A Tragic Beauty

( A prequel to “Just a few steps to go …” by Teresa Kaye) 

Angelina was the oldest of twelve children. The family lived in a four room apartment just outside of Managua, Nicaragua. To say life was hard was an understatement. Life was unbearable! Her parents both worked, but there was never enough of anything. It was because of these conditions that her father, after being assured she would have a better life, sold Angelina to a couple who claimed they were looking for a domestic. They were actually recruiters for a human trafficking ring.

At fourteen, Angelina was jaw dropping gorgeous. All eyes would turn in her direction whenever she walked into a crowded room. She was the trafficker’s Crown Jewels, Mona Lisa, and Pieta all rolled into one. It was because of her anticipated value that the miscreants kept her out of reach of their normal clients.

Richard Wallace exhibited all the swagger and bombastic attitude some people with old money possess. It was all a front. His family had money once, but over time the fortune was reduced to a pittance. It was only a matter of time, given the circles that Richard traveled in, before he would meet the people who owned Angelina. One visit was all it took for Wallace to decide he needed to add Angelina to his list of possessions. Negotiations were entered into, a deal was struck, and the girl, complete with false papers, was his. The next day they were on a private jet headed for America.

The beautiful Angelina was almost fifteen when her parents had sold her. She was used as bait for a little over two years and now, on the eve of her seventeenth birthday, she was walking through the door of a once grand, but now dilapidated, mansion somewhere in the U.S. Her life had gone from an overcrowded tenement, to a dormitory like building, to a couple of rooms in the mansion’s attic. Like most South Americans she spoke very little English. Angelina needed rigorous training to become fluent. Richard’s method of teaching English was to have her read out loud every night from one of five books before he took her to his bedroom. She wasn’t allowed to stay the night, but after he tired of her, she would be banished to her rooms in the attic.

Apart from her night time duties Angelina was his maid, cook, and on days when he entertained or needed a plus one, his arm candy. This was Angelina’s existence for more than ten years. She had settled into this life of servitude by reminding herself how bad things were when she was younger. At least here she had a couple of rooms in the attic to call her own.

Several things happened in rapid fire succession. Angelina became pregnant. She tried to hide it from Richard for as long as possible. He had become more and more sullen as the bank account drew closer to zero. Finally, he realized that her weight gain wasn’t from over eating and raged at her for her carelessness. Later he just ignored her, and finally announced that he was going to take an extended trip to Central America. The day he left was the last day she saw him. Richard died in a bar fight in Managua. Since no one knew much about her, Angelina was never notified about Richards’s death. She continued to run the household like nothing had changed. When it was time to deliver her baby, she drove herself to a county hospital, delivered her new daughter, who she named Angelina after herself, and drove home the next day. She raised her daughter, taught her to read from the same five books, and remained living in the attic.

Angelina continued to provide for her daughter as best she could for the next seventeen years, until the money from Richard’s account finally ran out. The old house, in bad condition when she moved in, was condemned by the city and scheduled for demolition. The impending loss of a place to live, along with being penniless, was too much stress for Angelina and she died of a heart attack while out walking. No one knew about her daughter living in the old mansion until a building inspector paid a visit to the property before demolition. As he surveyed the house he discovered the girl in the attic. Once the press learned she was living in the condemned house Angelina was labeled “The Girl in the Attic.”