Finding Beauty in the Darkness

“My mom spoke with my dad?” Her words come out broken and who can blame her? She’s an only child with two deceased parents. Both were only children, leaving Aria with no family.

“They spoke on occasion to make sure you were taken care of.” Mark pulls out a stack of papers and sets them on the desk. “Aside from the shares he left you—which Giovanni tells me you went over with Anthony—your father left you a substantial trust fund that will go to you once you turn twenty-two.”

“Twenty-two,” Aria whispers and looks at me. “This is why he was holding me in the basement.”

“He was in need of money and must have found out about your trust.” All the pieces to the puzzle are finally coming together, but the picture isn’t pretty.

Mark hands Aria the papers and she reads the first page, her button nose scrunching up like she always does when she’s confused. “I’m sorry. I don’t understand any of this.” She sighs. “I told Gio I should hire an attorney.”

“That’s okay. Unless you’re in the business, it can be confusing, and I’m an attorney so I can help you. What it says in a nutshell is that when you turn twenty-two you are to be given your trust of five hundred million dollars. If your mom passes away, I am to hold on to it until then. Your mom was made guardian of the shares of Angelo’s company, but it seems she signed them over to Weston, who signed them over to Antonio.”

“I’m handling that,” I assure Mark.

“I-I’m sorry. Did you just say five hundred million dollars?” Aria’s eyes go wide in shock.

“Yes, ma’am. Five hundred million on your twenty-second birthday.”

“Hol-y shit.”

Chapter Eighteen

ARIA

“Are you ready for your big date?” Sienna, Natalie, and Holly—another woman who works here that I’ve grown close to—all lay across our beds as I fix my hair one last time. I’m trying so hard to focus on my date tonight. I’m not sure how, but the day I changed my profile to allow sex, Benjamin scheduled a private room. My guess is Cecilia told him—I wouldn’t put it past her.

Benjamin was out of town but returns today and has booked me for dinner and then the private room afterward. When I changed my profile, I thought I knew why I was doing it. I want to have sex by choice. I want to have sex with a nice guy who’ll treat me good and it won’t involve me being held down or raped. I spoke with my therapist about all of this and while she doesn’t agree with the escort business, she didn’t judge. She said only I can decide the right way to handle it. Then she asked me to close my eyes and picture myself lying in bed and about to have sex…

“Who’s the first guy that popped into your head, Aria?” she asked.

I didn’t want to tell her it was Gio. Fantasizing about him is pointless. So instead I said, “Benjamin.” She smiled and said, “Well then, there you go. Maybe he is the one.”

Which means, since Benjamin wasn’t the man who popped into my head, he isn’t the one.

“Earth to Aria!”

I shake myself out of my thoughts. “Sorry, yes, I’m ready.”

I check myself out one last time and after saying goodbye to the girls, head downstairs for my date.

* * *

GIOVANNI

“Do you think she’ll go through with it?”

“I’m not sure. She’s been through so much. I get why she’s doing it, though.”

“I agree, but I think she should have waited to have sex with a guy she cares about.”

I walk into the kitchen to find Sienna, Holly, and Natalie sitting around the island snacking on Maggie’s freshly baked cookies. Grabbing one, I pop a piece into my mouth and the girls stop talking.

“Don’t stop gossiping on my account. Do we not work anymore?”

The three women glare at me. “Our dates don’t arrive until later.”

“Who were you guys talking about? Is one of the girls in over her head? You know Cecilia can help.” The women all roll their eyes and turn back to their cookies. “What’s going on?” My tone gets more serious.

“Cecilia is the reason for this. She won’t be of any help,” Natalie says.

“Seriously! Ugh! You know damn well she called Benjamin herself to let him know,” Holly adds.

“You guys are going to have to explain a little better.” I try to hold down my temper, but I’m starting to get irritated.

Natalie huffs. “Fine, Aria changed her profile. Her hard limits no longer include sex, and Benjamin, the guy she’s escorted a couple times, found out and scheduled the private room.”

The cookie in my hand crumbles as my fist clenches, and I drop the crumbs on the counter. This is my fault. She wanted to have sex of her own free will and instead of being there for her, I pushed her away. But I’m still in the same spot I was in months ago. If I have sex with her, I still can’t offer her anything more. My life hasn’t changed. I’m still in the organization. My family and business are still dangerous. But she said she was okay with that. She said to let her make her own choices. Fuck! “Which room?”