Past Secrets Read Online Free PDF

hair as she’d had before she discovered peroxide. Easygoing to a fault, he wasn’t keen on taking his little sister and her friend out with him.
    ‘In your dreams,’ he said.
    ‘Mum would go mental if she knew you’d had that huge party in the house when the rest of us were in Kerry at Christmas,’ Ella said, all wide-eyed
    innocence. ‘The one where the neighbours called the police. You’d be chopped liver if she ever found out. You know what she’s like about not upsetting the neighbours …’
    ‘How did you hear about that?’ demanded Marco and then slapped his forehead and groaned. ‘You didn’t know, did you? You were just guessing.’
    ‘Oh, Marco, we knew about the party,’ Amber said, exasperated. ‘We were only guessing about the police, but we found some guy’s coat under Ella’s bed, along with a lot of empty Heineken cans and a condom.’
    Marco blanched.
    ‘It’s not as if Ella put the beer cans there. We never drink beer. We prefer wine or vodka,’ she added, hoping to sound worldly-wise.
    ‘Can’t you go out with your own friends?’
    Marco begged, not even commenting on the wine or vodka remark. It seemed like only last week his sister and her friend had been sobbing their hearts out over guinea pig funerals in the back garden and winning badges for Guides.
    ‘Think of it as community service for deeds previously unpunished,’ Amber pointed out. ‘We won’t be any trouble. Once we’re in the club, you can forget about us. We can look after ourselves.’
    ‘OK, you’re nearly eighteen and you know everything, right?’ he said sarcastically.
    ‘I’ve a yellow belt in karate,’ Amber said, assuming what she hoped was a karate stance, though it was years since she’d set foot on a dojo.
    Her mother’s insistence on self-defence lessons had been fun when she’d been ten, less so when she hit puberty.
    Marco sighed. ‘Close combat is not the answer to all situations in life. The most dangerous guys in the club probably won’t ask you to arm wrestle, Amber. Understand?’ He looked at both girls as sternly as he could. ‘I don’t want to have to come home at two in the morning and tell Mum and Dad that I’ve lost you two. Or worse, tell your mother, Amber. She’d rip me limb from limb.’
    Amber’s mother had always made Marco a bit nervous. There was something steely in Mrs Reid’s gaze, as if she was warning him that she had his measure.
    ‘We’re not kids,’ growled Amber. ‘We’re coming.
    It’s no skin off your nose. You only have to get us in.’
    ‘Well, you’ll have to watch your drinks,’ sighed Marco, knowing when he was beaten. ‘There are guys out there who’ll slip a date rape drug in your glass and, well … you don’t have any experience.
    You don’t know the half of it.’
    ‘You’re a wonderful brother.’ Ella gave him a hug.
    ‘This is a one-off deal,’ Marco insisted. ‘OK?
    And you’ve got to behave yourselves.’
    ‘Of course,’ said Amber, who had absolutely no intention of behaving herself. She could do that in the football club.
    The truly difficult part of the plan was lying to
    her mother about where she and Ella were going that night. They decided that, because of Faye’s ultra-vigilance, they’d stay at Ella’s that night after their alleged trip to the disco. Having gone through it all before, Ella’s parents were definitely more relaxed about their daughter’s behaviour.
    ‘Mum will check we’re home, but if I put pillows in the beds, she’ll think we’re there,’ Ella said.
    Amber thought of how her mum never slept until Amber was back after an evening out. How many nights had they sat up on Amber’s bed on her return, Mum listening as Amber recounted her triumphs and disasters?
    Then, she brushed the feeling of guilt away. It was only because Mum was so protective that she had to lie. She wasn’t a kid any more. She didn’t want to hurt Mum’s feelings but she had to move on and Mum must be made to