Page 8 of Timeless

“So, what’s your dad’s name?” Adam asked Jack, sitting down.

Oh, god. I groaned. Adam had just asked a loaded question. Get Jack on the subject of Jax and he wouldn’t shut up for an hour, until he told you every fact he knew about Jax.

“I’m named after him,” Jack said proudly. “But he doesn’t know me. Dad’s in prison and it’s Mom’s fault.” Jack got up and pointed a finger at me. “Mom said she put him there.”

I nodded.

“Did you leave out anything?” Cole whispered at me, again stunned.

“Not when it comes to Jax.” I shrugged. “Or you guys.”

“Mom doesn’t lie,” Jack said like it was a fact. Then he put a hand to his mouth, trying to whisper to them. “Unless it’s about Grandpa.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Wait, Dad knows about him?” Troy leaned forward, looking at me.

I nodded.

“So, you just kept him from us?” Cole didn’t hide his hurt expression.

I opened my mouth but my son was quicker.

“Mom said you will bring Dad and I can’t see Dad until I’m in double figures.” Jack put his hands on his hips, repeating something I used to tell him to stop him from asking more questions when he wanted to know why he couldn’t visit his uncles.

“So, Jax doesn’t know then?” Troy sat back. “Because if he knew, we would know.”

“Can you imagine the manhunt he would have us on if he knew about Jack?” Adam scoffed. “He is bad enough when it comes to Amber.”

They all grunted, agreeing.

“What do you mean by that?” I asked them.

“Seriously?” Tyler turned and looked over his shoulder at me. “You thought he would just forget about you?”

“He wanted me to let him go. I let him go.” I crossed my arms, not wanting to recall that day.

“No, he fucked up and realized as soon as you left him in that visiting room,” Cole grunted.

“By the time he reached out to us, you were gone,” Adam said.

“It was too late,” Troy added. “You already had cut us off and we didn’t even realize it until we got to your house.”

I gulped. “I said goodbye.”

“No, you said goodnight,” Cole snapped. “You came around like it was any other night. You ate with us and then left, saying goodbye.”

“It was still a goodbye,” I muttered.

“Yeah, well, we didn’t know it was final,” Troy pointed out like it really annoyed him. “You could have told us you were pregnant.”

“And what would you have done?” I challenged them. “Seriously, what would you have done? Because Jax had made his mind up. I went to the prison to talk him out of it and failed.”

“If you told him you were pregnant, Amber, he wouldn’t have pushed you away,” Adam said gently like it was a fact.

I had spent numerous nights awake wondering that question and I had come to the same conclusion. “Yes, he would have. He didn’t want me waiting for him. He wanted to cut me off. Knowing about Jack wouldn’t have changed a thing,” I scoffed. “If anything, it would have made him more determined.”

I knew Jax. I knew how he reacted.

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