A work in progress by E.M. Abel

Dedicated to all the hurt little girls and the women brave enough to heal them. 

“All great and precious things are lonely.”

John Steinbeck

Chapter One

Yokohama, Japan

The reek of cigarette smoke clung to my mother’s black hair. With a shaking hand, she gestured for me to follow her into the back of that car. Like the scales of a deadly snake, its black paint gleamed under the streetlights. My instincts screamed for me to run but my heart ...