Diary of a Rocker's Kid (D.O.R.K #1) Read Online Free Page A

then I thunder out the back door in the direction of the barn.
    I run to the barn and shakily unlock the padlock on the door with a key that was hanging on a nail beside it. Then I dart inside and take an electric lantern from a nearby shelf. I turn the lantern on and close the door behind me, and then I climb the ladder to the loft, which is empty except for hay Dad put up here for me. It’s one of my favorite places to go when I need a time-out, and man, do I ever need a time-out right now.
    Once I’m safe in the loft, I set the lantern down and squeeze my arms around my waist as I cry hysterically. All the information I just received muddles in my head, and all I can think is He lied to me! on repeat as the sobs rack my body. One of the barn cats, Tasha, comes up to nuzzle me, and I lift her into my lap and hold her so tight that she eventually decides she’s had enough and squirms out of my arms. I wrap my arms around my knees and press them to my chest, needing something to hold on to so I don’t go spiraling out of control.
    Several hours pass before I finally get up the courage to step foot in that house again. Once I’m inside, I conduct some research on my computer to confirm everything’s true. After yet another jarring revelation, I need a word purge like I never have before.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 3
     
     
    April 20, 2015
    No Title Is Adequate
    I don’t even know how to write this without sounding batshit crazy.
    Turns out my entire life—my identity, my childhood, everything I ever held sacred about myself—it’s all a lie. My dad is a rock star. Like a legit, face-paint-wearing, womanizing, rich-as-hell rock star. Our last name was Daley when I was born, and my father, Michael Daley, is the front man of the nineties band W3. People call him the Grim Weeper, or Grim for short.
    Cass lives in a mansion in Beverly Hills, California, that belonged to Dad and me before we left the spotlight. Also, I just found out through a Google search that I have my own unfortunate claim to fame. People call me the “Basket Baby” because of the way my mother left me. Being known by the whole world for the way your mother abandoned you…yeah, that sounds about right for my life.
    My mother dropped me like a hot potato on Dad’s doorstep in L.A. She even wore a mask to conceal her identity. I knew she abandoned me, but that wasn’t the story I was expecting. I thought maybe she left Dad because he doesn’t work or something, but no. She left me on a doorstep and hoped for the best. I was a rock star’s baby, so she couldn’t have done it because of money problems. I guess having me was just such a terrible burden that I wasn’t even worth the fame, fortune, and golden toilets that came with it.
    Kay, maybe not golden toilets…but really…why?
    I know she came back for me, but that doesn’t change what she did. I keep wondering what the hell was wrong with me. Something must have been terribly wrong for her to give up the child of a rock star, right? There has to be a reason, because if not, I think I’m going to lose my goddamn mind.
    My relationship with Dad is shattered now. I don’t know if I’m ever going to trust him to tell me the truth again. I’m afraid to even be in the same house with him. Even my last name was a lie. I was born Madison Daley, not Madison Landers. For all I know, even that could be a fake name. I can’t even imagine going back to “normal” living after this. I mean…I could have grown up in a mansion.
    He said my mother was a psychopath, but I don’t know what to believe right now. If he lied about all these other things, how can I trust him to tell me the truth about that? There’s no way I’m going to be able toface Dad tomorrow when all I want to do i s crumple into a fetal position on the floor. What happened tonight changed everything. It turned everything I believed about myself on its head.
    I have a sickening feeling in my gut that the worst is