5

Little Toy Bikers and a Woman on the Run

Chapter 239 Charm Bracelet

In the last days of her engagement, Scarlett learned how to hide her fear of her fiancé. Despite her experience, it was still a struggle not to show how afraid she was of Clay. He had choked the life out of her mother and she knew he wouldn't hesitate to kill her too. This was the moment she needed to save her life by convincing him that she wasn't his daughter.

Clay sat down next to her at the picnic table. Scarlett began to nervously fiddle with her bracelet.

"You enjoying the picnic?"

"I am," she said forcing herself to smile. "The whole MC thing is new to me too. I've got a lot to learn about the MC way of life."

"I'm sure Jax won't mind teaching you," Clay said with a smirk. "What's with that bracelet you keep turning around?"

"It's my mother's birthday today. She made this bracelet for me, so I'm wearing it as a tribute to her memory. It's got pictures of her, my dad and me."

He had taken the bait. That was a relief. It would look more natural if he asked her about the bracelet than if she had brought it up.

Her bracelet had six pewter colored little picture frames separated by beads strung on two elastic cords to keep the inch long black and white photos from twisting.

"This is a baby picture of me. Here's a picture of my mom and my dad. Here's us together. This is when I was about nine with my mom."

Scarlett continued pointing out the pictures and explaining them to Clay. There was one picture that her father had photoshopped his head on another man's body; other than that, all the pictures were taken from the internet.

Her father had come up with the brilliant idea that they didn't have to prove that she wasn't Clay's daughter; they just needed to prove Eden wasn't her mother and Scarlett wasn't the girl that saw him kill her mother. The woman that was supposed to be her mother bore no resemblance at all to her mother. The woman had long stick straight, fair hair, dark eyes and a large mole on her chin.

The child that was standing in for Scarlett bore more resemblance to her. She had dark hair and light colored eyes, but since the photos were all in black and white, the eye color couldn't be determined.

Her mother had made her a bracelet with pictures and given it to her shortly before Clay killed her. She kept it in a safe at the lake house. Her father had made the bracelet she was wearing today. He had given it to her last night after dinner.

That was her dad. He was always doing kind thoughtful things for her. It must have taken him many hours to find the pictures, print them out, put them in the little picture frames and string them all together. This was the perfect way to convince Clay she wasn't the little girl that watched him kill her mother.

She understood that this bracelet wasn't definitive proof that he wasn't her father, but she was counting on Clay believing that she wasn't smart enough to come up with the bracelet idea. She found that being pretty caused people to underestimate her intelligence. She was betting her life that she was smarter than Clay.

It was hard to think of him as her biological father. She felt nothing but hate and fear. One day, she would see him kicked out of the MC and sent to prison where he would have to fight for his life every single day. That helped her smile and talk to Clay; she was focused on her end game.

Jax and Opie returned each carrying a large foam cooler with ice cream sundae cups some with strawberry topping and others with chocolate. The word that there was ice cream quickly spread and thanks to Gemma's planning, everyone got at least one ice cream cup sundae. Scarlett noticed some kids going through the line three times, but no one was turned away.

Jax brought one of each flavor to Scarlett so she could choose. She picked chocolate.

"I knew you were going to pick that one," he said.

"I'm a woman," Scarlett said. "and women tend to like chocolate. It's our reward for putting up with men."

"Yeah, they all say that," he smiled at her and took Clay's seat at the picnic table. "You have an interesting talk with Clay?"

"My bracelet has pictures of my dad, my mom and me. Clay didn't say anything about recognizing my mother when I showed him the pictures. I'm sure it was just a one night or two fling, but still I'd kind of been hoping he would recognize her."

"It was a lot of years ago," Jax said in a soothing tone of voice.

Scarlett felt bad about lying to Jax, but it was a question of survival and she wasn't sure how much she could trust him. If she got to the place where she could trust him with most of her secrets, she would go back and correct all the lies she was telling him. He was the first person she'd ever felt bad about lying to because he was the first guy she thought of having a future with.

Donna and Opie returned to the picnic table with their ice cream. The kids had gone to sit at another table of children.

Now that she'd done what she'd needed to do with Clay, Scarlett relaxed and felt something she'd never felt before—what it was like to be with a man that practically every woman in the area wanted. This is what it must feel like to be with a rock star and the hot actor, she thought. She understood the Jax Teller swagger now.

Tara had arrived in time to get an ice cream cup sundae. She sat down at their table. Everyone including Gemma was staring at them. It grew quiet as everyone except the tables of kids wanted to hear what was being said at their table. It was the typically dull conversation about the weather, Tara's job, Scarlett's business, SAMCRO and how glad Opie was to be back in Charming.

Scarlett had gotten her fingers sticky when she was eating her ice cream. She got up carefully from the bench and told Jax she was going to wash her fingers off in the drinking fountain.

Tara watched Scarlett make her slow painful way to the fountain before following her.

The cat fight was on!

Author's Note: There is actually a bracelet kit available in craft stores or the internet that you can use to make the described bracelet.