Chapter Eleven:

Tatum sat in Jax's living room in complete silence, trying to process the information he had just told her. Clay Morrow, her father's oldest and closest friend had killed him. She couldn't believe it, her brain wouldn't let her. How could a man that she grew up calling 'Uncle Clay', a man that had helped her whenever she needed it, and a man that she once been closer to than her own father could be the same man that killed her father. It didn't make sense, none of it made any fucking sense to Tatum.

"I don't understand." Tatum said, shaking her head as confusion clouded her thoughts. It did cross her mind that Jax could be lying to her. She knew Clay and Jax didn't always get along, and that seemed more apparent than ever in the few days that Tatum had been in Charming. Maybe this was his way of pushing Clay out of SAMCRO for good.

"Why?" The dark haired female questioned, searching Jax's face for any hint of deception. "Why would Clay do this?" She could see no signs of deception on Jax's features and it made her heart sink.

A sigh escaped Jax's mouth as he ran a hand over his hair. He knew once the whole truth was out there that Tatum's heart was going to be even more broken than it already was, and he wasn't so sure if either one of them could handle that.

"Your dad was getting fed up with all the blood, deaths, and running guns for the Irish. He kept questioning Clay's leadership, and it drove Clay mad to see him siding with me for wanting to make the club legit," Jax said.

"There's this manuscript." Jax continued while not going into detail about the writing of his dead father. "Your dad wanted to bring it to the table, let the other's read it and see what they thought. I guess Clay heard about it and made sure your dad never got that chance."

"The manuscript that your dad wrote got my father murdered?" Tatum questioned, her voice cold and her face blank.

"How do you know that?" Jax asked as a look of shocked crossed his features. "How do you know my father wrote it?" He asked as the shock fell from his face and his features hardened.

"I found it in my father's stuff when I cleaning out his house." Tatum simply said. The look on Jax's face had scared her, it was the same one he had when she asked about Wendy. It didn't look like Jax at all, it was like looking at a stranger and that was what scared her.

"Did you read it?" He asked, his face still hard as he stared at Tatum.

"Some of it." Tatum truthfully said as she ran a hand through her dark hair. There was no point in lying to Jax, he could always tell when she was lying.

"What do you think?" His question caught Tatum off guard. She had been expecting him to freak out, not ask her opinion on it.

"I don't know, Jax." She said with a shrug. Tatum hadn't really given much thought to the inner ramblings of John Teller. It was nice that he had all these ideas for the club, but that's just what they were ideas and plans.

"I don't know what to do." Jax sighed as his face softened. "I don't know what the fuck do, T." He spoke softly. Jax knew he was in way over his head. Everything going on around him was too much, all the bullshit and all the death. He had no fucking clue what to do.

Tatum put a hand on Jax's shoulder, a soft smile on her face as her heart broke for Jax. "You need to do what you want. Clay had one vision for the club and your dad had a totally different one, but what matters is the one you have for it Jax. You can't let Clay or your dad's words decide for you."

A small smile took over Jax's face at Tatum's words. "You ever think about what it would be like if we ended up together?"

His question once again caught Tatum off guard. It was not at all what she had been expecting to come from his mouth. Tatum inhaled deeply as she stared into Jax's ocean blue eyes, the eyes that once gave her butterflies.

"No." Tatum said softly, watching the smile fall from Jax's face. She knew her answer hurt him, but it was the truth. Tatum hadn't thought about Jax romantically for years, there was only man that she thought about romantically and that was Angel. "We never would have been good together." She said with a laugh, trying to soften the blow she had just given Jax.

"I hate that you're married." Jax said suddenly, his voice full of hurt and hatred. "I don't even fuckin' care that you married a Mayan or Reyes, because I know he treats you like you deserve to be treated." Jax ranted as he stood up from the couch, pulling a cigarette from his pocket. "I just fuckin' hate that you're married and it's not to me." He said while swiftly lighting the cigarette that sat in between this teeth.

Tatum ran a hand through hair as she watched Jax pace back and fourth in front of her, the smoke from his cigarette filling her nose. She had thought after all these years that Jax's feelings for her would disappear. Tatum had never thought they were real to begin with, it was always Tara he was meant to be with not her.

"I fucked up our friendship because I stopped talking to you, but I wanted to keep you safe. I didn't want you around all this fuckin' bullshit and all the toxicity of SAMCRO and Charming. But mostly I stopped talking to you because it fuckin' hurt to hear you so happy and know I wasn't the reason why."

Tatum slowly stood up from the couch, grabbing her purse from the coffee table before she stood in front of Jax with a sad smile on her face. "I don't know what you want me to say Jax." She said with a shrug.

"Nothing." Jax said with a sigh. "I just wanted you to know the truth."

Tatum nodded before walking towards the door, taking one last look at Jax before she exited the house.

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Tatum shut the door softly behind her as she walked slowly into Cal's house. After getting the truth about her father's death and Jax spilling his guts out to her she drove around for a few hours to try and clear her head, but her mind was still full and Tatum was clueless as to what she should do next.

A sigh left her mouth as she slowly walked through the living room and towards the kitchen, trying not to trip over her own feet in the process. "Hey." Tatum said once she entered the kitchen, noticing Cal sitting at the table with a beer in front of him.

"Hey." He replied, looking over at Tatum quickly before turning his attention back to the beer bottle in font of him.

"Did you know?" Tatum asked as she sat down in the chair across from Cal.

"Yeah." Cal nodded. He didn't need Tatum to elaborate, he knew what she meant.

"What happens now?" She asked, looking to her little brother for some sense of comfort. Looking to him for all the answers to all of their problems, though she knew he didn't have them just like she didn't.

"I don't know." Cal said with a deep sigh. He had no answers for his sister or any words of comfort to offer her. "Maybe you should think about going back home." He said while pushing the chair back from the table, and placing the beer bottle into the sink. "Night, big little sis." Cal said, placing a kiss on the top of Tatum's head before leaving her alone in the kitchen to think over his words.

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A/N: Thank you for all the votes, comments, and views! It means a lot to me ♥︎