Hey my readers, we are officially at chapter 20! This chapter is going to take place shortly after Gemma had her heart attack because of the call from Maureen Ashby. I hope you all enjoy!

Jax returned from his trip to the cafeteria with two fresh cups of coffee in his hands.

"Here you go, babe. French Vanilla flavored coffee, heavy on the sugar, " he handed me the cup in his right hand, taking the empty seat next to me.

"Thank you," I replied, leaning over our chairs' armrest, giving him a quick peck on the lips.

I popped off the black lid, tightly pursing my lips to blow on the hot coffee.

I heard my mom chuckle from the opposite side of me, making me turn my attention toward her.

"What?"

"The way you both sugar your coffees, I'm surprised you're not diabetic."

"Mom, sugar is delicious. Not only is it delicious, it's a mood enhancer," I set the top back onto my coffee, pushing it downwards until it was securely in place.

As I took my first sip of my steamy beverage, the doctor taking care of Gemma, Dr. Greg Christensen, finally made an appearance in the waiting room.

We all stood to our feet, closing in on the doctor who has kept us in the fucking dark for hours on end.

"How is she?," Clay asked.

"She is okay. Your wife suffered from a heart arrhythemia which is just another way of saying she suffered from an irregular heartbeat. From all her tests, it looks like it's been months since she's taken her medication to prevent something like this from happening. "

"Jesus Christ, Gem," Clay whispered to himself, rubbing his forehead with his ringed fingers.

"We have her stabilized and she is back on her required medication. She just has to take it easy for a few days. If everything looks good, she can be discharged by the end of the week."

"Can we see her?," Jax asked, getting an automatic nod from Dr. Christensen.

"Yes, she's awake. Only three people at a time for visitation. She actually requested to see you three ," he stated shifting his gaze between Clay, Jax, and me.

We followed the doctor down the hall until we reached a room with a federal agent standing guard.

He patted the three of us down, opening the door to Gemma's room once we passed inspection.

"Hi baby," Clay greeted, only getting a scowl in response.

That expression said a thousand words. She knew what had happened to Abel.

" You three going to start explaining where the hell my grandson is or are you just going to stand there?"

Jax came over to the left side of her bed, pulling out a folded up photo of Abel from his kutte that he showed me yesterday.

"While we were going after Zobelle and Mel was at the store, getting groceries for the cabin, Cameron went to our house and snatched up Abel. He was the reason Sack and Neeta are currently six feet under."

"Jesus Christ."

Jax passed off the picture to his mother.

"Abel is in Vancouver, mom."

"No, he's not. He's in Belfast."

"Belfast?," we all replied in unison.

"The phone call that triggered all of this.. it was from Maureen Ashby."

"Who's Maureen Ashby?", Jax asked.

"It's Magee's old lady," Clay answered, sitting down on the end of the bed next to his wife.

"But, Jimmy insisted that Abel is in Vancouver."

"Well, someone is full of shit," Gemma argued, causing her heartbeat to quicken, activating multiple machines in the hospital room.

"Gem easy," I breathed out, currently afraid to raise my voice an octave higher at my mother-in-law.

A nurse with short blonde hair swiftly entered the room.

"I'm sorry, but I need everyone out. She needs to rest."

Jax and Clay were the first to exit the room. As I was about to follow behind them, Gemma stopped me in my tracks.

"Not you, sweetheart."

I turned around, confirming she was talking to me.

" Yes, I'm talking to you. Mel, you stay."

"But you heard the nurse, you need your rest."

"I can rest when I'm dead. There's a reason why I wanted to see you along with Clay and my son. Have a seat."

I closed the door, leisurely bringing myself to the seat next to her bed.

I crossed my right leg over my left, attempting to sit up tall in her intimdating presence.

"Besides Abel being taken, is there anything else you would like to share with me?"

"No, that was it Gemma. All the cards are out on the table."

"Really?"

"Yes, you know everything."

"I know you're lying to me, Mel. Wayne gave you up. He came to visit me about twenty minutes before the three of you did."

"Shit."

I fell forward with my head in my hands. I propped myself up with my elbows planted in the middle of my thighs, shaking my head in disbelief.

"Ovarian Cancer.. that's some heavy shit, baby. You need to tell Jax and your mother that you're sick. The sooner you tell them, the sooner you can stop sneaking around for doctor's appointments."

I lifted myself up with tears rolling down my exhausted face.

"I can't. It's not a good time."

"Mel, it will never be a good time. If you don't tell Jax and your mother by the end of today, you better believe I will."

I went with my mother to Gemma's house to pick up a bag full of necessities she asked for before I left her room.

My mom unlocked the front door, going straight to Gemma's bedroom.

Come on, Mel. Now or never. You can do this.

I shoved all fear aside, heading to Gemma's bedroom.

My mother had multiple draws open throughout the room, refolding the clothing before she put them in the medium sized tote that was on the top shelf in Gemma's closet.

"Mom, I lied to you," I stated, standing in the doorway.

"Lied to me about what, Mel bear," she asked, not looking up from what she was doing.

"About all my tests coming back negative."

My mom stopped packing Gemma's bag and she finally looked at me.

"I was tested positive for Ovarian cancer."

She covered her mouth, her eyes brimming with tears. She powerwalked over to me, pulling me into a tight embrace.

"Honey, we're going to get you through this. I know you will beat this. My Mel bear is a fighter.. How bad is it?," she pulled away from our hug, playing with the ends of my wavy hair.

"Stage One. The doctor that I've seen a couple of times is optimistic that I'll be cancer free after a few of rounds of chemo."

"That's great."

My mom noticed the frown on my face was not budging.

"That is great, right?"

"It is, but it could come back. And, if it does come back, it could be even more aggressive than it already is. Even though I'm only at stage one, I'm scared mom."

"It's normal to be scared, Mel. That's why you have family and friends to get you through this. With that said, that brings me to my next question, does Jax know?"

"No. I'm going to tell him tonight when he gets back from meeting with the Chinese."

"Thank you for telling me the truth."

"You're welcome," I smiled, getting pulled into another hug by her.

I pulled into the T-M parking lot, my headlights shining on the all too familiar white car already in my usual parking space.

I parked next to the car, turning the key in the ignition, cutting off all power to the car.

I got out of my vehicle, going to the back of the white car, looking at the liscense plate.

IMATITE

That fucking bitch.

I knew she would only be here for one reason and one reason only, and that was to fuck my husband when he gets back from club business.

My jaw tightened with fury and I quickly made my way to the clubhouse.

I threw open the door, causing it to slam against the wall.

"Would you like me to get you anything, mam?", Miles, the new prospect asked, opening a beer bottle for Phil.

"Yeah actually, you can. Where's Ima?"

"She's in the kitchen, making herself something to eat."

"Thanks."

Phil and Miles glanced at each other with worry as Melanie stormed off to the kitchen.

"What the hell do you think you're doing here?", I asked, coming up to Ima, who was sitting down at the table in the corner of the kitchen, finishing off the leftover lasgna I made for my husband.

"Hi to you too Mel," she replied, getting up from the table, throwing away the plastic plate she used in the trashcan.

"I'm here to give Jax some comfort. I can only imagine how he's doing since his son was kidnapped."

I closed the distance between me and Ima, standing only inches away from her.

Ima, any kind of comfort a man gets by you, he has to get a shot afterward. I'm only going to tell you this once, get the hell out of here and stay away from my husband."

"He won't be your husband for long. He only married you because he finally got a taste of porn pussy. Once he's with me, he'll forget all about Melanie Torres, the woman who should have been there for his son when he got taken."

That was the last fucking straw.

My left hand formed a tight fist, and I punched her in the nose, causing her to fall into the cooking utensils on the island, knocking them to the floor.

Miles and Phil paused their conversation the moment the sound of distrubance came from the kitchen.

Blood from Ima's nose poured onto the island.

"You have any more shit you wanna say to me?"

"You broke my fucking nose, you whore!", Ima charged at me, causing my lower back to hit into the kitchen table, moving it a couple of feet.

The two prospects finally entered the kitchen, finding Melanie on top of Ima, punching her repeatedly.

Miles lifted me off of Ima. Phil wrapped his own arms around a bloody faced Ima, who tried lunging for me.

"I want her out of here."

Phil nodded, escorting Ima out of the warehouse.

"Get the fuck off of me!," she yelled, walking to her car.

Jax and the rest of the club showed up at the clubhouse roughly two hours later.

Cold open beers were already set on the bar.

Jax walked in, picking up the first beer in his eye sight, taking a generous swig.

"Hey prospect, do you know where Mel is at?"

Phil looked at Miles who was cleaning the opposite end of the bar.

"She's in the kitchen."

Jax nodded, putting his beer down to go visit his wife.

He pushed open one of the swinging doors, finding me sitting on the kitchen island with a plastic bag filled with ice on my bloody left hand.

He walked over to me with his eyes widened.

"Jesus Christ, what the fuck happened to your hand," he moved the bag of ice off of my hand, examining my cut knuckles.

"Ima paid T-M a visit a couple of hours ago, wanting to provide you with some physical comfort. Like that didn't already have my blood boiling, she brought Abel into the conversation and I just lost it."

" Babe, you should have Chibs take a look at your hand to make sure it's not broken."

"No it's okay, I already had it looked at. One of Cara Cara's most loyal customers and a friend of Luanne's is a doctor. He said nothing's broken and I just have to continue icing it. I took the bandages off because they were insanely uncomfortable."

He nodded, leaning against the island next to me.

Mel, I know there's something else that is bothering you, aside from the obvious. You lashing out like this isn't really you, that's more me actually."

"There is something that is bothering me that I've tried to keep at bay, but I'm clearly not doing that so well."

"What is it? You know you can tell me anything."

"Jax.."

"You and I aren't leaving this kitchen until you tell me."

"Jax, I have cancer. Ovarian cancer, to be more specific. I found out the morning Cameron took Abel. I was going to tell you, but with the neverending line of shit that came along, I didn't want to add this to your list of problems."

His mouth went agape and his icy blue eyes filled with emotion.

"Is.. ," he cleared his throat before continuing," There's treatments, right? You can get better."

"Yeah, there is. But, the side effects aren't so pretty. The doctor said due to the severity of the treatments, I might not be able to have kids, and the fact we've been talking about having kids.. the idea of not being able to give you more kids is killing me."

Jax stood upright, standing in front of me, cradling my face in his large hands. His calloused thumbs wiped away the tears that fell from my eyes.

"Then again, my changed appearance with the treatments will probably make you stop having sex with me all together."

"What?"

"The Chemo can cause hair lo.."

"Stop," he cut me off, shaking my head gently.

"This is what we are going to do. First, the doctor said you may not be able to have kids which means there's a chance you can still have my kids. The way we go at it, I bet your ovaries will give in before we know it."

I laughed, growing warm at the thought of us having sex.

"What's the second?"

"We're going to schedule an appointment for you first thing in the morning. And yes, there's a third."

"What's the third?"

"Come with me."

His hands fell from my face, down to my waist. He lifted me off of the island, setting me down onto the kitchen floor.

"Where are we going?"

"I'm going to show my wife how attracted I am to her, no matter what changes happen to her body."