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Thus Cedar began. He divided Ariana's story into parts. He first began with what happened to her mother.
"Ariana's father took a loan of 2 million from a gang. Upon his death, they kidnapped Ariana's mother. Ariana followed them and they were involved in a gang raid in which Ariana and her mother were taken. They were kept in a room and a man..." Cedar continued telling her and came to saying, "... And then her mother shot the man after grabbing his gun to protect her daughter from him, and then she shot herself."
Faith listened in horror. "How can someone do this?"
"And Ariana hates her mother now because she believes that she was a coward and took the easy way out. That she couldn't face what had happened. That she didn't want to protect her daughter and further."
"Ariana hates her mother?"
"She says she does, but I know she lies. There is... compassion in her for her mother, or she wouldn't be trying to avenge her still after all these years."
Then Cedar told Faith about how the man's, whose name they still don't know, brother, Hover Jackson, took her and abused her and used her to commit crimes, and how he later made her an expert in hacking.
"That was the year the huge government hack was committed, and I still believe that Ariana had some connection to it." Cedar said.
"You think that Ariana did that?"
"She became an expert, Faith. She still is. I'm almost a hundred percent sure that she did it, because it was Jackson's gang that caused the city to erupt in chaos."
Faith was so taken aback by all the information that she couldn't help but ask stupid questions in disbelief.
"Then what?"
Cedar further told her how Ariana escaped and went on to live with a couple she didn't know, who enrolled her into that school and later died in a car accident. Ariana continued going to the school while managing to work as a drug dealer to return the gang's money, or they would probably kill her and she wouldn't get a chance to find the man who led her mother to shoot herself.
Faith listened still. "What kind of a life has Ariana been leading? I could never have imagined that she had to experience something so horrifying..."
Cedar remained quiet, staring at the ground. Faith then said, "In the video... Was that why Ariana reacted so brutally when she saw... That?"
"Yeah. It was a complete deja vu for her. A man forcing himself on a woman, and then the woman committing suicide by the man's gun." Cedar said and laughed bitterly. Faith placed a hand on his shoulder. He then said, "Look, I don't know how many videos you managed to watch, whether it be just one or all of 'em-"
"There was only one."
"What?"
"Yeah, there was just one lying over there, by the ground." Cedar turned to face the shelf where he kept all the DVDs. There were none left over there.


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