ECSTASY | CRIME PRINCE SERIES | BOOK 0.5 FIRST EDITION

|𝟑𝟔.| 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗱 ♤

Aria

To say I'm excited would be an understatement. I'm ecstatic.

Today is Lita Azalea Luxe's birthday. One of the most important days of the year. Five years ago today, Lita Azalea was born, a little firecracker and ball of sunshine she was. And suddenly I found myself becoming her second mother. I remember it vividly - the day in the hospital, I mean, when Marae was convinced Lita would end her lifespan.

We were only nineteen going on twenty at the time. What the heck did we know about raising a kid? But, stubborn as we are, we most definitely were determined to raise Zalea. Yes, the nickname stuck with us. It was hard. Juggling between work, Marae and Zalea. At the time, Marae and I had completely isolated ourselves from the world. Even our family.

At one point I thought we'd looked like a lesbian couple. But I quickly realized that we looked like best friends with a kid, which, was what we were obviously. I remember bickering a lot with Marae during that time when she would leave Zalea crawling around our apartment or when she would zone out forgetting to watch Zalea's innocent actions that could've easily sent us to the ER.

I didn't blame her though, in fact, a lot of the time I felt guilty. Incredibly guilty. Going to the doctor and finding out my best friend had post-traumatic stress disorder did not bode well for our friendship. It was rocky. I tried, I did try to get better for both of us since Marae was taking a long time. She had depression during the pregnancy and the disorder lasted about a few months after.

Immediately when Zalea was born, I had to step up. No more moping, no more crying, no more feeling sorry for myself. I was alone, unfortunately, because Marae seemed to get worse. The reality that Devon left her high and dry finally sank in, that she had a baby. She was relieved that she left, the relationship became nothing more than torture but she had been manipulated - into thinking she was in love with Devon.

I, on the other hand, did what a best friend had to. I took care of Zalea, I fed her, changed her, played with her, put her to sleep, and taught her to crawl, well that's a little too much credit I guess. Marae taught her how to walk, and my dad taught her how to ride a bike. Dad. It suddenly hits me as a reminder that he's gone. Forever. A solemn sadness looms over me.

"Gosh darn nit, Aria Middleton, do you not know the meaning of beauty sleep?" Josh complains. He takes out a bunch of products, assessing the right ones before applying them to my face. To answer his question, yes but also no. To clarify, yes I do know the meaning of beauty sleep, and no because I own a multi-million dollar company, sleep is not very well on my criteria nowadays and sleep is non-existent when you're engaged to Ash Hermandez.

Engaged. Gosh.

"Ironically enough, Aria loves to sleep." Marae pitches in, and I roll my eyes at their unnecessary comments. She's scrolling through her phone and making last-minute calls for the party. Zalea's party. She has been doing that for at least five hours now since she woke up to be exact. She wants it to be perfect.

Li's party is anything extravagant. We're throwing her a forest-homey kinda party. I'm not sure exactly, all I know is that the LA mansion is set on the outskirts of the forest. Or I think it's a forest. Either way, the backyard looks like one, except for the field of space, which is where the party will be held.

It's been a full day of fun, to be honest. After a long time, I got to hand out with my girls. Rhea and Khloe tagged along to the mall, they pretty much brought the whole store but I didn't buy anything. We took Lita ice-skating, and shopping. Some family and friends flew down from New York and other cities for the party. Lita burst into tears at the sight of almost everyone she loved in one place. It was adorable