Page 18 of When Life Sucks!

“Here you go,” the prospect says as he passes me a bottle of cold water. He then quickly turns and continues drying glasses that he’s placing on a shelf behind the bar.

“How do you think she’ll react?” I ask Beast, who’s leaning on the bar behind us.

Jax is on my other side, not drinking but watching the room in general. He responds before Beast can. “She’ll be good. She once told me she wanted to find her father. But her mother wouldn’t tell her anything about him, so she did not know where to start looking. I reckon she’ll be fine. She fit in here with no problem, but she may be a tough cookie with the old ladies once I claim her.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it seems she won’t speak to any of them, as they knew what Sacks was doing and said nothing. So, Alice is anti-old ladies, and anti-brothers at this point. She said they are not family if they allow this to happen behind someone’s back.”

“Sucks to be you then,” chuckling, “I can take her back with me if she wants to come. She doesn’t need claiming at all then.”

“She’ll not leave her job, Black. She loves where she works, and the men who own it are more family to her than anything else. They are married to each other, yet they see her as the sister they never had.” Jax grins, obviously remembering something.

“What?” I can’t help but ask.

“One Christmas, the two of them had all these festive decorations up at their office. Alice was dressed as some character or other as part of it all. But she nearly fainted when the two of them walked into her office wearing only elf shoes, hats, and a pair of green and red boxers. They then began a make-out session until she started to laugh. They both squealed like schoolgirls and ran out of her office. She laughed about it for weeks. Seemed they thought she’d gone home, and they were going to christen all the offices as their Christmas treat.” Jax struggles to recite the tale and has to wipe his eyes as they are full of tears of laughter.

An hour later we are at Alice’s house, standing on her doorstep. With a hand in the air to knock, it opens, and the prettiest thing I ever saw has opened it. She gives Jax and Beast a huge smile, then turns to me and stares.

Stepping forward, Alice stands in front of me, and I dare not say a word as her eyes are roaming my face and hair. She walks around me, taking me in, and I stand waiting for what she’s going to say or do. Stopping in front of me once more, Alice looks at my neck, lifts her hand and just before she moves my cut out of the way to see my neck fully, she looks at me for permission. I give her a small nod and she looks, finding my birthmark.

Rubbing her own neck, I see a birthmark that is identical to mine and all of my family members in the past. I’m the only one now, apart from Alice, now I’ve found her.

She looks at me again, tears filling her eyes. Swallowing with a loud noise, she then whispers. “Are you my father?”

“I sure am, and if I’d been able to find you earlier, you would have been in my life since you were born.” I don’t wait for an invitation. I grab my girl and wrap my arms around her tightly. With her face buried in my neck and my cheek resting on the top of her head, I close my eyes and cherish the moment.

Two hours later, we had a meal with Alice in her small kitchen, laughing and learning everything we could about each other. It’s more than obvious to me there is a rift between herself and Yvonne. Mostly due to Yvonne being selfish and always wanting Alice to give some form of financial help.

“Why do you think your mother believed her friend so easily? It makes no sense to me,” I ask Alice.

“She’s always been close to Aunt Mais, and often they would take each other's word over mine or Melody’s. But Melody was spoiled and always got her way. I just let it run off me because, to be honest, I didn’t really care if I had the same as her or not. Anyway, she’s no longer a friend, neither is her mother, my surrogate aunt.

“As for my mother, well, I don’t know. But a break isn’t going to be the only thing she’ll be worried about. I stopped the money that I’ve been sending her every month, which I’ve been doing since I started working. She’ll have to get a job or lose the house because I’m also not going to pay her mortgage.” Alice isn’t looking smug, but she looks determined.

“You telling me you’ve been subsidizing your mother since you were old enough to work?” I ask, feeling the anger rolling up.

“Yes.”

Jax opens his mouth without putting his brain in gear. “Well, that would stop anyway when I claim you. You’re gonna be my old lady, Alice, and your mother can kiss my ass.”

The kitchen is deathly silent, and Jax realizes what he’s said when Alice points at him. “What the fuck are you talking about, Jax?”

Chapter 12

Alice

“What the fuck are you talking about, Jax?” I screech, and believe me, it is one that is likely to burst eardrums.

"Fuck!" I hear from all three of them. Beast and Black are giving Jax a deathly glare. Jax is holding his hands out in a ‘calm down’ type of motion.

Black grabs my hand and pulls me to sit next to him, where I’d jumped to my feet when I’d screeched at Jax. “Calm. We need to explain why Jax said that.”

“Okay, but it better be good, or all three of you are dead men walking.”

Black, who I’ve not called Papa as yet, takes a deep breath, looks at Beast who is his President to get a small nod of agreement about what he’s going to tell me. “Melody and one of the brothers have been helping a dealer get into town, selling bad drugs to the college kids. Three kids have died as a result so far. We have taken care of the brother, and we will take care of Melody, who has been buying, selling, and using the drugs…not those drugs, of course, because she knows they are dirty.

“Melody has also gotten herself an old man. His name is Sting, and he is a brother of the Death Dealing Dogs MC. We think she was a mole to get information about the Rampaging Rioters MC. She will be dealt with accordingly. She, by the way, was never pregnant. It was all a lie to get into the club.

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