I learnt that life wasn’t fair from a very young age and in the worst way possible. My stepfather used to abuse me sexually and when I finally got the courage to report him, he only got three months counselling as punishment and was allowed to live with me again.
My mother took him back because of financial reasons but she kept us separate. They slept in the downstairs part of the house and we slept in the upstairs part. Still, I was traumatized and lived in fear. As if I hadn’t been through enough trauma, I was introduced to a man who I thought loved me but he sex trafficked me.
When I was around 14 years old, one of my neighbours came over to my house and invited me to a pool party.
“It’s going to be fun.” She said.
“Sure. I’d love to.”
I didn’t have many friends so it felt nice to be included in something for once. I grabbed my swimsuit and followed the girl. Before we got to the location, we ran into a small crowd of teenagers. There was one guy who stood out in the crowd. He had everyone’s attention and everyone wanted to talk to him. My friend started walking towards them and I followed her.
“Hi Greg, I want you to meet my friend Wendy. Wendy, this is Greg.” She said to the guy.
Greg turned to me, smiled and stretched his hand out to me then said, “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
At that moment, I felt weak in my knees. My heart started racing and I couldn’t stop smiling.
“Can I get your number?” He asked.
“Sure,” I said then gave it to him.
I didn’t think that he would call me but later that night, he did and we talked for hours. That was the beginning of a relationship that led me to being sex trafficked.
All I wanted was to be loved and Greg knew how to make me feel loved. It didn’t take long for us to be intimate and I became pregnant shortly after. I was still under my mother’s care since I was 17 years old when I had my child. Greg insisted that I should move out of my mother’s house for us to make the relationship work.
“How am I going to do that?” I asked.
“I have a plan. You can move to a shelter where they’ll consider you emancipated from your parents, then you can get welfare checks and we can get an apartment and live happily ever after.” He explained.
At the time, it sounded like a fairytale and I was all in. I ran away from home and Greg dropped me and my daughter at a shelter. However, life at the shelter wasn’t as easy as Greg made it seem.
It took a while for me to get my first welfare check and I was running out of baby products. So, I called Greg to let him know that I needed money to take care of our child.
“Don’t worry, I have a job for us to do.” He said.
I assumed he meant cleaning people’s houses since that was what he told me he did for money. So, I picked up my daughter and went to meet him.
“What are we going to do?” I asked Greg.
“Well, you’re going to walk up this street, wait on that corner for a man to pick you up and you’ll have sex with that man in his car and he’ll pay you.” He explained without any emotion.
I was confused and hesitant but he kept bringing up my daughter and telling me that if I loved her, I would do it. I felt like I didn’t have a choice. My legs and hands were shaking as I walked to the spot he had told me to stand. As soon as I got there, a car stopped in front of me and the man asked me to get in. That is how I started being sex trafficked by my husband.
“I know a place we can go in the woods.” He said.
I didn’t say anything. When we got to the woods, we both got out and went to a secluded area where he started taking off his clothes. I took off mine and we had sex then he gave me the money and drove me back to where he had picked me.
When I got out, I went to Greg who was still standing on the same spot and handed him all the money.
“I love you. I knew I made the right choice in picking you as my wife.” He said.
We went to buy diapers and formula for the baby and even had a little leftover. However, a week later, we were out of diapers again.
That time, he told me to do two or three clients since I could make more money to be able to come out of the shelter.
“Do you want your daughter to live in a shelter for the rest of her life?” He asked.
From that point, he began building one of the largest prostitution rings in the region. It consisted of 4 to 10 girls in different states. For 13 years and still married to him, he sex trafficked me. It went from once a week to every other day depending on how much money he was getting from the other girls. I worked as a street girl, escort and home calls. Not to mention, I had two more children with him.
People always asked me why I chose to stay with him for all those years but no matter what I said, they couldn’t understand what I went through. Greg got us addicted to drugs and would physically abuse us when we tried to leave. He would also make the other girls go find any girl who left and beat them until the girl came back. I felt connected with the other girls since we weren’t allowed to have outside connections. So, whenever I managed to escape, I would feel guilty and go back because I didn’t want them to get hurt.
After 13 years, I was finally free from Greg. I had just given birth and was in the kitchen preparing food for us when I saw police cars outside our house. The police stormed in, arrested Greg and took me in for questioning.
However, I refused to talk to them since I was scared that I would get a beating from Greg if he found out. Since I didn’t cooperate, they charged me with sex trafficking and I was sentenced to 23 months in prison. Greg was also charged with sex trafficking and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
My children were taken when I was in prison and since the judge in the custody case believed I was a sex trafficker, she vowed that I wouldn’t get custody of my children. When I got out, I went back to school and got an associate’s degree. I also went back to the same judge in my custody case to ask for my child’s custody. I went with my lawyers, counsellors and even the police officers who arrested me so we could explain my case to the judge.
She gave me my child back and I moved back home to live with my mum who, unfortunately, passed away later. Today, I feel safe and content, which is an amazing place to be. I’ve realized that there are people who are willing to help people who have been through the challenges that I’ve been through and if you’re going through something similar, you don’t have to suffer alone or in silence.
This story is based on Unfiltered Stories YouTube video.