Leah's POV
Then, he lowered his voice and whispered in my ear, "Finn is a very good boy. He's a bit slow, but he's very obedient. He'll do absolutely everything for you, Miss Lewyn. He's good."
The fact he emphasized the word "everything" abhorred me.
This is sick. I thought to myself.
I couldn't even imagine what the hell he had forced Finn to do in the past. I knew the world I was living in wasn't made of marshmallows and cotton candies. I knew a lot of desperate rogues would come to the city and look for jobs in the hospitality industry. It was a legal business in this Kingdom as long as you attain a license, but the annual payment for keeping this license was very expensive. That's why a lot of clubs hold this kind of service in secret. I had never imagined my favorite clubhouse was one of them.
Finn didn't say a word and stood still behind Sak.
Sak got annoyed again, pushed him toward me, and said, "Go and apologize to Miss Lewyn. What are you waiting for?!"
"Sorry, Miss Lewyn," Finn said in a low voice without raising his head.
I took a glance at him and saw the bruise on his cheek. Someone must have tried to wipe his face clean, but there were still some blood stains remaining.
I pulled Finn into the room and shut the door in Sak's face.
"Did he hurt you?" I asked.
Finn didn't seem to hear me. He walked straight to the bar, grabbed a bottle of water, lifted his head, and started to drink.
Water dripped down his chiseled bruised face. I couldn't tell if it was water or his tears.
My heart was throbbing. I approached him and said, "Finn, did Sak hurt you in any way?"
He put down the bottle and turned his head toward me, wiping the water and blood off his face.
Then, he repeated in a robotic, monotonic voice, "I'm sorry, Miss Lewyn. I was out of the line."
"Finn, what happened to you?" I asked. I could tell that he was going through tremendous pain, but he couldn't even comprehend what was going on.
"I kissed you. I shouldn't have done that. I was bad." He said as if he was reciting some lines from an invisible script.
The warmth of his breath was still lingering around my lips, but the man sitting in front of me was clearly not there.
It was now very obvious that Finn was mentally challenged. I had never felt so torn and frustrated before.
What kind of monsters take advantage of a mentally challenged man, train him into a strip dancer, and profit from the sexual exploitation of him?!
I sat down with him on the sofa. He looked scared, but he sat down with me anyway.
Just like Sak said, he would do everything I asked him to do.
I noticed that his body was shivering like a sift.
"Do you feel cold?" I asked.
He shook his head, wrapping his strong arms around his chest.
I took a towel and covered his shoulders.
"Better?" I asked.
He nodded.
"What's your name?" I asked.
"Finn," he replied.
"Your full name," I said. I wanted to learn his full name, so hopefully, I could let people at the Department of Demography check his record in their system.
He paused for a while like he was racking his brains to answer my question, but eventually, he said, "Finn."
"Do you have families, Finn?" I asked.
Finn looked panicked when he heard this question. He shook his head violently and said, "No. No families. Only Finn."
I didn't understand why he got so nervous when it came to his family, but I said in a soft voice, "OK. OK. Easy. Finn. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm trying to help you."
Finn took a glance at me in fear and said in a low voice, "I can do everything for you, Miss Lewyn. I serve at your pleasure."
"I don't need you to serve me, Finn. I want to be your friend. My name is Leah and you can call me Leah," I said.
"Leah. Friend." He mumbled these two words a few times as if he was trying to remember them.
I shifted a bit further toward him. He didn't move away from me.
"I like the tattoo on your chest," I said.
Finn lowered his head, took a glance at the tattoo, and shook his head.
"It's bad," he said.
"You don't like it?" I asked.
Finn shook his head and said, "Sak did it. It hurts."
I clenched my fists and asked, "You mean Sak did the tattoo on you?"
Finn nodded.
"Why did he hurt you?" I asked.
"I was bad. I tried to run away. Some bad people came and they cut me. Then Sak came and took me back. He gave me this tattoo, so when people see it, they will send me back," Finn whispered.
"But you're not his property. You can go wherever you want to go. You can't let him hurt you in this way," I frowned.
Finn didn't say anything and lowered his head again.
I sighed and said, "Finn, what if I take you away from this place? Are you coming with me?"
Finn immediately panicked and shook his head.
"No." He said decisively.
I was surprised. I thought he didn't understand what I meant, so I said, "You can come with me and I'll take care of you. No one will hurt you again..."
Finn didn't wait till I finished and said again, "No."
I frowned and said, "But people are hurting you in this place. You ran away because you didn't want to be hurt, right? If you come with me..."
"I said no!" Finn suddenly growled. The wild beast, which was suppressed for a long time, was finally unchained and surfaced.
I was shocked.
I didn't know why he reacted so violently. The only thing I wanted to do was to help him.
At that time, I heard some rapid knocks on the door.
"Miss Lewyn? Are you there? Is everything alright?" It was Sak's voice.
I felt pissed. So I raised my voice and said, "Everything is fine. Go away!"
But Sak didn't go away. Instead, he said in a trembling voice -
"Excuse me, Miss Lewyn. I'm terribly sorry to interrupt, but is Miss Parrish with you right now?"
"No! She's in the other lounge. Why?" I asked.
I somehow had a feeling that something bad was going to happen.
There was a long pause before Sak said anything. But eventually, he said, "Miss Lewyn, we need to talk."