Welfare Wifeys Read Online Free PDF Page B

not been for Jada’s grandmother, Ms. Pat, taking her in, the little girl would’ve become a ward of the state.
    Jada was only supposed to be with Ms. Pat until Gina successfully completed the rehabilitation program, but less than three months after she checked in, Gina fled the program. Sobriety had become too heavy a cross to carry so Gina went back to the oblivion of the pipe. Not long after her great escape they found Gina dead in Central Park. She had gone into cardiac arrest after one of her drug binges and collapsed in a secluded section of the park. Nobody really knew if it was that last blast that had killed her, or the fact that she lay in the freezing snow for almost thirty hours before somebody finally found her.
    Ms. Pat had stepped to the plate and played the role of both mother and father to young Jada. Even with the constantly shifting cast of relatives that revolved in and out of the Butler house, Jada’s grandmother made sure that Jada was never short on love. But for as loving as Ms. Pat was she made sure that Jada was under no illusions about the ugliness of the world they lived in. Ms. Pat did the best she could in the attempt to raise Jada right, but she was so busy with herown struggles that Jada was often left in the care of her aunts and uncles and it was from them that she really learned the ropes of what life was all about. Her uncles taught her to be hard and independent, while her aunts instilled in her ruthlessness and cunning. By the time Jada was a teenager she was an accident waiting to happen.
    During her developmental years Jada stumbled through life making more than her fair share of bad decisions, especially when it came to men. Jada had always been a pretty girl so men were constantly coming at her promising everything but delivering nothing. She had to make trips to Planned Parenthood and the Free Clinic more often than she cared to remember, before she even got a clue as to sorting bullshit from the truth. For as hard as her aunts and uncles had made her mentally, there wasn’t much they could do about her tender heart. The more she had gotten her heart broken the colder she became, until it reached a point where she just stopped feeling anything at all. By the time Jada was able to stand on her own she had become a predator and everything was food.
    “What up, Jada?” Scar called from the stairs. He had his henchman Lloyd with him.
    “About to turn it in because I’m tired as hell.” She continued walking toward the building with the three stooges on her heels.
    “I know that’s right because you’ve been running through my mind all day,” Lloyd said. He was a funny-faced dark-skinned kid with an overbite and a nervous tick.
    “Oh, now that’s one I never heard before,” Jada said sarcastically. She tapped for the elevator and busied herself with her BlackBerry hoping they’d get the hint, which they didn’t.
    Scar stepped up before Boogie could hit her with another stupid line. “So what you getting into today?”
    “My bed, I just told you that I’m tired.” Jada rolled her eyes behind her shades. She silently wished that the elevator would hurry so she could get away from Scar. She’d known him for years, but he still gave her the creeps.
    “Nah, I meant later on,” he explained. “That new flick
The Last Outlaw
just came out and I’m trying to catch it on opening night. The shit is based on a book by that nigga K’wan and it’s supposed to be off the hook!”
    “Sorry, I saw the screening last weekend. The author’s wife is a friend of mine.”
    Scar scowled. “Yeah, I forgot that you run in high-class circles.”
    “Because I’m a high-class chick. Ask about me,” Jada said, waving her lollipop dismissively.
    “A’ight, so if not the flick then let’s go get something to eat,” Scar pressed her.
    The elevator was still nowhere in sight and Jada couldn’t take it anymore so she decided to level with him. “Look”—she removed her