chock full of legal jargon. Instead of things becoming clearer, they were more confusing. Not because of the fancy, big words, but because of the window into the life his father had lived. Aries knew nothing of it. They were polar opposites. Aries had grown up in the lap of poverty. His father had been surrounded by the golden riches many could only dream of. Dad had been a mystery, and even in death, he was a mere rumor. A fictional person, to him. Unexplainable, like a shadow along a wall as one drifted to sleep, a scratching at a window while one was in a drunken stupor, or the faint cries of a ghost child’s apparition when no one was around.
His father was a color no one had ever seen, a page spoken but never written, a number in the recesses of one’s memory bank but never dialed. Though somewhere, somehow, he had lived. Oh, that man had lived. And because he’d lived, so had Aries. Familial blood flowing through his veins… A DNA that was as much an enigma as the next winning lottery numbers.
“Daaaad!” Aiden’s voice shook him out of his deliberations. “I’m finished!”
“All right!” He called out. “Leave it on the counter. I’ll take a look in a bit!” He cleared his throat, coughed, and placed the folder in the center of the bed before getting to his feet.
“Can I play the—”
“Yeah, go ahead!” He coughed once again and made his way out of the bedroom. As he neared the staircase, Aiden approached from the bottom and like a strike of lightning, the kid whizzed past him, his sneakers popping on the wood like a spoon against concrete.
Aries looked over the homework again. The handwriting was just as atrocious, yet the thoughts were clearer, and the questions fully answered. He closed the pad, satisfied with his son’s efforts.
At least someone will get the resolutions they want. Guess even Hellen Keller could see and hear the truth I didn’t want to face when I was a boy. Some shit just isn’t meant to be understood. Ask me no questions, I’ll tell you no lies…
CHAPTER FOUR
The Silent Treatment
Ashley waited in the foyer, her acid-washed, ripped jeans, bleached long hair, and cocky smirk grating his nerves. A large tan leather bag was strapped across her chest. She smelled of Vanilla Fields perfume, her old standby.
“Are you cookin’ chili?” she asked.
Are you sucking random willies? Ignoring her, he called out their son’s name.
“Aiden!”
“Yeah?”
“Pick up that stuff off the floor of your room and put it away, then come on down. Your mom is here.”
After a brief hesitation, the boy replied. “All right.”
He looked back into the face of the she-devil. So obscene, over-the-top. Crossing his arms, he leaned against the stairwell banister, glaring at her.
“You’re supposed to call first.”
“You’re supposed to not be a dick, Aries, but we know that’s impossible for you, now isn’t it?” She jetted out her tongue and wagged it.
“If I’m such a dick, seems your whorish ass would be ridin’ me all day and night long.”
She shot up her middle finger.
“That was about all you were good for,” she hissed. “You were damn good in bed, that’s for sure, but you’re a piece of shit in other ways.”
“Says the liar and the cheater… Look Ashley, I honestly don’t give a shit what you think about me, but I want you to stop tellin’ my son lies about me. Every time he talks to you, whether in person or on the phone, he comes with a bunch of questions from shit you made up, pulled straight outta your ass.”
“They’re not lies and you don’t get to dictate to me what I tell Aiden and what I don’t. He’s not just your son. You have full physical custody and I have visitation, just how you wanted it.”
“As I wanted it?” He laughed and rolled his eyes. “You were proven to be unfit! You left him alone in the house when he was five. During the divorce, I was at work and came home, and you’d done it again. We didn’t see you for two weeks! I should’ve taken you to court for attempted parental alienation. You just flow with the wind and wherever it takes you, you go – the hell with everyone else. You’re damn lucky I even let you see him at all, after some of this shit you’ve pulled. So I am telling you for the final damn time.” He seethed. “You keep that