Ciarra hated herself for the wounds that yet again distorted Aston’s face. But her guilt wouldn’t allow her to extend herself so far as to coddle him. Instead she stared out the window at the city passing by. The humbling darkness of her existence, which was hardly an existence, tumbled her with its claws. The company she kept had proven itself to be a synagogue of hell. She would take to her grave the way she judged herself for it, the way she blamed herself for having been so stupid and desperate to have fallen for it all in the first place. But she was stuck now. As far as she could tell, she had not only sold her body to meet their basic needs, she had sold her soul, too. Now her life was a blasphemy against those who had wished for her to do well. And now, the only thing strong enough to drown the shame she felt was cocaine.

One of the other girls at the cathouse would watch Aston while Ciarra worked in another room. She hated when circumstances forced her to do that. She could never relax when he was out of her sight at a place where the dangers of the game were always lurking.

Aria couldn’t take it anymore. No one knew better than she did that the system was broken. She wouldn’t wish it on anyone. But a broken system seemed better than the neglect and violence of the hands currently in charge of raising Aston. She found herself between a rock and a hard place, but had to make a decision.

She had been in the system herself long enough to know the protocol. The fire of being fed up with watching Aston being bruised and battered and left alone, on top of the fury of seeing Ciarra high, like her own mother had been so many times, launched Aria into motion. She crossed the city blocks swiftly, to the first place she knew of with a pay phone. It took her a few minutes to find enough willing people to give her the spare change to make a call.

“Hi, I’m calling to make a report,” she said, waiting for the woman on the other end to indicate she was ready to take notes. “It’s a little boy, about five years old. His mother is an addict. She’s keeping him in an abandoned parking lot. He gets beaten pretty regularly and also left by himself when she goes out to prostitute. I don’t know if he’s being fed. He got beaten up pretty bad today and I think someone should go get him.”