They had nothing to say to each other, or so she thought.

Honestly, what could he say? He made a decision, she glared at him. And I’m not about to give him the time of day because all of a sudden he’s “a changed man.”

“Hmph,” she grunted aloud.

He looked at her apologetically, really wishing that she had looked past the stigmas placed against him. He desperately wanted to start what should have been long ago, a relationship with his daughter.

Yeah right, she sized him up.

He recognized her stubbornness as his own. He smirked.

Ain’t shit to be smiling about, she began walking away. Kiss my ass if you think you’re getting another chance from me.

“Beauty,” he called her. “Do not walk away from me.”

She stopped in utter disbelief . It was not the authority in his tone that made her stop, but it was the audaciousness of his request. And no, Beauty wasn't her name, although she responded nonetheless. She has been called Beauty since before she could remember.

“I know you’re not talking to me,” she rolled her neck.

“How can you judge me and you don’t even know me,” he inquired.

“That’s not my problem,” she shifted her weight to her left hip. “Go on about your business, as your were.”

“Beauty, don’t do this to me,” he begged.

“Get it right, you did it to me,” she showed no mercy as she stared him down, making him shift uncomfortably.

This was something she learned to master during the cold years of her childhood. Once she did this all the voices stopped, something she truly appreciated.

He stared at her, acknowledging her eyes and complexion as his own, but he did not see her, he saw his inner child begging for answers that he was afraid to admit and reveal to her. There was no way that he could tell her the truth without getting lashed at, but he knew he could not continue life as it was.

“Beauty,” he looked from her to the tombstone they were standing at. “I loved her with all my heart,” he sobbed. “Still do,” he kneeled shaking his head. “She wanted nothing more to do with me after what happened,” he explained. “I guess its true when they say ‘misery loves company’.”

“You’re lying,” Beauty’s voice quivered.

She backed away from him, “She would never lie to me; she would never hide something like that from me.”

“But she did Beauty, she did,” he tried to convince her. “I was nothing but faithful to her and then she did this to me. I never wanted to leave her; she practically forced me to leave.”

“And what about me?” she asked. “If she wanted to get rid of you, why didn’t she get rid of me too?”

“It was never about you,” he stated coldly. “It was always about her. Don't you think that this could've been prevented? Yeah, she's gone now, but she still has you, just like she wanted.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she walked away again.

“I can’t make it go away,” he pleaded, “but I can be here to support you like I should’ve been,” he told her.

She’s dead and he’s still trying to incriminate her, she ran to her car.

Beauty tried to see through fog as he approached her.

“Leave me alone,” she screamed.

The setting had overwhelmed her until she could no longer stand it. Her last days were steadily creeping on her just as it had done her mother.

She started the car, and even though she saw him approaching her vehicle, she still jumped when he knocked on her window.

“Let me help,” he offered once again. “Nobody wants to die alone.”

He allowed his eyes to hover over her mother’s tombstone.

Two months later, he finally revealed his side of the story, which was the complete opposite of what she heard, and with each word he spoke, he hung his head in shame.

Beauty's mother was a piece of work. She was attractive, spoiled and expected nothing less than what she already had. She had everything a girl could ever want, but still she wanted more.

She fell in love with the lifestyle of Beauty's father, not fully understanding that he needed a way out. Against her parents’ wishes she pursued him and in return, they disowned her. Of course she was unphased by the act because he gave her what she needed and opened her up to much more.

As Beauty's father was breaking free, her mother became a prisoner. Tried hard as he could, Beauty's father could not break her away, but he chose to stay anyway.

Before giving birth to Beauty, she connected with someone just as good as Beauty's father, and contracted HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, and by the time Beauty turned three, her mother had full-blown AIDS, the Acquired Deficiency Syndrome. Against her father's wishes, she refused treatment, and removed him from their lives.

Beauty's father never had the chance to fight for his family, stripped of his manhood and dignity, he kept to himself, dreaming of what could have been.

Out of selfishness and self-pity, Beauthy's mother never took the time to find out if Beauty had also contracted the disease. Later on, at the age of seven, they would find out that she had HIV. In a car accident and in need of a blood transfusion, Beauty would learn, that she too had full-blown AIDS.

Around the clock treatment, courtesy of the governments healthcare program and child welfare allowed Beauty too see past the age of 18, an age where far too many victims never get to see.

Beauty grew up believing that her father led a promiscuous lifestyle, and that her mother contracted the disease from him, but she learned that he had not contracted the virus at all.

He took Beauty to her monthly treatments for nine months, and then, there was nothing more to be said.

His only daughter had fallen victim to lies, deceit, and ignorance at the hand of the woman he loved most.

Laying side-by-side may mother and daughter Rest In Peace.