“Is everything okay?” I asked gently.

“Yeah, I’m sorry.” She swiped a tear away looking angry at herself.

“You don’t need to be sorry. There’s nothing wrong with crying. Do you want to talk about it?”

She looked unsure. “If I tell you, you can’t even tell Alex.”

“I won’t tell a soul if you don’t want me to.”

She sighed and paced in the tiny space.

“Max asked me to go to his trailer to talk about one of my scenes. When I got there, he had me run through my lines, but then…” She swiped another tear. “He pulled his dick out and started jacking off, snapping at me to keep going. He said if I was a real actress, I would keep going. He groped me. I was terrified.” She sobbed. “And I didn’t know what to do so I just sat there. I froze up and couldn’t remember my lines and he got so angry. I didn’t know what he was going to do, but he kicked me out of his trailer and told me we would try another time. If I told anyone about it, he’d fire me and make sure I never worked again.”

For a moment, I couldn’t speak. I was so consumed with rage and guilt and remembered fear that I couldn’t get words out. Melody’s sobbing snapped me out of it.

I stood up and very gently said, “Melody, I believe you. I’m sorry he did that to you. It wasn’t your fault.”

She threw her arms around me and I stood there and let her cry, trying to channel my strength into her, focusing on her needs instead of my rage.

I’d always told myself his behavior was limited to the dungeon and that I’d done what I could to prevent him from assaulting other subs by speaking up and getting him banned. At the time, I’d declined to call the cops, but there are a million reasons not to in that situation. I didn’t need to have their bias against sex workers thrown in my face or end up in handcuffs for prostitution even if what I’d been doing was technically legal. I didn’t trust Max not to claim I’d been breaking the rules and he was a powerful, well-liked man in Hollywood. It just wasn’t worth putting myself and the dungeon under that kind of scrutiny and media exposure when I knew he had the resources to weasel his way out of any consequences.

But simply banning him from the dungeon wasn’t enough. It had allowed him to maintain a position of power in the film world. It wasn’t my fault. Who would’ve even believed me if I’d said something? But I still couldn’t help feeling some responsibility.

“I’m sorry.” She stood back and swiped at her tears again. “It’s not that big a deal. It’s not like he even did anything to me.”

“Please look at me, Melody. He made you feel unsafe and violated. He threatened you and exposed himself. That’s not nothing. You’re entitled to be upset and he’s a sack of shit who should be punished. I have to put a stop to this.”