Chapter 22

Teresa Yildiz stormed down the bustling London street, in exasperation at Brad and men in general. Her low-cut top and short skirt turned heads, but she didn’t care; she had one thing on her mind: fixing her broken phone. She marched into the mobile store, where a young salesman greeted her with a sympathetic smile.

“What do you mean you can’t fix it!”she exclaimed, waving her cracked phone in his face. The salesman shrugged. “Sorry, ma’am, you’ll have to get a new one.”

Teresa’s eyes narrowed. “A new one? I just need this one fixed!” The salesman explained the damage was too extensive, and she reluctantly agreed to buy a dumb phone for now. She really now needed to be contactable.

“Two hours?! You’re kidding!” she nearly screamed at the operator, who calmly told her it would take that long for the SIM card to activate. She snapped the new phone shut and stormed out of the store.

Back at her apartment, she noticed Sophie wasn’t home. She sighed, feeling a mix of annoyance and nostalgia. She remembered her own teenage years when disappearing for hours was no big deal. But nowadays, things were different.

She plopped onto the sofa and flipped through TV channels, feeling the sunshine streaming through the window. What a waste of a beautiful Saturday, she thought. But she couldn’t risk missing Sophie if she came in. Teresa sat there, her foot tapping impatiently, cursing Brad and his text message that had caused this whole mess. If Sophie was already out at that party, she wouldn’t be home for hours.

The TV droned on, and Teresa felt her irritation growing with each passing minute. Part of her felt guilty, maybe Sophie was worried about her, Teresa was the one at fault for staying over at Brad’s coming home late with a dead phone, and then breaking her phone. Then she started thinking that Sophie would have left a note or stayed in the flat, just as Teresa was doing now. It was not like Sophie to not care, and she grew uneasy.

Finally, her SIM card worked. Teresa cursed as she finally got it working. A torrent of texts went to her dumb phone, some from work, some from friends. But none from Sophie.

“OK” Teresa thought, Sophie was online, this phone can’t handle the internet, so she must have sent her messages on WhatsApp or Facebook if she couldn’t get through. She now wished she had just splashed out on a new phone there and then but had to go through insurance with her broken one.

Teresa looked up her number, grateful it had made it to the SIM, and called. No answer, it went straight to voicemail. She tried again this time leaving a voicemail, telling her to call her back. She then checked her own voicemails and was perturbed that none were from Sophie.

This isn’t right, she thought. What could she do? She went out to an internet cafe around the corner to see if she could access emails and social media. She would have used Sophie’s laptop but she had long since blocked it with a password. She was mortified at the idea of sharing her laptop with her mother.

At the internet café, the owner, a pious Muslim man, eyed her with disdain. Teresa could feel his judgment burning into her, thanks to her short skirt, low-cut top, and sandals. The heat and stress had her sweating, and he probably thought she was just another prostitute coming in after a shift. She ignored him, focused on finding out where Sophie could be.

Teresa opened up her Facebook and email accounts. She at first noticed she had a lot of friend requests from strange men who seemed to be from all over the world. She tried to ignore them, but they seemed to be spamming something. Instead she searched for Sophie’s messages or emails.

Nothing.

A chill dropped into her gut, like ice-cold water flowing into her stomach, spreading a shiver through her entire body. Her mother’s intuition screamed that something was seriously wrong. What had happened to Sophie? Was she in danger? The questions spun through her mind, but there were no answers.

She knew she couldn’t wait much longer. If Sophie was truly missing, every moment counted. But where should she start? Call the police? Ask Sophie’s friends?

She went to her Facebook again and thought she should check the messages from others. They all seemed to be sending her to a link. She clicked, and then suddenly her computer screen filled with a picture of a naked woman, bearing her anus and vagina to the screen and smiling.

“What the...” Teresa panicked and couldn’t get rid of it. This drew the attention of other men in the internet cafe as well as the owner. “No pornography in this store!” shouted the owner at her. He was correct, this must be a prostitute using his cafe to advertise her business. “Why are you opening pornography here?”

“But ... but...” Teresa was flustered, she was still thinking of Sophie and could not square that with the incongruous picture of a naked porn star on her screen. “I can’t get rid of it, it just popped up!”

“Of course it did. Please, leave me store!” The man motioned for her to get up and leave.

“No, you don’t understand, I need to find someone, my phone is broken.”

“Your client or your pimp? Go on, get out!”

Teresa stormed out. She hated men so much. She wondered what to do, and where to go. The police? She tried to think of Sophie’s friends and Dilan’s party. She went through her contacts looking for one of the parents she knew.

Dilan Barzini’s parents were doctors and they lived in a large house a mile away from Sophie’s tower block. Dilan’s father, Hamid, watched from an upper room down at the young teenagers happily chatting in his back garden. He could not help but perv over the girls. The hot weather really brought out the flesh.

His daughter, Dilan was in a tight sequined mini-dress in electric blue, its hemline barely brushing the tops of her thighs. Beside her, a brunette with a high ponytail donned a fitted black crop top, cut low to reveal a touch of midriff, and a pink mini-skirt, giggled at a phone screen. Two other girls joined in, one in a halter top with white denim shorts, and the other in a body-hugging slip dress in emerald green, were joining in the laughter.

Hamid had forbidden alcohol at the party, but was also weary of being able to control himself if any of these young girls started to tempt him with their bare flesh. Even his beautiful daughter, he smiled to himself.

The party appeared to be in full swing, though one topic dominated. Throughout the day, more photos had been passed around of Sophie, who was not at the party.

Dilan felt sorry for the poor girl, she had also invited Anna Gao who had also declined to attend. This revenge porn really ruins lives, she thought, and she felt bad listening to the girls laughing at the pictures and gossiping about a fellow girl.

Next to them, another group of three girls were chatting. Emma was in a white halter top and jeans. Priya was in a white tube top and a mini skirt with a slit up one side, and Taila was in a floral crop top with spaghetti straps and a short denim skirt.

“Did you see those new pictures Sophie posted?” Priya asked, glancing around to make sure no one was listening. “I can’t believe she’s done that after what happened to that Gao girl.”

“Obviously she didn’t post them, she’s a nerd” said Thaila “She has some internet boyfriend that has gone and leaked them.”

“I feel sorry for her,” said Emma, who was having a marvelous time. “I don’t think it’s right to share them around, I just deleted them.”

“Me too yeah” said Priya, “I mean what the fuck do I want with them, I don’t want to look at her fucking asshole”

The trio collapsed into fits of giggles. “God I tried to watch that dancing video, you know even squirts when she comes!” Thaila whispered, between giggles.

“Oh my fucking God” said Emma “I’ve just eaten for fucks sake!”

Inwardly all the girls wondered, if they were exposed like Sophie, would their friends laugh at them like this? Many of them had sent nudes and were secretly terrified of sharing the same fate. It added an element of danger which added an edge to their laughter.

“Oh fuck!” said Emma. “That’s Sophie’s mum!”

A hush came over the party as Teresa Yildiz entered the party. She was looking for an adult, and not finding one, she came up to Dilan and her friends and asked them “Is Sophie here?”

There was an awkward silence. One girl, who had not known at the time Sophie had been off school the day before. told her Mrs Yildiz, Sophie didn’t come. We invited her, but she’s not here.”

“Has anyone heard from her, I haven’t heard from her all day and I’m worried.”

No one knew what to say to Teresa. Someone would have to break the news to her. “Mrs Yildiz, I think maybe Sophie needs some time to herself right now” said one girl.

“What the hell does that mean? What’s wrong?”

Emma, who had a little vodka and was feeling wicked and brave, pushed herself towards Teresa. “Mrs Yildiz, your daughter has been sending pictures of herself where she is ... well ... doing sexual things.”

“WHAT??? What the hell do you mean?”

“No, Mrs Yildiz” Dilan interjected, “She has not been sending them. Some ... well ... some horrible person has been sharing pictures of Sophie online. I think she must be upset about it and felt too embarrassed to come to the party. Please though, when you see her, tell her she shouldn’t be ashamed it’s not her fault!”

“I don’t understand, what pictures, my Sophie would never do anything like that.”

“Maybe” Emma said slyly “you should take a look yourself” and handed Tereas her own phone, open at the offending pictures.

If Sophie had been there it would be difficult to imagine something more humiliating for her. A gange of all her female schoolfriends, who had all seen her in her most private moments doing unspeakable things, were not watching her own mother being shown videos and photographs of her naked and playing with herself.

Teresa was aghast at the flesh on display and the gynacological closeups. Why on earth had her daughter done this? Masturbate on video for someone? Finally, she saw the same picture that had got her kicked out of the internet cafe, the ass to the camera, thighs splayed, and this time she looked past the asshole and pussy to the face, and recognised her own daughter.

“Oh my God!” Teresa gasped and backed away from the girls and out of the house party.

She ran home and groaned in despair when she saw Sophie was still not there. She wished she had a clear head. She should have interrogated the girls more but had felt such secondhand humiliation for her own daughter that she had fled.

She quickly changed into more conservative attire and left a note on the table, telling Sophie, if she came home, to call her or stay home. And then, she went down to the police station in person.

“So your daughter has been missing since when?” The officer’s voice was gruff, his gaze unyielding.

Teresa wrung her hands, her knuckles white. “Well ... her phone is off. I haven’t had a text from her since yesterday.”

The officer raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you live with her?”

“Yes,” Teresa stammered, “but last night, I went out and ... stayed with someone.”

The officer leaned back in his chair. “And you didn’t call your daughter last night?”

“I texted her to let her know I would be staying out,” she replied, “but she didn’t respond, I din’t think anything of it then though.”

“Did you normally leave your fourteen-year-old at home all night like this?”

Teresa’s eyes welled up. “Yeah, it’s not a crime, is it? She’s a good girl, though. She wouldn’t go out by herself.”

“Like you did?” The officer’s tone was accusatory.

“Look,” Teresa’s voice cracked, “I got home, and she wasn’t there. Her phone is switched off. So where is she?”

“We can put out a missing alert for her,” the officer said, his patience waning. “Was she at school yesterday?”