Destiny sat at the bar, alone, almost crying into her beer.

Life had a weird way of playing tricks on people at the most unexpected times, and this had been the worst twist ever.

Even her own name felt like a joke, now…

She thought he’d been the man for her. They’d had a wonderful first date; then a second, a week later. That time, he’d invited her back to his place, for drinks…

She’d woken up in his bed, alone, the next morning. She was just thinking about getting up when his wife walked into the room.

“Mum…?”

“What’s it feel like, sleeping with your own father?”, her mother asked, bitterly.

Destiny’s mouth had dropped open, in shock…

Yeah. Her own father had screwed the daylights out of her, never letting on at all. She knew that she was going to regret becoming a hooker sometime, but she never realised it would be like this.

Destiny wasn’t even her real name; it was the working one that she had chosen. Her parents hadn’t even been married; her dad had been one of mum’s ‘one-night stands’ before she was born, so she had never met her father. Mum had obviously kept in touch, however…

Disgusted with herself, she had slinked back to the bar, to drown her sorrows in alcohol.

Her mum had plopped herself down on the bar stool next to her…

“Hi, kitten”, she said.

“What the fuck do you want?”, Destiny replied indignantly.

“Abby, please, I just want to talk.”

“My name is Destiny!”, Destiny shrieked. “Abigail Newman died a long time ago.”

“Abby, please, don’t say that”, her mum said, tears in her eyes. “Abigail Newman is my daughter, and I still love her. I need her.”

“What could you possibly need from me?”, said Destiny, staring into her beer…

Jane was shocked. How had her daughter become this bitter, twisted person? She’d thought she’d brought her up properly; she was sure she’d managed to hide this life from her.

She had no way of knowing that her daughter had seen everything; her lifestyle hadn’t changed that much even after she had had Abigail, so the young Abby had soon got used to the many different ‘friends of the family’ that visited.

Because of this, a young Abigail was never able to form stable relationships; she thought one-night stands were the norm; she was never able to form a lasting bond with anyone…

As soon as she had been old enough, Abigail had left home. After all, her mum wasn’t really there for her; it was just a roof over her head.

Her lifestyle had soon attracted the wrong kind of people; she took the name Destiny, as she felt it was what she was meant to do. The first bundle of notes stuffed down her cleavage was more than she had earned in a week previously…

Her new ‘owners’ had set her up with a nice flat. As well as a constant stream of eager men. Destiny had happily satisfied all of them…

The most recent of those, however, had been a setup; her father had been booked a ‘session’ by his wife, her mother.

“I want you out of this business”, her mother said. “It’s not for you.”

“Sod that!”, said Destiny, indignantly. “You gave up the right to tell me what to do a long time ago.”

“Damn it, Abby, listen to me! They’ll cast you aside as soon as you get pregnant, like they did me. They’ll pull the rug from under you at the same time, and you’ll end up living on the street.”

“They wouldn’t do that to me”, she said. “Besides, I can’t get pregnant; I’ve been sterilised.”

Jane, to Destiny’s amazement, started crying.

“No! Why the hell did you do that…??”

“They even paid for the op and gave me a while off ‘work’ to recover. They said it was the least they could do for one of their best.”

“Finish the sentence”, Jane said. “One of their best whores.”

Destiny slapped Jane.

“I’m not a whore! I’m providing a needed service.”

“Look at you! Pink boob tube covering not a lot, rubber skirt, fishnets and red high heels. You’re the definition of a whore on the pull.”

“I feel comfortable wearing this”, said Destiny. “After all, I modelled it on what you used to wear when I was young. Brilliant example to follow, mum.”

Jane shook her head, sadly.

“I thought I knew better then! In fact, I was terribly wrong. So terribly wrong…”

She turned to Destiny and looked straight in her eyes.

“Please, kid. Get out of this business, before it’s too late…!”

Destiny just stared back into her beer.

“You’ve done your duty as a mother, not that you ever did before. You can leave now and not feel guilty. Please, I insist…”

Destiny just gestured toward the door of the bar, then turned away, making it clear that she was done with the conversation.

“Ok, kiddo. Don’t hate me too much for what comes next…”, Jane said quietly, walking out of the bar. She clicked her fingers once as she did so…

Two women, dressed completely in black, walked into the bar and stood either side of Destiny.

While she was eyeing up one of them, warily, the other stabbed her in the neck with a syringe…

“You’re cut off…”, the woman said, quietly. Destiny slumped.

The pair then carried her out of the bar, supporting her either side so it just looked like two people helping a drunk friend, and put her into the waiting van outside. Jane then got behind the wheel and they drove away…

Destiny awoke in what looked like a hospital ward, but the walls looked too cold and stonelike. Then she felt something cold between her legs…

Her hands shot under the sheets, then she whipped the sheets away and stood up. Cold metal met her gaze. It was worse than she thought; it went right from her neck down, covering her breasts as well. She had no way of arousing herself at all; worse still, there was no way for her clients to get to anything. Her bosses would be very displeased…

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”, she cried, scrabbling at the metal. “I’m screwed! Completely screwed!”

“Hey!”, she yelled. “Let me out of here! Let me out of this thing!”

She yelled and cried until she went hoarse. Nothing. Nobody came.

She spent the next few minutes frantically trying to undo the chastity corset. No joy. Everything was covered, and it was staying that way.

“This must be Mum’s doing”, she realised. “She’s got some damn nerve, especially considering the lifestyle she’s led. She’s got no right to judge me!”

“I know this is your idea, Mum, but it won’t work!”, she shouted.

An envelope was pushed under the door.

Curious, but still annoyed, she opened it. It contained a medical report. It was about a genetic defect in the birth canal, and it was her mothers. She realised two things, as she had been training to be a nurse before her ‘fall’; her mother had almost died during childbirth, and sterilisation would have no effect on her. Then she read about the defect being passed to her offspring…

Destiny suddenly realised that she could have got pregnant at any time. Shit, she might be even pregnant now…!

She started scrabbling at the corset again.

“Dammit! Let me out of this, you bitch! I have to know!”

Sobbing, she collapsed to the floor…

When she next awoke, her mother was sitting alongside her, stroking her head…

“I needed you to know why I’m doing this”, she said. “It’s for your own good. I’m not going to let you die in childbirth in some hotel room, like I almost did.”

“By the way, you’re not pregnant; not yet anyway. According to my team, though, you’ve had at least two miscarriages, probably by having sex too soon after getting pregnant for the first time. We’ve managed to repair the damage, but you’ve got to lay off sex for a while, hence the chastity corset.”

“Would they have known I could still get pregnant?”

“They didn’t with me…”, Jane said.

Suddenly, it all got too much for Destiny. She just collapsed against her mother, sobbing her eyes out…

Jane showed Destiny around her new ‘home’. All the time, though, she could tell Destiny was worried about something, so she asked her.

“My ‘employers’ will be looking for me”, she said.

“Your ‘owners’, you mean”, Jane said. “Don’t worry; I can handle them.”

Apart from the discomfort and awkwardness of the corset, Destiny was starting to relax; she was actually enjoying a relatively normal life, for once.

Jane still refused to call her Destiny; she was Abigail, or Abby for short.

“I absolutely refuse to use your working name”, she said. “You’re out of that now, and that’s final.”

Destiny realised why her mum was doing that, but she was still annoyed.

“It’s the name I chose for myself”, she said. “Why can’t you just be happy for me?”

“I am, but only if you’re fully away from that life”, Jane said. “That means losing the name.”

Destiny stood her ground, but she knew she was fighting a losing battle with her mother.

“At least let me out of this damn torture device now”, she said. “You know I’m not going back to the life.”

“We’ll see…”, said Jane.

Destiny had spoken too soon…

A few weeks later, one of her ‘regulars’ had found out where she was staying, and he broke into her bedroom one night.

However, he hadn’t counted on the corset…

He was sliding silently into bed with Destiny when he encountered it.

“What the fuck is this thing!”, he shrieked, completely forgetting where he was.

Before he knew what was happening, Jane had come barrelling into the room, grabbed him and beaten the crap out of him. She then threw him out of the window. Destiny’s bedroom was on the third floor…

Destiny just stared at her mother; she was shaking, both from shock and how callously her mother had dealt with the intruder.

“Told you I’d look after you”, she said, simply. “They have no idea who they are dealing with.”

Nobody else disturbed Destiny and her mother after that. The word had quickly got around…

After a couple of weeks, Jane trusted Destiny enough to release her from the corset. When she went to remove it, however, Destiny refused to let her take it off.

“Don’t, please…”

“But love, I trust you! You don’t need to wear this thing anymore!”

“But I want to, mum. I don’t trust myself…!”

Jane tried again. Destiny batted her hands away from the lock, and ran out of the room, crying.

Jane caught up with her crying in the corridor.

“I’m scared, mum! I’m so scared I’m going to be dragged back in to the life…!”

She then looked at her mum, tears in her eyes.

“Call me Abby, mum, please! Let me be your little daughter Abigail again…!”

Jane reached out her arms, and Destiny, now Abigail again, flew into them. Perhaps her ‘destiny’ had actually come at last…