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“He left Derek the plumbing company, and the property. He left him this…” he said, nodding his head, chewing on the corner of his mouth. “This is all I’ve ever had. My father and this place were all I ever fucking had, and he gave it to my brother, who ran away.”
I wasn’t sure what to say. I wasn’t sure how to process the information. All I knew was Jax had been dealt a shitty hand in life, and just when it’d looked like the possibility of it turning around was alive, life happened again, dealing him another round of disappointments.
“He had to have left you something… He had to have…” My words stumbled and somersaulted off my tongue. “This doesn’t make sense,” I said, still in disbelief.
“Cole Kilter never made sense.”
“He left you nothing?”
He shook his head and gestured toward the will again. “There’s a shoe box on the floor. That’s what he gave me.”
I glanced down and picked up the box. Inside were letters—our letters, the ones I’d never received from Jax and the ones I’d sent his way that he never got. On top of them was a piece of paper that read,You took my happiness, so I took yours.
When I looked up, Jax was staring at me. I didn’t have a clue what to say or what to feel, so I couldn’t even imagine what thoughts were running through his mind.
“It’s funny, isn’t it?” He paced the office, his voice rising. “Even from his grave, he gets to hurt me.”
“Jax…”
He shook his head back and forth. “All this time I thought there would be some point to all of this, some reason behind all the bullshit, but there wasn’t.”
How was I supposed to fix this? How could I make a man who’d spent his whole existence fighting for others see that he, too, was worth fighting for when so many things in his life had told a different story?
“It’s all a joke,” he muttered. Stepping back, he stared at the damage, and I saw the tiny tremble in his bottom lip. He dropped the glass to the ground, and as it shattered, so did he. He fell to his knees and his shoulders slumped forward. He didn’t cry, but I knew it was his breaking point. My hand covered my mouth to hide my own cries for the broken soul before me. When he couldn’t cry, I fell apart for him.
His hands landed on the broken glass, which sliced into his skin. I moved to him and didn’t say a word. I didn’t beg him to stand. I didn’t tell him to try to be strong. I sat beside him during his storm, and I stayed when he begged me to leave him alone.
34
Kennedy
“How’s he holding up?”Derek asked after I forced Jax to lay down for some rest. Derek and Stacey were staying at the bed and breakfast in town. Stacey headed back to rest a bit, but he didn’t want to leave without knowing that his brother was okay.
I walked over to him and sat down on the couch with him. “He’s struggling, of course. I can’t blame him. What your father—”
“He wasn’t my father,” Derek hissed through gritted teeth. “He wasn’t Jax’s father, either. Not by a long shot. The way that monster treated Jax was disgusting. I couldn’t even imagine what he went through when I left. I shouldn’t have left him here.”
“You tried to get him to come with you,” I offered.
“Yeah, well, I should’ve tried harder.”
“At least you can leave him the property,” I said. “I’m sure you can sign it over to his name, or something. I’m sure there’s a way to make this work.”
Derek lowered his head. His fingers were laced together, and his knuckles were white as he stayed quiet.
“Derek,” I urged. “You can turn your father’s cruelty into something good.”
“I know,” he agreed. “Which is exactly why I’m going to sell this hellhole to the highest bidder.”
I felt the stab of his words. “You can’t do this. This place means everything to Jax.”
“Really? Is it because of the fist holes in the walls? Is that’s what’s keeping him here? Or the memories of when Cole threw the microwave across the kitchen? Or the memories of when he punched me so hard that I blacked out the night before I left? Is that what’s keeping him here?” he snapped.
“No. Of course not.”
“Then what in the hell could keep him staying in this place?”
“Your mother,” I breathed out.
