Who’s the “Unidentified Woman?” (Part Three)

This summer, a mystery book like no other—a story of rape, revenge, and redemption—will be published online, available throughout the E-reader Universe (see a short description of the novel by clicking on the “Woman” page above). Be the first to read an excerpt, and have an initial clue on the road to solving the mystery: who is she, the Unidentified Woman, and what’s her story? Here’s a short excerpt:

It is more than a year now since he brought me here to Los Angeles. To a place called Whittier. I see no nice people and no big cars. I see none of what Big Mamá told me I would find here in America. All I find here are poor and miserable people like me. Like me they work all day in the sweatshop. I hate it but what can I do? Mario beats me up when I refuse to go. I get no money from him. I’m still paying him my way here to El Norte, he says. For all his troubles and expenses. As if I asked him to bring me here.

I speak no English. Of course I don’t—I don’t speak at all. I can’t yet. Don’t know why, Adela. Maybe if I ever meet you again I will start speaking again. I see no television and read no papers or books. I don’t go to the movies. I don’t have any friends. I live with him in this little upstairs apartment. I cook for him, too, then serve him in bed.

I serve his friends also, and gringos he brings sometimes with other girls like me: from South America and from Asia, all of them. That’s much I know. I’m not stupid, even if everybody thinks I am. Let them think so. I’m helpless, maybe, but I’m not dead yet.