Because if she was going to be forced into something, better it be my best friend than some old pervert looking for a broken girl to own. Better it be someone I could watch. Someone I trusted with my life.
That didn’t make it right.
But it made it tolerable.
Everything Ares had said that morning at the gun range started clicking together. The marriage. The pressure. The way he looked like he was being boxed in from all sides. These muthafuckas were trying to change our lives for us. But yet, I have in. I needed to get my sister anyway,
“Fuck it,” I said. “I’ll go get her.”
I didn’t tell them I was going to talk to Ares first.
I drove straight to his office.
When I got there, he was sitting behind his desk.
He looked up and smirked. “You look like you carrying bad news.”
I shut the door behind me. “I am.”
He leaned back. “Go head.”
I took a breath. “I know who you’re supposed to marry.”
That caught his attention.
“And I know who she really is,” I added.
He didn’t interrupt. That’s how I knew he was listening for real.
“First, I need to come clean. Me and my sister’s real last name is Laveau,” I said. “Not Wells. That’s just what we have to use to look clean. I’m sure you understand that.”
His brow lifted slightly. “I do… but keep going.”
“It’s Yuna,” I continued. “That’s who they want you to marry, bro.”
For a second, he didn’t say anything. Then he laughed under his breath.
“I remember her.”
“You ain’t seen her in years,” I said. “And you don’t know the rest.”
That’s when his smile faded.
“She’s on drugs,” I said flatly. “Meth. Heavy. And it fucked with her head.”
He sat up straighter.
“How?” he asked.
I clenched my jaw. “She was manipulated. By a nigga introduced to her as our uncle. My father’s driver. His name was Dale.”
Ares didn’t move.
“Yuna and my dad weren’t getting along at the time,” I said. “She confided in Dale like family. He convinced her to run away. Took her to Hollywood. Told her he’d help her chase her art and modeling career my father kept her from… for this reason.”
My voice dropped. “It was sex trafficking. The nigga Dale handed her off, made her his girlfriend because she lookedexotic. Then he got her hooked on meth, because he was on it.”
Silence filled the room.
