Eve returned to her apartment just after nine, exhausted but too wired to sleep. She showered, made more coffee, and tried not to obsessively check her email every five minutes.
The contract arrived at 2 PM exactly.
Her laptop chimed with the notification, and Eve's heart jumped. She opened the email with trembling fingers.
From:
Subject: Performance Contract - Confidential
Miss Chen,
Please find attached the exclusive performance contract for your review. All terms are non-negotiable. You have until 8 PM tonight to sign and return the document. Failure to do so will result in the reversal of all payments made on your behalf.
We will send a car to collect you tomorrow evening at 7 PM for our first meeting. Dress appropriately.
Regards,
Damian Blackwood
The message was cold and businesslike, but something about the phrasing made her skin prickle. Our first meeting. Not performance. Meeting.
Eve downloaded the attached PDF with shaking hands.
The contract was sixty-three pages long.
She started reading, and with every paragraph, her stomach sank lower.
EXCLUSIVE PERFORMANCE CONTRACT
This agreement is entered into between Eve Chen ("Performer") and Damian, Damon, and Silas Blackwood ("Clients") for a period of six (6) months...
The money was clearly stated: $2,000,000 total, with $100,000 already paid. The remaining $1,900,000 would be paid in monthly installments of $316,666.67.
But it was the other clauses that made her blood run cold.
Section 3.2: Performer agrees to be available every evening Clients require her services, with no fewer than four (4) performances per week and no more than seven (7).
Every evening. They could demand her presence every single night if they wanted.
Section 4.1: All performances will take place at Clients' private residence. Performer will not be permitted to record, photograph, or discuss the nature of performances with any third party.
Private residence. No witnesses. No one to know what happened behind closed doors.
Section 5.3: Performer agrees that her body and performances belong exclusively to Clients for the duration of this contract. No other clients, performances, or intimate relationships will be permitted.
Her body belonged to them. For six months, she was theirs.
Section 7.2: Performer acknowledges that Clients' preferences may be physically and emotionally intense. Performer agrees to participate fully in all requested activities unless specific hard limits are established in writing prior to contract signing.
Eve's hands shook so badly she almost dropped the laptop.
Physically and emotionally intense.
The clinical language couldn't hide what they were really saying. This wasn't just dancing. This was everything.
Section 12.1: Breach of contract by Performer will result in immediate cessation of all payments and legal action to recover any funds already disbursed, including but not limited to the $100,000 advance payment currently applied to Margaret Chen's medical account.
They had her. Completely.
If she backed out now, they'd take back the money. Her mother would lose the treatment. And Eve would be right back where she started, except now she'd know exactly what she'd given up.
She kept reading, her horror growing with each section.
There were pages dedicated to confidentiality. Pages about their right to mark her (whatever that meant). Pages about transportation, wardrobe (they'd provide it), and behavioral expectations.
Section 8.4: Performer will address Clients as "Sir" or by their given names. Formal deference is expected at all times.
Section 8.7: Performer will not question Clients' instructions or decisions. Obedience is a fundamental requirement of this arrangement.
This wasn't a performance contract.
This was an ownership contract.
For six months, she would belong to them...body, time, and apparently will.
Eve's phone rang, making her jump. Maya's name flashed on the screen.
"Did you get it?" Maya asked immediately.
"Yeah."
"And?"
Eve laughed, the sound slightly hysterical. "It's insane. It's absolutely insane."
"Then don't sign it. Eve, seriously, no amount of money is worth..."
"They'll take back the hundred thousand if I don't," Eve interrupted. "They'll reverse the payment to the hospital. My mom will lose the treatment."
Maya was quiet for a long moment. "That's extortion."
"That's business."
"Eve..."
"I'm going to sign it," Eve said, surprised by how calm her voice sounded. "I don't have a choice."
"You always have a choice."
"No," Eve said quietly. "I really don't. Not when the alternative is watching my mom die."
She could hear Maya's frustration through the phone. "At least tell me you're going to add hard limits like the contract says you can."
Eve looked back at the section about hard limits. She had until 8 PM to submit a list of activities she absolutely refused to participate in.
The problem was, she didn't even know what to put on that list. The contract was deliberately vague about what "performances" would entail. How could she set boundaries when she didn't know what she was agreeing to?
"I'll think about it," Eve said.
"Think fast. You only have six hours."
After Maya hung up, Eve stared at the contract for another hour. Then she did something stupid...she googled "BDSM hard limits checklist."
The results made her head spin. Pages and pages of activities she'd never even heard of. Some made her blush. Some made her feel sick. Some made her feel... curious, which was almost worse.
She created a document and started typing.
HARD LIMITS FOR EVE CHEN:
1. No permanent marks or scarring
2. No sharing with anyone outside the three clients
3. No recording or photographing
4. No...
She paused. What else? What was she willing to absolutely refuse?
The truth was, she didn't know. She'd never done anything like this before. Her sexual experience was limited to a few forgettable encounters in college and one mediocre relationship that had ended badly.
She had no frame of reference for what men like the Blackwoods might want.
In the end, her hard limits list was short and pathetic:
1. No permanent marks or scarring
2. No sharing with anyone outside the three clients
3. No recording or photographing without consent
4. No extreme violence
The last one felt inadequate even as she typed it. What qualified as "extreme"? But she didn't know how else to phrase it.
At 7:45 PM, with fifteen minutes to spare, Eve signed the contract electronically. Her cursor hovered over the "submit" button for a full minute.
This was it. Her last chance to back out.
She thought of her mother's papery-thin skin. The bruises. The exhaustion.
She clicked submit.
The response was immediate.
Contract received and accepted. A car will collect you tomorrow at 7 PM. Bring an overnight bag. You'll be staying at the estate for your first performance. - D. Blackwood
Eve stared at the message.
Overnight.
She'd be spending the night with them.
Her phone buzzed...a text from the hospital.
Dr. Williams: Great news! We're scheduling your mother's first treatment for Monday. The advance payment cleared, and we're getting everything set up. This is going to change everything, Eve. Thank you for making this possible.
Eve set the phone down and walked to her tiny bathroom. She stared at her reflection in the mirror...the same face she saw every day, but somehow different now.
In twenty-four hours, she'd meet the Blackwood brothers. In twenty-four hours, she'd begin six months of... whatever this was going to be.
You won't lose yourself, she promised her reflection. No matter what happens. You won't lose yourself.
But as she crawled into bed that night, Eve wondered if it was a promise she could keep.
Or if the woman staring back at her from the mirror was already starting to disappear.