tw: incarceration, poor prison conditions, prostitution, drugs, attempted suicide
[name_f]Martina[/name_f] ‘Marty’ [name_u]Louise[/name_u] [name_u]Arlington[/name_u] [20] is a young woman who was also confined at the prison where [name_f]Estera[/name_f] resides. The two became friends of circumstance when they were both targeted by the same bully in their cell block, while they harassed [name_f]Estera[/name_f] for growing up in poverty they went after [name_u]Marty[/name_u] for being a ‘pregnant jailbird’ since she had been six months along when she was arrested by an undercover cop who had been following her in a sting operation. The bully was also well aware of the fact that it was not her first stint in jail or prison. [name_u]Marty[/name_u] had been born as the fourth out of six children to a single mom who struggled to make ends meet due to her drug addiction, she had turned to hooking to pay for her habit and when [name_u]Marty[/name_u] was old enough she joined the profession as well to help keep herself and her siblings off the streets.
But it wasn’t hooking where she had gotten pregnant, that happened much later. One of the ‘clients’ she met up with offered to pay for her to stop selling her body to other men and to just sleep with him. It was a large sum offered and she couldn’t help but take him up on it. Turns out that money came from drug dealing, he started offering her products in addition to her monetary payment and as they became closer their relationship became more romantic in nature. He later introduced her to the fold of his drug running and showed her how to make more money to send to her family with that. Eventually taking on clients of her own and co-ruling his ‘empire’ alongside him as a queen of sorts.
Due to this fast paced and drug-centered world she didn’t even realize that she was pregnant until she was out of her first trimester. While she was terrified to be a mother it shifted her perspective about the world she lived in and began to make her question her career choices. Her boyfriend was much less excited about the baby, but was typically too high or simply never around to really care. [name_u]Marty[/name_u] didn’t know at the time but in truth she was not the first woman he had gotten pregnant although his ex had gone to rehab and gotten clean upon finding out about her pregnancy and currently lives out of the country. Meanwhile since her baby’s father was never around to hear about her prenatal anxieties she turned to one of her clients. The two became very close, she could feel herself developing feelings for him despite her commitment to her boyfriend and could tell that her client had reservations as well about the intimacy of their relationship. She would later find out it was because he was informing on her to the police for the last two months.
One night the rundown apartment were she lived with her boyfriend and some of his other dealers was descended upon by police. Multiple arrests, including hers, took place that night. As she was being placed into a cop car she recognized one of the officers at the scene, it was her friend. She was devastated and inconsolable for the first several nights she spent in jail. During her interviews she still refused to give up any information on her boyfriend, fearing retribution from him when and if they got out. Only to find out that he had turned on her to take a plea in order to receive a reduced sentence. However through the testimony from the undercover cop allowed some lenience with her sentencing as well, receiving a large fine and three years in jail.
While incarcerated she focused her time on getting better so as to become a better mother to her child in hopes that she could keep them. She also learned of people like [name_m]Gizmo[/name_m], [name_m]Aras[/name_m], [name_f]Inesa[/name_f], [name_f]Marija[/name_f], [name_m]Philo[/name_m], and others through [name_f]Estera[/name_f]. [name_u]Marty[/name_u] longed for an interconnected life like the one that her unlikely friend used to have. She was also hopeful to keep in contact with her once she got out and even asked her to be the godmother to her unborn baby.
Though unfortunately when the time came to deliver her child she was not deemed to be a fit mother by the prison’s psychiatrist and her child was placed into the care of a relative, though they refused to tell her which one. She wasn’t even allowed to hold her baby after the child was born, nor was she informed of the sex of the baby. Shortly after her delivery she was placed back into the general population of the prison almost as if she had never been pregnant at all. This was a deep blow to her mental health and she attempted to take her own life within her cell just days after. However during a spontaneous bed check she was found by a prison guard. They placed her on psychiatric watch and over time did begin to get better, unbeknownst to them that it was not due to their help but due to the sonogram picture that she kept concealed on her body that motivated her to get better. Besides the stretch marks on her body that photo was the only proof she had had that she ever had a baby. Vowing to herself that one day she would someday hold them in her arms again.
Since recovering from her attempt she threw herself into becoming an idea inmate, volunteering around the prison, not fighting back when people degraded her, obeying the guard even when they were abusive. It all paid off when she was released after two years instead of three. Now on the other side of the bars she has been determined to stick to her new life path, keeping her promise to visit [name_f]Estera[/name_f] when she can, and looking for her baby. Using the funds she acquired from working two jobs, as both a waitress and a barista, she hired a private investigator who just sent her some feedback about her case. He’s narrowed it down to just a few people based on the information she’s given him and now she finally knows for certain that she doesn’t just have a baby, she has a daughter.