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  MADDOX

  BOOK FIVE

  BY LISA HELEN GRAY

  Copyright ©

  Copyrights reserved

  2020

  Lisa Helen Gray

  Edited by Stephanie Farrant at Farrant Editing

  Cover Design by Cassy Roop at Pink Ink Designs

  No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written consent from the publisher, except in the instance of quotes for reviews. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded, or distributed via the Internet without the publisher’s permission and is a violation of the international copyright law, which subjects the violator to severe fines and imprisonment.

  This book is licensed for your enjoyment. E-book copies may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share with a friend, please buy an extra copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are all products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses or establishments is purely coincidental.

  BOOK FIVE

  FAMILY TREE

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  EPILOGUE

  AUTHOR ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Books by Lisa Helen Gray

  FAMILY TREE

  (AGES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE THROUGHOUT BOOKS)

  Maverick & Teagan

  - Faith (engaged to Beau)

  - Lily (married to Jaxon)

  - Mark

  - Aiden (with Bailey)

  Mason & Denny

  - Hope

  - Ciara

  - Ashton

  Malik & Harlow

  - Madison (Twin 1)

  - Maddox (Twin 2)

  - Trent

  Max & Lake

  - Landon (Triplet 1 – with Paisley)

  - Hayden (Triplet 2 – with Clayton)

  - Liam (Triplet 3)

  Myles & Kayla

  - Charlotte

  - Jacob

  Evan (Denny’s brother) & Kennedy

  - Imogen

  - Joshua

  PROLOGUE

  AMELIA

  The balls of my feet throb as I make my way along the cracked path. It has been a long, tiring day, and although I’m exhausted, nerves rattle in my stomach, pulling me forward and towards home.

  Two more streets and I’ll be there.

  I’ll talk to Cameron, and he’ll tell me everything is going to be okay. He has to. Because right now, I’m scared, unsure of what our future will hold.

  At twenty-three, I have only just finished my internship and nursing degree. I had my final exams and last shift at work today. A shift that ended far too early because I collapsed whilst putting away stock. With all the long shifts, the extra schoolwork, and a five-year-old daughter, I’ve been exhausted. It was bound to happen.

  All I want is a day with my daughter, to relax. Just one. The last two weeks have been hectic, and I’ve hardly spent any time with her. But with Cameron still out of work, we need the money, so I’ve taken on the extra shifts.

  Cameron hasn’t been taking the extra time at work well, and has gotten angrier as each week passes. He’s getting sick of being the one to do the cleaning—like he does any—and is tired of watching over our daughter. She can be demanding, but only in a good way. She loves having all the attention and is so friendly and loving. It’s all slowly tiring him out, but he can’t blame it on the cleaning because whenever I get back, it’s worse than when I left for the day.

  When we moved out here, Mum and Dad followed months after so they could help out with Jasmine. At first, it was only ever meant to be temporary, but they stayed longer, finding a home that was closer, wanting to help me.

  A few years ago, they moved back home, so I no longer had their help. It was hard without them, and that was when things really began to get worse with Cameron.

  My best friend, Scarlett, helped out when she could, but I didn’t like placing that responsibility on her. She was the only one, out of all my friends, who stuck around after I announced I was pregnant. I didn’t want to push her away by forcing my family on her.

  A bench near our housing estate comes into view, and I practically whimper. I take longer strides before dropping down on it and shoving my face into my hands.

  “You’re pregnant.”

  Those words are a haunted whisper. I can’t be pregnant. Not again. But the results don’t lie. I took four tests, and each one came back positive.

  Pregnant.

  I’m not sure how Cameron is going to react to the news. I’m worried this will be the thing to tip him over the edge. He’s been hard to read lately, and his temper constantly gets the better of him. And it’s me who he lashes out at. I fear Jasmine will be next, and there is no way I’m going to let him near her. He needs to get his head on straight and re-evaluate his life.

  “Nothing good will come from being with him.”

  Mum’s warning had felt like the beginning of a countdown, and with each passing minute, the noise of it ticking on gets louder and louder, like it knows something is about to happen. A part of me has always worried she was right. His family doesn’t have the best track record around town, which Cameron inherited. He isn’t like his family though.

  When I met him, he was different—at first. I loved him—I have since I was fifteen years old—and there wasn’t anything anyone could have said to change that, especially back then. Whilst everyone saw a bad boy, I saw a boy who was struggling to get by, who worked hard to look after his family when his mother couldn’t.

  When I got pregnant at seventeen, it shocked us all, but we made it work. Cameron could have run scared, but he stayed, assuring me we could do it. I still managed to do all the things I had planned to do when I left school, just minus a few friends.

  Jasmine is my world, and I wouldn’t change her for anything.

  But another baby…

  I’m scared. I’ve just finished my exams, and depending on my results, I should be looking for a full-time position. Now, I’m going to struggle. No one is going to hire a pregnant woman who will have to leave in eight to nine months, and my contract at the hospital ended tonight, so I don’t have that to fall back on.

  Standing up, I exhale, then push myself to finish the journey home. I normally drive to work, however, when I do shifts that finish at eight in the morning, I opt to catch the bus or grab a taxi. There’s no way I could drive home after staying up all night to do a twelve-hour shift.

  However, I left in a rush tonig
ht because I didn’t want to leave Jasmine when she was acting out of character. In my haste to get to work on time, I left my purse at home, but even if I didn’t, I wouldn’t have had the money to pay the fare to get home.

  Cameron blew the last of our money on his new game for the Xbox, leaving us with nothing but pocket change.

  When I get to the house, I’m surprised to see Scarlett’s car parked on the street outside. She knew I would be at work tonight, so the only reason for her being here, that I can come up with, has my heart racing. I run up the path that leads to the stairs to our flat, needing to get to Jasmine. She had a slight temperature before I left for my shift, and if she had taken a turn for the worse, Cameron would have called Scarlett if he couldn’t get hold of me.

  It’s two in the morning, and I can hear her cries as I race up the stairs, my bruised feet long forgotten.

  I fumble with my keys, my hands shaking, before finally managing to slide the right one into the lock. When the door sticks in its frame, I shove my shoulder into it and force it open. I hate it here, but on a tight budget, it’s all we can afford.

  I grit my teeth at the smell of weed. Cameron promised me he wasn’t smoking it. I’ve questioned him a few times now, and each time he’s had an excuse. First, he blamed the smell on one of the neighbours for smoking a joint while he had the window open, and the other times he told me it was one of his mates who had one on the balcony. Intuition told me it was him, but I blocked it out, choosing to believe him again.

  I take a step into the hallway but come to a heart-stopping pause when I hear a moan coming from our bedroom. My heart sinks at the unmistakeable sounds of people fucking. I can’t think about that right now, not when my daughter needs me.

  I rush down the hall and push her door open, finding Jasmine curled up on her bed, her cheeks bright red and sweat trickling down her face.

  Oh my God!

  She looks up when I rush to her side, her expression filling with relief when she sees it’s me.

  “Mummy!” she cries, clutching her stomach. “It hurts.”

  “What hurts, baby?” I ask, sitting on the pink blanket next to her. Placing my hand on her forehead, I feel her temperature, shocked to find she’s burning up. Her sweet face scrunches up in pain as a whimper passes through her lips.

  “My tummy.”

  I feel her rigid stomach and she cries out, pushing my hands away. My heart is racing, to the point I feel like it’s going to burst. I can’t fall apart, not now. Not when she needs me the most.

  “Right, Mummy is just going to tell Daddy, and then we will take you to see the doctor. Okay?”

  I need to get my handbag and car keys from my room, otherwise I would have whisked her out without him knowing.

  I want to break things, to scream at him for leaving our daughter to suffer like this. Out of all the sinister things he’s done over the past few years, this is the worst by far. He can lash out at me, blame me for his own failures, but he can’t neglect his child. She should be his first thought, his first concern. And he can’t even use the excuse that he didn’t realise she was sick, because he knew before I left. He should have been checking in on her.

  I shouldn’t have left.

  “Make me better?” she asks, her big doe eyes staring up at me.

  I lean down, kissing her sweaty forehead. “Yes, baby. All better.”

  I pluck her dressing gown off the end of the bed and place it, along with her slippers, next to her. Then I grab my house keys off the floor.

  I race from the room, my stomach knotting, and walk down the hall. Everything in me knows what I’m about to walk into. I guess the part of me I’ve kept locked away knew downstairs when I saw the car. But denial is a tricky thing, and I have been in denial for a long time, not letting myself question what was right in front of me.

  I didn’t want to believe it, and maybe if I hadn’t been so weak, so foolish for thinking I was in love, I wouldn’t be here right now.

  We have been together since we were fifteen, and although eight years isn’t much to some people, it is to me. We have been through a lot and fought against all odds.

  I can barely swallow past the lump in my throat as I grip the door handle. I know what I’m going to be walking in on, however, that doesn’t make it any easier.

  The sound of Jasmine whimpering has me steeling myself against the onslaught of emotions as I push through the door. I only give them a brief glance, my eyes welling with tears as I see him balls deep in my best friend, her nails digging into his arse as she begs him for more.

  I can’t feel anything. I want to express my disgust, my anger, but neither are worth it. Not anymore. They are dead to me.

  A part of me wonders if my lack of action has less to do with my concern for Jasmine and more because it has felt like we have been over for a while. As soon as that thought comes, I remember the exact day I began to fall out of love with him. He had raised his voice in anger and shoved me against the door, then punched a hole through the wood right next to my head. All because I told him I didn’t want to keep coming home to a messy house.

  Or maybe it was because the minute we decided to live in our own place, our relationship changed. He changed.

  It could have been from a million moments.

  They haven’t even sensed or heard me come in as I walk over to the dressing table, knocking Scarlett’s bag to the floor so I can get to my keys in the bowl.

  Tears course down my cheeks because what hurts the most is that Scarlett did this. We have been friends longer than Cameron and I have known each other. She was my best friend, the person I confided in, who I trusted.

  Yet she is there, with my boyfriend’s cock inside her like it isn’t the first time.

  “Amelia…” Cameron panics, seeing me for the first time. He jumps off the bed to grab his boxers, his face flushed. “It’s not what you think.”

  “Oh my God,” Scarlett cries. “Amelia, I’m so sorry—"

  I switch the music off and grab my bag off the chair. “Fuck you!” I bite out, keeping my voice low so I don’t scare Jasmine.

  Scarlett struggles to cover herself with the bedsheet, but I can’t look at her a minute longer. Bile begins to rise in my throat.

  “It’s not what it looks like,” Cameron rushes out, his red eyes boring into me.

  He is definitely stoned.

  “It just happened,” Scarlett rushes out. “It didn’t mean anything.”

  “I don’t care,” I snap, stopping at the door. “I’m taking Jasmine to the hospital. If you cared less about getting your dick wet, you’d know she isn’t doing well and is in pain.”

  His face turns concrete. “I hurt you. I get it. But don’t call me a bad dad.”

  “You’re fucking another woman while she’s in the other room. Did you even care what this would do to her if she had walked in to get you? She was calling out to you and you didn’t even hear her. And don’t get me started on the smell of alcohol and the stench of weed and smoke in here.”

  I storm down the hall, blocking the pain. I can be a single parent. Lots of mum’s do it every day and I can do the same. I don’t need a man to make us a family. I’m done trying to keep us together. He’s had chance after chance, and he blew it.

  “Amelia, wait,” he yells, and I hear him pulling on clothes.

  Walking into Jasmine’s room, I wrap her dressing gown around her, pushing her Stitch slippers onto her feet. I lift her into my arms, cradling her as I run a soothing hand down her back.

  “It’s okay, baby.”

  “Why’s Daddy mad again?” she asks, her voice trembling.

  “We should talk about this,” Cameron snaps, blocking the doorway when I turn to exit.

  “Move!” I snap, cuddling Jasmine to my chest. Her little arms wrap around me, her face tucked into my neck.

  “Mummy,” she whimpers.

  He slams his fist against the door, the veins in his neck bulging. “You aren’t taking my daughter.”
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  For the first time, I really look at him, seeing past the red in his eyes to his dilated pupils. He’s on something. Something more than weed.

  Jasmine grips me tighter. Normally when he gets like this, I put her in her room and turn the television on for her. We don’t have time to placate him right now. We need to go, and he is in our way.

  “Move!” I yell. “She needs to see a doctor.”

  “She’s fine. She’s just being a baby, like always,” he snarls, and I clutch her tighter when she whimpers.

  I fear this isn’t the first time he has said something cruel about her to her face.

  “Cameron, let them go,” Scarlett says, dressed now. Her face is pale and apologetic but all I feel is disgust towards her.

  “And I want you gone by the time I’m back,” I warn him.

  His gaze sharpens, something lethal, deadly, shining through the haze. “No. I’m fed up with you constantly telling me what to do. You aren’t my boss.”

  “I’m not your mum either,” I snap, trying to push past him, but he keeps blocking my path.

  “You bitch,” he roars, slapping me around the face.

  I nearly drop Jasmine, and the only reason I don’t is because of how tightly she is clinging to me.

  “Cameron,” I whisper, feeling blood trickle down my chin.

  “Cameron,” Scarlett gasps, stepping between us, but he pushes her away. Her head smacks against the doorframe and she collapses to the floor.

  I step back, my heart racing for another reason. “Cameron, don’t do this. Let us go.”

  His fists clench at his sides and he takes a step forward. “You aren’t taking her from me.”

  “Baby, get down for me a minute,” I whisper, my entire body shaking. She lets go and I quickly place her in her book corner behind me before stepping in front of him, blocking his view from her.

  My fear for her health thrums through me, but fear of what Cameron is going to do is just as bad. It wouldn’t be the first time he has hurt me, but it will be his last.

  I can’t do this again. I fought for so long for our family, to keep us together, but I can’t do it anymore.