Perhaps those life paths would stay woven for a while, like hers and Taylor’s had. Or perhaps they would never cross one another’s paths again. Either way, Aria could feel some cosmic orchestration at work in the world at times like this.

CHAPTER 25

CHAPTER 25

A couple of hours had come and gone since Aria returned to the car lot. The afternoon sun was high and harsh. Only Robert and Anthony were milling around their camps.

Aria was writing in her journal in the shade offered by the inside of the Land Cruiser when a commotion outside stole away her attention. It was Ciarra returning to the lot with Aston in tow. But she wasn’t alone; she was followed by a black man that Aria didn’t recognize. The man was tall. His shoulders were slightly hunched around a concave chest. The bones of his face were chiseled. A stifled mustache sat atop his thick lips. Even from where Aria was watching, the large diamond earrings that pierced both of his ears were clearly visible. His perfectly trimmed hair looked like a thick mat of black moss. He was wearing a neon lime sport jumpsuit and impractical black high-top Jimmy Choo sneakers that were an obvious status-driven fashion statement.

Aria cracked the cruiser door open quietly so she could try to hear what they were saying. She could just make out a word here and there, enough to gather that the man was Ciarra’s pimp.

Ciarra had met the man when Aston was still a baby. After Aston’s father had abandoned them for his flop of a music career, Ciarra had been suffocating under the financial and emotional weight of having become a single mother at 19. On one occasion, a friend offered to watch Aston for her so she could release all the pressure for a night. She could be irresponsible and be her own age again. So she went to a nightclub with a friend. It was there that she met DeShawn. He spent the night buying her drinks and dancing and exploiting her low self-esteem. They slept together for a week. During that week, DeShawn paid her bills and took her shopping. He promised to take care of her and said she would never be alone again. Though it was just his process of recruiting hoes, Ciarra imagined it to be the start of a relationship. She believed herself to be in love. During that week, he also introduced her to blow. The first time she snorted the powder with him off of the kitchen table, it was during Aston’s naptime. In the beginning, she complied in order to endear herself to DeShawn. But before long, she was addicted. Now, it was just one more hold that he had over her.