Scapegoat

"Push, Ellie! Push!"

Trevor's encouraging presence and words in her ear helped her bear down a final time.

There was a final gasp and then a small plaintive cry.

"It's a girl, Mr. Fields!"

Eloise, as she sucked in air, watched the nurses clean the newborn and then hand her to Mr. Fields. He smiled widely.

"Look at this little wonder my money produced!"

He handed her over to Eloise who finally had her first view of her infant. (No, not her infant, HIS infant.) She had dark hair and blue eyes with a deeply tanned skin tone. She was certainly her father's daughter, but as Eloise peered more closely, she saw signs of herself and her oldest daughter in the newborn's features.

"Her registration number is 302215619. What do you want to name her?"

The question was directed, not at Eloise, but at Mr. Fields.

"Echo!" replied the blonde billionaire. "Echo Rachel Fields."

Eloise could not deny the wristband denoting the infant as property. From this moment on she would be set apart. Her number would be her identity. She would be schooled with other slave children, receiving a limited education, which would largely prepare her for a life of service. A month past her eighteenth birthday she would be permanently collared, tattooed, and auctioned off stark naked to the highest bidder, forever the property of someone else. Mr. Fields would receive nearly all that money. If Echo was exceptionally beautiful, as a slave trained since infancy, she could sell for many millions of dollars.

Eloise was both overjoyed and astoundingly depressed. The thrill of new motherhood marked by the horror of that child never having the same freedom or opportunities of her peers.

Echo would never be permitted to vote, marry, own property, or travel freely. Her children, if she had them, were doomed to be slaves as well. Worse, Eloise would age out of her collar before Echo was even a teenager.

All of this hit her at once. Her smile as she gazed upon the wonder that was Echo transitioned to tears. Richard Fields picked up Echo anew. Trevor embraced her and allowed Eloise to cry into his shoulder.

**

The years rolled by. Eloise's relationship with Trevor was the most satisfying emotionally and sexually she had ever enjoyed. Her marriage to Bob was its near equal, but Trevor was a far more rounded, erudite, and compassionate individual. Trevor was also able to overlook the fact that she slept with Richard Fields several times a week. Trevor was not Echo's biological father, but he was in every other sense. Loving, kind, and patient, he gave her a firm footing that would remain with her the rest of her life.

As for Richard Fields, he doted on Echo. Her slave school was the finest. He paid for ballet, piano, and skating lessons. Often, he accompanied Trevor and Eloise to her soccer matches. Eloise could not shake the feeling that he was doing so, not from a paternal feeling, but rather to maximize her ultimate sale price. It was already clear she was destined for great beauty. According to more than one consultant, she would blossom into the equal of Bettie Page, but with a deep natural suntan. If those predictions proved true, Fields was looking for a massive return on his investment.

Echo's eleventh birthday was a month away. A few months after, Eloise's sentence would expire. The thought of reconnecting with her oldest daughter was thrilling. Offsetting that was the pain of being separated permanently from her youngest. As usual, Trevor provided a possible solution. She was in Richard Field's private office in her finest dress an expertly applied makeup.

"I'm not interested in continuing your service, Ellie. You are very good in bed, but to be frank, you are a decade older than when I bought you. Your place in the rotation can and should be taken by a hotter and much, much younger babe. Your last appraisal came with lots of conditions and asterisks. If not for Echo, I would have dispensed with you long ago."

"If I can't stay here, master I'll do anything to keep in contact with Echo until she is sold."

"She's going to have to get used to people moving in and out of her life. You know as well as anyone that a slave's life is impermanent."

"I'm her mother."

"That gives you no special rights. She is my property and has been ever since she was conceived."

"I appreciate everything you have done for her."

"Damn straight!"

"Is there any way I can be involved. I'll give you anything you ask."

"Let me think about this, Ellie. Despite your opinion of me, I am not an entirely heartless bastard."

"Master!"

"You are a slave, Ellie. You can't think of me in any other way. Now before I dismiss you. Let's see if that no smudge lipstick actually lives up to its billing by sucking my dick."

**

"How did it go?"

"He didn't dismiss the idea out of hand, Trevor. He's going to mull over it for a week. I owe him three sessions of anal a day while he makes up his mind."

"Could be worse, sweetheart."

**

He summoned her to his office. She knocked.

"Enter!"

"Master?"

"Strip and do NOT utter a word!"

He paced about her naked form.

"I can take you on as a maid. I will pay you the going rate. As part of your duties, I will allow you three hours a day, Monday through Friday, to spend with Echo and my manservant as well as dinner with them on two days and only two days a week. Your sexual relationship with Trevor also ends. He doesn't get the privilege of banging free pussy under my roof. He will be locked in a chastity device every moment you are under my roof. I've spoiled him rotten since I bought you and he's becoming insufferable. Your maid attire will be issued by me. I will see to its repair and laundering. If I want anything sexual from you, I get it. None of this sexual harassment bullshit they have everywhere else. If this is acceptable to you. show up at the servant's entrance at 8:00 sharp one week to the day of your liberation. Miss the day, miss the hour, you never enter this house again."

He loomed in front of Eloise.

"Dismissed! Get dressed out of my presence."

**

The court sent agents to Richard Field's mansion. They handcuffed her hands behind her back in front of Echo and paraded her out of the house. Fortunately, she had been wearing clothes provided her by Trevor, who waived ownership, otherwise hey would have had her strip naked before they cuffed her. The ride to the nearest federal courthouse was nerve-wracking. The stop before the judge's bench was only a formality. Eloise's court-appointed lawyer stated and offered proof that Eloise had completed her sentence that she was ready to be readmitted into society.

Hours later, her collar clattered to the floor. She would wear her tattoo forever. Now, when scanned, its beep indicated she was an ex-con and free woman. In a daze, Eloise made her way to a door that read, SLAVE REINTEEGRATION OFFICE.

She looked at the legitimate ID in her hands that read Eloise Jean Harris. After fifteen years she was a person again. What now? She noted that the downtown main branch of the bank was still open. What about that promise made to her by Bill when she was initiated all those years ago?

**

The money she ended up depositing in the bank was not large enough to be considered a windfall. It was enough to secure an apartment and a car and have a nest egg for a while. It turned out to in fact, under the circumstances, make her wealthier than she could imagine. She would look for an apartment tomorrow and maybe apply for a driver's license, but for now the downtown Budget Lodge might as well have been the Ritz. In her room, on her new cellphone she dialed and old, half-remembered number. A child's voice answered. After a bit of fumbling the young voice yelled, "Mommy, it's some lady for you!" A familiar female voice said hello. Mother and daughter spoke until dawn.