerpt:
The man was athletic, muscular. After showering, he led her to the bed and stretched out on his stomach. You Mi began massaging his shoulders.
Suddenly, he jumped off the bed, declared he didn’t need a massage and yanked off her white camisole.
He threw her to the mattress and forced himself on her, pulling her hair and twisting her small body in so many ways that she screamed in pain.
Then the man’s eyes went blank. He began choking her. She heard sounds of pleasure escape his throat. He seemed to be enjoying it.
The manager burst through the door. “What’s going on?” she shouted in Korean.
“Help me!” You Mi gasped.
The man released his grip. The manager turned her attention to the customer.
“I’m sorry she disappointed you,” she said, refunding his $50. A disgruntled john might tip off the police.
The man pocketed the money, turned and walked out the front door.
Of all the degradations You Mi endured while forced to work as a California sex slave in 2003, this was the worst. In an instant it became clear: Her life amounted to $50. The manager ordered her back to work.
After her attack, You Mi did the only thing she could think of to survive. She wiped away the tears and smiled for her next customer.
For nearly a year, You Mi was caught in a sex-trafficking triangle — starting in South Korea, one of the world’s leading importers and exporters of sex slaves, and stretching to the exploding Asian outcall market of Los Angeles and then to the Asian massage-parlor mecca on the West Coast: San Francisco.
She would be forced to have sex with dozens of men a week in seedy massage parlors, apartments and hotel rooms. She would live under the watchful eye of guards and surveillance cameras, reminded constantly that her family back in South Korea would be harmed if she ran.
Part one of the series is accessible here.
