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Chapter 540 Life Changing News for Scars

"

Scarlett had been waiting anxiously for her father. Still when she heard him open the garage door, she jumped.

"It's going to be OK," Jax assured her.

Scarlett looked at Jax and shook her head sadly.

Decker walked in carrying a magnum bottle of champagne. He barely had time to put it on the kitchen counter before Scarlett threw herself into his arms and hugged him fiercely.

"That does mean what I think it does?" she asked after a couple of moments.

"Yep," Decker said grinning at his daughter. She hugged him again.

'I was so scared. Jax kept telling me that it was going to be OK."

"And I'm never wrong," Jax added. He wasn't sure what was going on, but it seemed like everything was good.

"And I kept telling you this day would come and I'd bring a magnum bottle of champagne for us to drink."

"This is unbearable. The two men in my life who are always right," she said grinning.

"And you're never wrong," her father reminded her.

Scarlett went over to Jax and hugged him just as fiercely.

"You can hug me hard," Scarlett explained. "I won't break." Jax tightened his hold on her.

Decker dumped ice from the icemaker's container into the sink, added water and the champagne to quickly chill it before opening it.

"My psycho ex is dead," Scarlett explained. "My dad insisted this day would come and we would drink a magnum of champagne to celebrate."

"I don't want to intrude, but I had to see Scarlett's face when I told her the news."

"I was so scared, I didn't even try to find out what happened on my phone. I wanted to hear it from you."

Scarlett was beaming. Jax had never seen her so happy.

"I'll just have a quick glass of champagne and leave," Decker said.

"Absolutely not. The two of you have been waiting for this day for years. We need to celebrate," Jax insisted. "This is a once in a lifetime event."

"You aren't going anywhere," Scarlett agreed.

"OK. I feel like I need to make something to eat with the champagne," Decker said looking in the freezer and refrigerator.

"Make onion rings. There are plenty of onions. I'm making fajitas tomorrow so I got a bunch," Scarlett said.

"I love onion rings," Jax added.

"OK. I'll make them."

While Decker got out the onions, a Dutch oven, flour and the other ingredients, Scarlett pulled Jax aside out of earshot of her father.

"I was going to ask my dad to stay," she began. "Thank you for saying it first." Scarlett put her arms around Jax and laid her head against his cheek.

"I remember how happy we were to finally get Esai and we were only after him for a couple of months. The two of you have been waiting for this for years. And I really like being around your dad."

Decker had made him feel welcome from the start. He'd given him a bullet proof vest that saved his life and a replacement when that one got shot up. Jax never felt like he was in a competition with him for Scarlett's love. Dec accepted him in Scarlett's life with enthusiasm and was even helping him fix up his house. Dec was the opposite of Gemma.

Gemma had never liked Tara or Wendy. He understood the Wendy issue, but Tara had been good for him. He always felt like Gemma was competing with Tara or Wendy to be first in his heart. She had done nothing to welcome Scarlett. In fact, she'd gone out of her way to make her life miserable with her domineering behavior. She'd actively tried to get Scarlett to quit seeing him.

Jax realized that he was partly to blame for Gemma's behavior by not dealing with it when he was with Tara and Wendy. Seeing Scarlett's warm and close relationship with her father and the way Dec treated him made him more determined than ever to hold the line with Gemma even if that meant no contact until her.

Scarlett stood on tiptoe and kissed him lightly on the lips.

"Now, I have got to hear how he died."

Scarlett waited until her father measured out the baking powder for the onion ring batter before demanding that he give her all the details.

Decker turned to watch his daughter's face.

"He was in the rec room watching TV. There was a commotion in the hall. Some kind of fight. The guards went to go break it up and several inmates beat him to death."

"It was a hit," Jax said. "That's textbook. Buy some inmates to create a diversion and pay a few to do the killing."

"Are you sure he's really dead and not just dead and they switch the bodies and he's really OK?" Scarlett asked.

"No, he's dead. He doesn't have the money or power anymore to pull off that kind of stuff. There were rumors that he was going to rat out those involved in all his crimes hoping to avoid or reduce his prison time."

"The people he was going to rat out, took him out," Jax said. "You spread enough money around, you can take out just about anyone."

Scarlett grinned.

"Finally dead and no one's coming after me because he's broke."

"You're free," Jax said. "No more worries about someone trying to kill you."

Jax saw Scarlett and her father exchange looks. That was the moment when Jax realized that Scarlett was keeping at least one more dangerous and probably deadly secret from him.