Defying the Odds

The heavy car slowly pulled up to the flashing lights of the café.

Sloane stepped out of Rowan's striking, pristine Benz, her worn sneakers hitting the cracked pavement. The filthy, chaotic streets of the rundown ghetto immediately assaulted her senses. The heavy air smelled of stale alcohol, exhaust fumes, and rotting garbage left to bake in the humid summer heat. Drunken shouts echoed from a ne