KEILAH

I stared at him, my heart hammering in my chest. Surely, I’d misheard him. Surely, he hadn’t just said—

“My price is your uterus,” the man repeated, as though it were the most natural thing in the world. His calmness made it even more unsettling.

My mouth opened and closed, words failing me. The room seemed to tilt for a moment, and I grabbed the back of a chair to steady myself. “You can’t be serious,” I finally managed, my voice cracking.

“Oh, I’m very serious,” he said, turning fully toward me now. His piercing eyes locked onto mine, unrelenting. “What I want is not negotiable. You came to...