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Taming Ava & Outwitting Jax - A Modern Fairytale

Chapter 8 Ava Gets Mailed

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Ava's father had to go to Los Angeles so she went along and showed him more of her new and improved behavior. What she really wanted to do was visit her friends, party and have fun, but she told herself over and over that giving up a little fun now would be well worth it if she could get her father to change his will back, so she wouldn't have to go through with her planned marriage.

Her behavior wasn't as bad as it could have been. She'd never been arrested, pregnant, or been to rehab. A lot of her friends couldn't make the same claim. Her parties tended to end up with property damage. Of all the bad things she could have done, that was pretty minor. The time she held a petting zoo inside the house wasn't one of her best moments, but that was an isolated incident of epic property damage.

The gathering she'd had with the bikers didn't result in that much property damage. It wasn't as though she let the bikers drive through the castle on their bikes. Her father had no sense of proportion.

It was his fault that she damaged the houses they lived in. He never even asked her about moving. Just one day movers would show up. She had no say in where they lived. Same with how her room was even decorated. She'd asked to decorate her room and he'd told her to talk to the interior decorator, but he never gave her the number and her room was always decorated in yellow.

The particular shade of yellow that was used was always the color of piss. No one should have to live in a piss yellow room. How could she be expected to have a good day when she had to wake up to that?

She didn't really like her friends much. Her father paid her credit card bills—she had a whopping $5000 monthly limit on the card. That was it. How did he expect her to dress nicely, eat lunch out with her friends and do anything on that? She couldn't even buy a decent outfit.

Her father may have tons of money, but she didn't and her friends judged her for that. They considered her poor because she didn't have a multimillion dollar trust fund at her disposal. Are friends really friends if they are people you don't like and don't trust? If that were true, she didn't have any friends then.

When she returned to Charming with her father, she was a lot less than happy. She did have a surprise waiting for her when she returned. There was a letter waiting for her. An actual letter. How quaint! It even had actual handwriting on it not a computer label. She couldn't remember if she'd ever received an actual letter from a real person.

The writing was nice and neat. She looked up at the return address and her enthusiasm waned. It was from Jax. For a moment she wondered if he had decided he didn't want to go through with the marriage plan. She felt disappointed. She would have to start the hunt for someone all over again.

She tried opening the envelope neatly, but somehow the envelope wouldn't open and she had to tear it almost in two to get it open. They should let prisoners have decent envelopes that people could open without tearing them all up.

Her hands shook as she began reading the letter. She didn't want to have to find another inmate to marry, but given how much he was going to cost her it wouldn't be the end of the world. She had to hand it to him though, the way the deal was structured it helped both of them because by giving him a piece of her inheritance, it gave him a great motive to keep his mouth closed about the true nature of their relationship.

It was a perfectly nice letter. As far as she could tell, the spelling and grammar were correct. It had a nice tone to it. It just said that he'd enjoyed seeing her when she'd come with his attorney Ellie Lowen. He told her that he'd added her to his visitor's list and it could take a week or two to get approved. He said he would call her or write her and let her know when she was approved.

His letter added that he hoped to hear from her but if she'd changed her mind about visiting him or writing to him, he would understand. His prison sentence was a long one.

There was just something about the way he phrased things that that hit her. Twenty years in jail seemed like an eternity to her. She wondered what he'd done to get locked up for such a long time. She thought about asking Ellie Lowen, but decided to wait until she met with him alone in prison for the first time. The idea made her stomach turn. Prison was a scary place to visit especially having to go by herself.

She wondered if his hands would be torn up the next time she saw him and his face battered. It would be a horrible way to live. It was a good thing he had all those bulging muscles. It wasn't like she was ever going to have to deal with all those rock hard lumps that he had under his clothes.

She decided she should write back because it had to look like a friendship that quickly blossomed into love. Was there ever a Hallmark movie that started in prison? No Hallmark romance guy ever looked like Jax Teller. Too much sex appeal. He would scare the hell out of those virginal heroines. Even the ones with kids always seemed like they never had sex to have had the kid.

Maybe Jax Teller caged was a good thing. With that guy on the loose, women would not be safe. She didn't think he would force himself on a woman, but he'd give her some sort of knowing smile and her clothes would just slide off her body.

This was not going to happen to her. This would be a marriage in name only. There would be no naked times with Jax. Thank God!

She opened her desk and looked for notepaper and envelopes. There wasn't any. She realized that just as getting a letter was a novelty so was writing an actual letter. The only time she'd ever written a letter was in school for some English assignment and she'd used notebook paper.

The next day Ava went and bought some pretty stationery with soft watercolor images of flowers with matching envelopes and sent Jax a nice note saying that of course she still wanted to see him. She said she believed in him.

A few letters later, Ava got the letter she was waiting for and dreading at the same time; Jax had gotten her approved as a visitor.

He explained the procedures for visiting the prison cautioning her to make sure they were allowing visitations. Sometimes the prison went on lock down and visitors weren't allowed. He added that if she wanted anything to eat or drink, she needed to bring change and small bills. The machines didn't take bank cards and he wasn't allowed to have money.

Prisons were just inhumane. What kind of place didn't let people have money or bank cards? Prisons. She got it. Prison wasn't a good place to be. She was beginning to have some understanding of just how horrible they were.

The next visiting day was Saturday only three days away. She had to go see Jax. It would take several visits before she could go to her father and announce her engagement. Still, her stomach turned at the thought.

It wasn't a real marriage, she reassured herself. It was only three years and it was better than working for a living or going to school.

She repeated this over and over to herself like a mantra as she waited in line for her first alone meeting with Jax. She hoped he'd throttled back some of the testosterone or it was going to be a long visit.