Chapter 4

I stepped inside the familiar warmth of my home, my backpack thudding onto the floor as I plopped down on the couch next to my mom. The latest episode of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” flickered on the TV, casting a dim glow on her face.

“Hey, Mom,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

“Hey, sweetheart,” she replied, her eyes glued to the screen. “How was your day?”

My mom, Linda, a package handler at a sorting facility, had spent another long day on her feet. Despite the exhaustion etched on her face, she still radiated an undeniable beauty. With her shorter hair and fuller breasts, she bore a striking resemblance to me, but with an air of maturity and confidence.

She was in her mid-thirties, but her youthful appearance often made her mistaken for my older sister. Standing at a height of about 5 feet 7 inches, she towered slightly over me, who was a more petite 5 feet 4 inches.

I loved my mom, but she could be incredibly demanding at times. She knew that I tended to be submissive, and sometimes she took advantage of it. As if on cue, she stretched her legs and placed her feet in my lap. “Baby girl, could you give me one of your special foot rubs?” she asked, her voice laced with a hint of exhaustion.

I sighed but couldn’t resist the pleading look in my mom’s eyes. I began to gently massage her feet, my fingers working the tired muscles and providing a soothing relief. It was a small gesture, but one that brought a smile to my mom’s face and a sense of contentment to our shared evening. She continued to watch her show but made a few contented sighs when I found a spot and worked the tension out.

After a few moments of silence, my mom picked up the remote and paused the show. She turned to look at me, “Whoa! Love the dress, baby girl. When did you get that one?”

I sighed again and looked down at the yellow sundress I had on. The one the voice had forced me to put on this morning. “It was in the back of my closet. I think I wore it in middle school.”

“Are you okay, Gloria? You seem kind of upset,” her eyes filled with concern.

I hesitated, unsure of how to respond. Should I tell her about the blackmail, about the pictures, about the nightmare I was trapped in? Her question hung in the air, a reminder of the facade I was trying to maintain.

“I’m having problems, Mom,” I replied, with an involuntary sob following. “I’m in trouble, and I don’t know what to do about it,” I finally said just before I broke down and started crying for real.

Mom immediately pulled her feet out of my lap and sat up. She pulled me into a hug with her arms wrapped around my head, pulling me in tight. I cried for several minutes, as my mom stroked my hair and kissed the top of my head.

When I finally stopped crying, I pulled back and looked up at my mom. She looked at me with concern and love, her eyes searching mine for answers. Taking a deep breath, I decided to tell her everything.

“Mom, I’m being blackmailed,” I whispered, my voice barely audible. “Someone has pictures of me ... awful pictures of me naked ... and doing stuff ... and they’re threatening to release them if I don’t do what they say. They made me put a camera in my room and they’re watching me all the time.”

“How did they get pictures of you?” Mom asked with a frown. “Who took them?”

I called up the first photo on my phone, one from the set of me passed out at a party with my tits out and a guy’s dick that looked like I was about to swallow it. Mom gasped and put her hand up to her mouth but then grabbed the phone and swiped through several of the photos.

“Oh, baby girl, when did you pass out at a party?”

“It was a couple of weeks ago, when Sarah’s mom was out of town. Some guys dared me to take shots of tequila. I don’t remember much after that,” I replied.

Sarah’s mom Terri was good friends with my mom. I had told mom I was sleeping over with Sarah, but didn’t’ tell her that her parents were at the beach. I mean, I shouldn’t have to, since I’m 20, but Mom still keeps a tight rein on me since I live at home, plus she helps pay for school, even though the tuition is covered by the state.

“So, Sarah took these?” she asked.

“No, she swears she didn’t take them and doesn’t remember anyone else taking them, but she also blacked out, so who knows?” I finished with a shrug.

“Well, we should call the police,” my mom said as she handed the phone back to me.

“What are they going to do?” I said defiantly. “The app is based overseas, and the people behind it are anonymous. They can’t do anything about it.”

My voice trembled as she spoke, the weight of the situation bearing down on her. I unzipped my backpack and pulled out the wad of cash, fanning it out to reveal $1,000 in crisp, hundred-dollar bills.

“Mom, that’s not all,” I said, my voice steady now. “They’re paying me. They told me to keep quiet, and they gave me all this money to buy sexy clothes with.”

“Holy shit!” my mom said as she took the money and counted it out. “Baby girl, you got a thousand bucks for pictures of your titties. You didn’t even have to do anything. I never got a thousand bucks for my tits, that’s for sure. I’m not sure why you’re so unhappy about it.”

“Well, that’s not all, Mom. They made me ride the bus out north of town, and I had to sit on a toilet in a skeevy bathroom and do things.” I opened the photo of my sitting on the toilet holding the penis that was stuck through the hole and held it up for her to see.

Mom took the phone, and her eyes grew wide as she looked at it. She pinched the screen to zoom in also. “Damn, baby girl. That is a big, black cock. Did you have to suck it?”

“No! Jesus, Mom. I had to use my hand until it squirted on me.”

She shrugged and rolled her eyes a little as she handed the phone back. “I mean ... you gave a hand job and took a few pictures of your tits, but you got a thousand bucks. It doesn’t sound so bad to me. Besides, what have I always said about you?”

I sighed. “I’m a doormat.”

Mom nodded. “It was only a matter of time until someone got ahold of you like this. Everyone has naked pictures floating around out there. It was only a matter of time until you did as well. If they’re going to hand you this kind of money and not do really bad things to you, maybe you should just relax and go along with it.”