Sylvie watched in confusion as the nubile blond woman in the abbreviated uniform greeted Sylvie's mother with a fawning servility far surpassing the courteous deference of an ordinary valet. Sylvie's confusion increased as her mom, LaVernia Cristobal, received the same treatment from the two women at the doors of the dark Victorian manse. Sylvie followed her mom up to the wraparound porch of the house. The deferential women wore obscene parodies of doormen's uniforms, and Sylvie noticed that they watched her intently. With great trepidation, she followed her mother into the house's richly-appointed anteroom.
"Mom, what is this place?" the 21-year-old, fresh out of accounting school, asked.
"Well, dear, you know how I've always been a little vague about the family business," LaVernia replied with a mischievous grin.
"The import company?"
"Yes. Would you like a drink?" LaVernia asked Sylvie as a pretty girl in a tiny maid's uniform handed the still-striking 42-year-old a Scotch and water without having been asked.
Sylvie, who'd never been offered alcohol by her mother, shook her head nervously. A thin lock of brown hair strayed from her coif, dangling beside her glasses.
"Yes, well I've never explained quite what it is we import." The older woman gestured for her daughter to follow as she passed into the next room. Sylvie felt a sinking feeling in her gut.
"These, Sylvie, are the imports." Along both sides of a long hallway were rooms like jail cells, full of scantily clad young women. Sylvie stared, open-mouthed but wordless. LaVernia took her hand to guide her down the hall. Tall topless women in black leather thigh boots, short shorts, and black leather versions of police officers' caps patrolled the hallway with riding crops.
"You see," Sylvie's mother continued, "these women are the finest sex slaves, imported from all parts of the world and brought here for only the most discriminating consumers." Sylvie observed each cell in stunned silence. In one, a woman, perhaps Chinese, naked except for a pink feather boa, rubbed her crotch with both hands and moaned while down on her knees. In the next, a dark-skinned beauty pressed herself tightly against the back of a tall blonde whose breasts she fondled. Both of them looked expectantly at the mother and daughter outside.
"Of course we do keep an ample domestic stock as well," LaVernia continued, rounding a corner now.
"Mother!" Sylvie suddenly pulled her hand from LaVernia's grasp, having somewhat regained her wits. "What are you talking about? This is the family business? Sex slaves?"
"Yes, darling," LaVernia replied in a placating tone, but Sylvie would have none of it.
"Sex slaves? That's so wrong!"
"You didn't think it was wrong when it was paying for your college, and your car, and those fancy clothes." LaVernia ran her fingers along the sleeve of Sylvie's silk dress.
"I didn't know. Anyway, you have to let these women go!"
"Let them go, my dear?" LaVernia chuckled. "and do what? These women desire nothing else in life but to be sexual playthings."
"Our training program insures that," she added with a wry grin. "Our clients are all sufficiently wealthy to support the girls. If we simply let them go, they'd just be grabbed up and kept by random strangers."
"You're talking like they don't have minds of their own," Sylvie responded, near tears. "What about consent?"