5

Little Toy Bikers and a Woman on the Run

Chapter 135 Gemma'd

Jax had made himself a cup of coffee using the coffee maker in Scarlett's motel room. He needed another cup before facing Gemma. He unlocked the door and carried his duffel bag into the house with Gemma following close on his heels. He dumped his bag in the hall and went straight to the coffee maker.

"So that's the piece of pussy that made you forget your family," Gemma said harshly.

"I didn't forget," he said as he finished filling the coffee pot with water. "And she isn't a piece of pussy. Don't talk about her like that."

Jax and his SAMCRO brothers used many degrading words to describe women. Other women were never talked about like that. By telling Gemma not to talk about Scarlett in insulting terms, he was letting her know that she was special.

Gemma studied her son's face with a frown.

"You had a dead wife and her . . . baby to deal with," Gemma said. When she said the word "baby", she spit the word out like it tasted bad.

"It was going to take a few days to release the bodies because they had to do autopsies."

"That's already been done and because you weren't here, that crazy bitch Wilda decided they should be cremated. It's already been done and she told them to send you the bill. Guess what that crazy bitch did?"

Jax poured himself a cup of freshly brewed coffee and took a gulp. Wilda was always doing crazy things. She was the town's best source of free entertainment.

"Just tell me."

He'd only been away from Scarlett for a few minutes and he was already back in the thick of all the bad shit he'd escaped from for the last few days. He wished he'd stayed gone for a few more days.

"She tried to flush Wendy's ashes down the toilet at the crematorium. Skeeter told Tig he gave her decoy ashes. She actually flushed them. She said Wendy wanted her ashes scattered over water."

Jax shook his head.

"I'm not surprised. Decoy ashes," Jax chuckled. "That's a good one. What about the baby's ashes?"

"Tig didn't mention anything about that."

"I'll give her a call and find out when she wants to hold the memorial service."

"After flushing the decoy ashes, she crashed her car into a fire hydrant. She's probably still in jail."

"Well, Hale will try to throw the book at her again. I'm sure she will wiggle out of it just like all the other times. The San Joa public defenders are surprisingly competent or the ADA's are idiots. With Wilda for a mother, Wendy never had a chance in life."

"It was that crank whore's choice to use drugs."

"Don't call her that. It wouldn't hurt you to have a little compassion. Wendy never had a mother because she was drunk all the time. When you're raised like that, you look for escapes."

Over the past few days, Jax's anger over Wendy's deceit cooled. She had wanted to trap him into getting back with her, but she was also trying to give her baby a father. She'd never known hers. Wendy wasn't evil just messed up.

He bore some responsibility for what happened to Wendy. She'd loved him and no matter how hard he tried, he just didn't have those same feelings for her. He shouldn't have married her. He was lonely and marrying Wendy had seemed like a good solution at the time.

The separation had increased Wendy's drug use. He could have done more to help her get clean than paying for rehab. He should have insisted she stay at his house. She was never going to stay clean living with her drunk mother.

He could see Wendy was emotionally fragile. As her husband, he had a greater responsibility to help her. All he could do now was learn from his mistakes and not make them in the future.

"Well, the sooner we're done with all this the better. You need to call Rosen and find out what you need to do to get your name off that baby's birth certificate."

"I'm going to leave my name on it."

Gemma's face flushed with anger.

"You are not that baby's father. That . . . baby is not a Teller. It should not have Teller for a last name."

"The baby isn't an it. Her name is Bela. We aren't royalty or some dynasty. It doesn't matter that the baby isn't a Teller by blood."

Jax thought about how close Scarlett's relationship was with her father. He didn't seem to love her any less because she wasn't his daughter by blood.

"You aren't making sense. There's no good reason for you to pretend to be the father of some bastard child."

Jax knew that his mother would never understand that he felt sorry for baby Bela and, by keeping his name on her birth certificate, it was his way of comforting the baby and showing her some love. It was the right thing to do and it made him feel good.

"I don't know what the hell is wrong with you. What are you ashamed that you aren't the father? You want to cover up for Wendy? Is that it?" Gemma's voice climbed in pitch becoming shrill.

Jax inhaled deeply and tried to remain calm. He remembered the callous way Gemma had discarded poor little Bela, tossing her into the rocking chair like she was a pillow. He would never forget the sight of that poor little baby being mistreated by his mother.

Despite his efforts to keep his temper, every time he remembered his mother's behavior at the hospital his anger at his mother grew. Her attitude was making it worse.

If she could just admit that she had behaved badly and apologize, they could move forward, but he knew that was unlikely to happen. Gemma prided herself on never changing which meant she lacked any ability to be see faults in herself and fix them.

"I'm ashamed. I'm ashamed of you for the way you acted at the hospital from tossing Bela into the rocking chair to fighting Tara. You disgraced yourself, our family and the MC," Jax blue eyes flashed with fury. "You said baby girls should be drowned at birth in a room with a dead baby girl. Why the hell can't you see that that was wrong?"

"You're making excuses. The real problem here is Tara. Tara caused all this because she should have told you that baby wasn't yours first."

"Tara could have handled things better, but that doesn't excuse your actions. I'm leaving my name on the baby's birth certificate. That's it. The subject is closed."

"Fine," Gemma said. "I don't understand how you could have gone away with some woman you barely know and then not call me."

"I didn't realize I had to call you every fucking day."

"Well, don't expect me to apologize for worrying about my only son."

"The harder you try to hold onto me, the more you make me want to push you away."

"This blonde bitch has something to do with all this. What exactly is she to you? A few nights of fun or something more?"

"Definitely something more. She's going to be your new daughter-in-law."

Sometimes words were more effective than an AK. The color drained out of Gemma's face and her mouth hung open in astonishment. He would tell her later—much later—that he was joking. Probably.