Dani spotted her in the park. She was seated on a bench when someone familiar caught her eye. It was Wendy. She was slowly moving towards them, smiling and waving awkwardly along the way. Her heart started to pound when Wendy stood before her.
"I thought I spotted you," she smiled.
Dani lifted Abel to press his face against her chest, as if she was sheltering him from Wendy.
"What are you doing here?" she hissed.
It seemed as if Wendy was taken back by her snarky comment. "I thought you might be here with Abel, and I felt like some fresh air."
This had to end. This had to end right now. Jax might have laughed at Dani earlier for telling him Wendy might be stalking them, but it really was getting out of hand.
Dani rose from the bench, pressing Abel tightly against herself. She looked Wendy straight in the eye as she began thinking of a nice way to put this.
"Wendy, can you please stop following us," she began. "You showing up here, and at the hospital. You can't just follow us around hoping to catch a glimpse of Abel. This will only confuse him. You gotta listen to me. I will tell you when you can visit him and besides those moments, please stay away from us."
Wendy scoffed. "What?" she asked confused. "I'm not stalking you. I just want to see my son."
"No, Wendy. You want to see my son. This child stopped being your son the moment you injected yourself with crank. If I see you following us again, I will put a restraining order out on you, you hear me?"
After that confrontation Dani immediately rush home. She did it, she finally stood up to Wendy. That problem was eliminated and it felt good.
"Dani? You home?" Jax called out.
"In the living room!" Dani replied after hearing his voice, noting Jax was home extremely early.
He moved closer to her, giving her a kiss before he sat down next to her.
"What are you doing back home?" Dani smiled. She was glad he was back nevertheless.
"I gotta talk to you about something," he began.
Dani froze for a moment. What could this be about? Could this be about Wendy? Luann? Gemma? Ima? She had run into so many problems lately this conversation could be literally about anything. But why was she stressing? She hadn't done anything wrong had she?
"It's serious, okay? You gotta promise me not to tell anyone. This gotta stay between us."
"Yes, of course!" Dani promised, frowning slightly. This definitely wasn't about Luann or Wendy or Ima.
"The Niners didn't kill Donna," Jax began. "Tig and Clay did."
Holy fucking shit. Here it was. The inevitable moment. Dani should've prepared herself for this talk yet she had hoped Jax would never find out. How did he find out anyway?
Her heart was racing in her chest and her hands started to get all sweaty. She was torn. Torn between reacting as if she didn't know, or just telling him the truth.
"Babe, say something," Jax said after Dani failed to reply.
She shook her head. She couldn't lie about this. He was being honest with her, so maybe she should be too.
"I know," she said after releasing her breath.
"What do you mean?" Jax frowned.
"I know Tig and Clay killed Donna."
Jax shook his head. "How?" he muttered.
"I overheard them talking about it." She didn't dare to look him in the eye.
"You knew?! For how long have you known?"
Jax seemed to be in shock and that was when Dani knew she should've told him sooner.
"About a week, maybe a little more…"
"Jesus Christ," Jax said. He leaned forward and rubbed his temples with his fingers.
"Jax, I'm sorry," Dani spoke. "I know I should've told you sooner. I just didn't know how you would take it."
"You should've told me this," Jax replied, his eyes screaming anger. "I've been telling you everyting while you have been keeping secrets from me? What more do you know?"
"Nothing, I swear," Dani replied hastily. "I just overheard them and I was scared!"
Jax scoffed. "I gotta be alone for a little while."
Dani nodded. Everything she said would only make it worse. If she would just let this rest for a little while, everything would be fine.
"I'll go," she said softly, pushing herself up from the couch. "Abel is asleep in the bedroom."
Jax didn't reply but stared blankly in front of him.
Dani opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Instead she made her way over to the door, leaving him behind.
Elijah smiled when she stepped inside the café. At least someone was happy to see her today.
"Great, I could use some back up," he said, juggling a mug of coffee and two plates of cakes. "Cake supply is running a little low."
"I'm on it," Dani replied with a fake smile. Baking cakes always managed to get her mind off things.
When she was done with her third cake for the day, Elijah popped his head around the door of the kitchen.
"You okay, Dani?" he asked.
He must've seen her facial expression which didn't exactly screamed joy. Dani couldn't blame him for asking yet she didn't really feel like replying.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about it," she said. "Instead, worry about selling these cakes."
She handed him the tins of cakes with a soft smile.
Before Elijah could disappear, he spoke: "Dani, you look really lovely today."
Dani started to blush. "Thanks, that's sweet of you."
"It's the truth," he smiled.
Dani couldn't help but feeling butterflies rising in her stomach. Was he flirting with her? Gemma told her she had overheard him saying she was hot. But he knew she was with Jax, right? Right?
Dani decided to omit her and Jax's fight when she took Gemma to the hospital. Gemma had needed some persuasion, but after Dani showed her some articles on the internet of STD's she could possibly have, she agreed to go.
If Jax was angry at her for not telling him about Donna, imagine him when she would tell him she already knew about Gemma getting raped. Yet she had made a promise to Gemma, and she couldn't break that promise.
While she waited on her in the waiting room, Dani constantly checked her phone to see if she had any new messages or missed calls. But the screen showed nothing. Absolutely nothing. Jax hadn't called, he hadn't even sent her a text like he would normally do.
"You ready to go?" Gemma asked. She appeared before her in the waiting room, looking like she had completely been healed. Her hand was even resting on her hip again and Dani was already mentally preparing herself for a snarky comment.
"Everything fine?" Dani asked, putting the magazine away and sliding her phone back in her pocket.
"Yeah, what else did you expect?" Gemma said.
"Nothing," Dani chuckled slightly.
They made their way over to the car.
"Shall I drop you off at home?" Dani asked, sitting behind the wheel, figuring Gemma would want to go home right now.
"Yeah that would be great," Gemma replied. "Thanks for going with me, Dani."
Dani raised her eyebrows, surprised by her comment. Gemma rarely said thank you and she took this as a real compliment.
When she had dropped off Gemma she initially wanted to drove home, but when she reached the corner of the street she parked her car on the side of the road.
She couldn't return home, not now. She doubted Jax would wanted to see her and he hadn't called her once. Maybe it would be better if she let this rest for the night, sleep in her own bed in her own home for once.
Her mind wandered to Abel. It almost felt like she was leaving him behind but she had to remind herself Jax was perfectly able to take care of the baby.
This would be the first time they had slept apart since they had broken up, but Dani felt like it would be for the better. Tomorrow would be a new day and they would talk about it and everything would get back to normal. Or at least she hoped.
A/N: Apologies for being a day late! I seriously had absolutely no time to upload yesterday. That also brings me to my 7-day-upload-marathon. I'm not sure if I can keep it up. Of course when I'm home a lot I can upload, no problem there! But tomorrow I'll be going to a theme park so I'll be gone the entire day. There will be an upload on tuesday though. I'm sorry I can't keep my promise but I hope you'll understand my problem!
Please let me know what your thoughts were on this chapter. Trouble in paradise for Jax and Dani?