Underworld Champions (The MC Outlaw Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

more. He always made me feel like I had no option. Like my horrid life was inevitable. But I belonged somewhere else… somewhere better… here.
    “Is everything ok?” Carla asks, her voice gentle as she watches me from the doorway.
    “I’m not crying. I’m just allergic to the dust,” I say immediately, wiping at my face as I put the photos back where I found them.
    “Of course you weren’t cryin’. It’s fuckin’ dusty in here,” she agrees, leaning down to pick up a photo that had obviously fallen from one of the frames. Looking at it, she smiles to herself. “I reckon you and me missed out on a pretty good life.” She places the photo on top of the frames. It shows me and Prez, sitting on his Harley together. I've got the giant helmet on my head while I’m laughing my head off. He’s smiling too. It's another shared moment of joy that I can’t even remember.
    Another tear falls. “Fucking allergies,” I gripe, sniffling as I wipe at my face. “I only came in here because I wanted some of your old clothes.”
    “They’re over here.”
    She moves over to cupboard, and opens the door, revealing some stacked plastic tubs. After pulling the top one down, she removes the lid to check inside. “They might need a bit of a clean. They’ve been stored for a good fifteen years, but they should still be decent.”
    “Thank you, um…Carla,” I practically whisper, not really knowing what to call her.
    She presses her lips together, I can tell she doesn’t really like me calling her by her first name. But I’m nineteen now. I haven’t called anyone ‘mum’ in my living memory. Even Toby wouldn’t let me call him ‘dad’ – I guess know I know why though…
    “How did you know?” I ask suddenly.
    “Know what?”
    “That Toby was dead.”
    “The hospital called. I’m the only relative he has left. There was no record of a daughter on file. I had to approve them turning his life support off.”
    “I see.”
    “Best get out of this room before the dust gets you again,” she says kindly, a sad grin on only half her face as she glances around the room, and a kind of a nostalgia settles upon her. Clearing her throat, she stands up, holding one of the plastic tubs. “Do you want me to move these to your room?”
    “Um yeah. That would be great.”
    She pauses in front of me, her eyes moving over my face and down the length of my hair. “You grew up real pretty Maddie. I’m so sorry I missed it.”
    I just nod, then excuse myself and head for the bathroom, switching on the taps of the sink to try and drown out the sounds of my crying. What the fuck is going on with me? For as long as I can remember my life has been shit, and I haven’t cried, not since Toby let that man use me to settle his debt. I was thirteen then, and I haven’t cried since. I just did what I had to do. I survived, and now that he’s dead - it's over. I’m out of there. I should be smiling. So, why the hell am I feeling so messed up now?
    This is probably the safest I’ve ever been . But being here, with my real parents and realising how much they cared, and how much they wanted a family - it just makes it all hurt so much more. I could have had a better life.
    As my sobbing continues, I turn on the shower and climb into the tub, standing under the warm spray. This is when I really let loose. I can cry all I want in here, because it doesn’t count. I can’t even feel the tears as the water washes them away.
    So I let myself cry. I cry for that little girl who looked so happy in those photos. I cry for the many nights that she went to bed hungry because Toby had spent all of their money on drugs. I cry for the girl who had no friends, because the other parents were scared to have the child who seemed to constantly have head lice in their house. And I cry for the teenager, who realised that sex was worth something, and started to sell blow jobs at school, just to earn some money. And the girl, who never even finished