Bruised Angel (River of Lies #2) (3 page)

Maggie recoiled and held her face. Mason stepped forward and grabbed Chelsea’s arms as she went in for a second slap. Maggie looked at her daughter, her eyes wide with fear.

“What did he turn you into?” Maggie said shaking her head.

“What did he turn me into?” Chelsea practically screamed. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

Tears ran down Chelsea’s cheeks as Mason grabbed her shoulders and pulled him into his chest turning her away from her  mother.

“Please just get out of here” Mason said to Maggie.

Chelsea looked up over her shoulder to see Maggie still holding her face nodding her head as she left the room. Knox came into the room and took Chelsea by the hands gently.

“I know that you are angry at her and you have every right to be.” Knox said.

Mason snorted and Knox looked up as he gave his son a warning look and she felt Mason’s hand stiffen on her waist.

“She left me with that piece of shit. She never came back, she never let me know she was leaving, she left me for him to do everything but rape me. If I hadn’t of shot him I wouldn’t even be a virgin anymore. I would have lost my virginity to my own fucking father” Chelsea said her voice increasing in pitch as her anger rose.

Knox nodded his head and rubbed his thumbs on her palms.

“I know that. Right now baby girl you need to calm down, there is a lot of shit we need to deal with alright. So calm down and then come out into the dining room and we will talk about what is going to happen” Knox said.

Chelsea chewed on her lip and nodded with a sharp movement. She didn’t want to talk to that woman. She didn’t want anything to do with her. If she was so easy for Knox to find, then why the hell couldn’t she have come and checked in on Chelsea? She sighed and ran her hand through her hair. Knox nodded and turned leaving the room.

“Fuck” Chelsea spat, pulling on her hair.

Mason reached out and took her hands in his.

“I’ve got your back Chels. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. That time is over now” Mason said looking her in the eye with determination.

Chelsea felt relief run through her that she had someone in her corner, she didn’t feel like she had anyone like that. Her best friend Dylan, was the closest she had to a confident. She had never told him that her father touched her in the way he did, he knew that he was controlling and he knew that he beat her, but Chelsea was so ashamed of the things that Carl did to her that she couldn’t even bare to tell Dylan. Even after Dylan told her about how his father was murdered before he was born and the drugs that his mother had finally succumbed to and killed her when he was ten, she still couldn’t bring herself to let him into that part of the world. When she was with Dylan she wanted to not even think about her life, so it made it easier to let him unload his baggage on her, she felt important and needed when he talked about his life. And it was a good reminder that at least she wasn’t the only fucked up child.

Chelsea sighed and ran her hand up through her hair.

“Alright, let’s get this over and done with” Chelsea said lifting her chin and squaring her shoulders ready for battle.

Mason laced his fingers with hers and led her from the room and into the big dining room, which was more like a dining hall. With several tables set up through the room and pictures of men all wearing the same vests with the “Kings of Darkness” patches on them hanging on the wall. At one of the tables Maggie sat staring into a cup of coffee, running her finger around the rim of the cup. Knox sat at the head of the table, stretched out, his head back, eyes closed and his hands on his head. She felt really bad for dragging Mason and his Dad into this sorry mess, she hadn’t known what she was planning on doing when she ran from the house, but going to Mason wasn’t on the list.

Mason lead her to the table and she pulled the chair out opposite  Maggie, who didn’t look up from her cup. Knox lifted his head and opened his eyes, looking at Chelsea. She sat down and noticed the tears that dripped from Maggie’s cheek, one still red and angry from the stinging slap she had received.

“I’m sorry that I slapped you” Chelsea said quietly.

Maggie looked up and Chelsea could see her eyes were stained red from tears.

“Knox told me what he was going to do to you” Maggie said quietly, her face paling.

Chelsea looked down at the table and she felt Mason squeeze her hand in reassurance.

“Where were you?” Chelsea asked, not able to look up.

“Oh God. I’m so sorry Chelsea, if I’d known that when you grew up he would try to rape you, I would never have left you with him?” Maggie said.

Chelsea felt anger beginning to rise up in her body again and she could feel her face getting red under the weight of her fury.

“I hope you don’t think that just out of the blue he one day decided to rape me. Oh no, Mother” Chelsea spat “let me fill you in what that piece of filth did to me”

She tried to swallow her anger but the venom of which her words shot from her lips shocked even Chelsea. Maggie sat her face growing an abnormal white as Chelsea told her the story in great detail of what Carl had done to her starting with the day that she had left.

“It wasn’t until yesterday that he was drunk and waving his gun around and made me stand there naked in front of him while he forced his disgusting calloused and cigarette stained fingers inside me, that he told me that he was going to fuck me. That his plan was to fuck me and get me pregnant so I could give him more girls because he didn’t like them with a bush anymore.” Chelsea spat. “Up until that point it was only touching me, making me touch him, I hated it, I didn’t want to live with it, but there was no fucking way I was going to let him put that disgusting cock in me, there was no way I was going to lay there and pretend that I liked him fucking me the way he told me he wanted me to. And by fuck if I was going to let him get me pregnant, so when he fell asleep I stole his gun. I hid it. Then when his punishment started up and he slobbered all over my face in what he called loving kisses, I pulled it out and shot him. And do I feel bad? Not one fucking bit”

Chelsea leant back in her chair and for the first time remembered it wasn’t just Maggie she was talking to. She quickly looked around and saw Knox and Mason were just as pale as Maggie. Fat tears ran down the cheeks of all three who sat there. Knox cleared his throat and leaned forward.

“Fuck, sorry I need some air” Knox said standing quickly from the table and heading for the door.

Maggie lowered her face to the cold cup of coffee that sat in front of her. Chelsea saw that her hands were shaking but she couldn’t tell whether it was from anger, fear or sadness. Chelsea felt nothing but hatred, for her father and her mother and for that fat piece of shit that her father hooked up with. Her anger was mounting with the deafening sound of silence. Suddenly Chelsea stood up and punched both fists on the table. Maggie let out a scream and shot upright and stared into Chelsea’s face.

“Well fucking say something. Tell me how fucking sorry you are for leaving me with that cunt. Tell me how much you missed me. Tell me how you thought about me every fucking day” Chelsea roared.

Maggie sat back in her chair, her face beginning to redden as her mouth opened and shut like a fish. Mason stood beside Chelsea and touched her shoulder. Chelsea shrugged his hand off her, she felt nothing but fury and if she had the gun she probably would have pulled it out and shot her mother point blank in the face.

“No? Fucking got nothing? So what the fuck are you still doing here? Fuck off then” Chelsea screamed.

Movement beside her pulled Chelsea’s attention to the door of the dining room where she saw several men standing and Knox moving like a giant steam train towards her. He reached her and took her by the shoulders and tugged her outside into the night air. In the court yard there was a fire roaring and she noticed Duggar sitting beside it with his ratty features. Knox stopped by the fire and told Duggar to go inside, he quickly jumped up at Knox’s command and disappeared, Chelsea didn’t think he would be too far away, she didn’t trust him, but at that point she no longer cared. Knox took her shoulders and squared her to him, bending to look her in the eye.

“Girl you have every right to your anger, fuck I’m furious and want to carve Carl up myself. But your Mum never knew. She had no idea. You haven’t heard her story.” Knox said firmly.

Chelsea looked away and into the fire, instantly regretting her outburst. It was true, she had no idea why her mother had left her and maybe she did have a good reason. Chelsea tried to fight back a sob that was building in her throat but felt her whole body begin to shake. Knox stood straight and pulled her into his chest.

“Fuck girl, what a fucking life you’ve had. Fucking seventeen years old and to face that shit.” Knox growled into her hair as she cried into his chest.

“Knox?” Chelsea said looking up at him “Did you find out what happened to him?”

Knox closed his eyes and nodded.

“Yeah, you’re a shit shot. You missed all his vital organs. He told police that he accidentally shot himself. They know it’s a lie but can’t and won’t do anything about it. He gave them your Mum’s number, so I had my mate contact her and let her know you were here. I didn’t quite expect her to march on over here expecting everything be alright” Knox said.

His voice was tired and she knew that she had put him through so much.

“Chels?” Mason said beside her.

Chelsea turned and moved into Mason’s arms.

“I’m sorry Mason. I hate that I pulled you and your Dad into this. I didn’t want to do that” she said against his chest.

“Don’t be sorry. We got you” Mason said into her hair.

“Knox I’m going to go, is it alright that she stay with you until I can sort something else out?” Maggie said from the doorway.

“Mum?” Chelsea said and could feel the tension rise straight away in Maggie.

Chelsea went to Maggie and looked into her face. She looked older than when she first burst in through Mason’s bedroom door. Her eyes were bloodshot from the tears, her shoulders sagged and her hair hung about her face. Her lipstick was worn off and she had mascara streaked down her cheeks.

“Why did you leave me?” Chelsea asked.

Maggie sighed and reached out for Chelsea’s hand as she shook her head.

“I didn’t want to, please if you believe nothing else, please believe that I never wanted to leave you” Maggie said as she went to sit in the chair that Duggar had been previously sitting in.

Chapter Three

Maggie settled herself in the chair and Chelsea went to sit beside her. She noticed Knox nod his head at Mason to motion for them to leave the mother and daughter alone. Maggie didn’t seem to notice their departure and fidgeted with her hands.

“I don’t even know where to start” Maggie said.

“How about from the start” Chelsea said as she tentatively reached out for her Mum’s hand.

She felt Maggie stiffen and then gently lace her fingers with Chelsea’s. Maggie sighed and flopped back into the seat. Chelsea continued to hold Maggie’s hand as she leant back into her chair.

“Your fa.. Carl, was never a good man. He was always into something. I didn’t know he would ever do anything like that to you. He had never ever said anything about little girls, so I thought you were safe” Maggie said as her voice hitched.

Chelsea rubbed her thumb on Maggie’s palm, she didn’t want to dwell on what Carl had done to her; she wanted Maggie to move on to the part as to why she left. Maggie cleared her throat again and leaned her head back, wiping at her tears with her free hand.

“He dabbled in drugs in and out, dealing here and there. Anyway he was dealing and sold a bad batch and a young kid died, the kid’s friend told the cops who they bought the drugs from and they came to arrest Carl.” Maggie said. “He told the police that it was me that was dealing. He told me that if I took the blame the courts would take it easy on me”

Maggie shook her head and scoffed.

“Easy? I got ten years.” she said with a sniff.

“So you were in jail?” Chelsea said as she started to feel impatient with her mother not getting to the point.

Maggie turned to look at her and nodded her head.

“All because of that man.” she replied.

Chelsea shook her head as she did the math in her head, ten years meant that Maggie had been free for two years and yet Chelsea had never heard a single word.

“But you have been out two years, why didn’t you ever come and find me?” Chelsea asked feeling that surge of anger rise in her again.

“Carl had contact with me the whole time I was in prison, he made me feel like the biggest piece of shit. He had me believing that it was me dealing. He was such a manipulative son of a bitch” Maggie said with anger threaded through her voice.

She ran her hand through her hair and stared off into the fire that continued to roar in front of them.

“Anyway, just before I was to come out, he told me that he had told you I was dead and that he didn’t want to disrupt you. He told me that you were doing really well and it would be better if I stayed away.” Maggie said with a sob “If I knew why he really wanted me to stay away I would have been there in a shot”