Life on the cut (JJxReader) OuterBanks Fanfic

The Split.

(A/N: TW: Mentions of suicide)

John B had driven home, without Sarah. Dropping Pope, JJ, Y/N and Kie back at the chateau. Then took off to go out on his own. Sarah stayed behind with her family, to allow things to die down for a little day or so... Topper stayed with her, for a while at least. He didn't trust Rafe around her after the last time. Rafe had been let go of course. Shoupe came to his cell, pulling the door open. "Looks like your old man took the rap." He had stalked past him and barged from the prison.

  The Camerons stayed together that night. Silently. Sarah too torn up to even avoid her brother. Rose walked into the living room after a restless night, and held a memory stick up.
"This is- uh. It's from your father."
They all sat up, not bothering to ask where it was from. She found it while running her hand down Ward's side of the bed. It bumped up out of the sheets.
"Come." Rose beckoned them over towards a laptop, resting on a cabinet near the back door. They dragged chairs over and sat down together, watching Ward's face appear on the screen.

"A great man once said, that if you're born poor, that's not your fault. But if you die poor. Well that's on you." Ward looked at his family, trapped in a screen, kept in limbo. The Camerons sat together silently, for the first time in a while. Not arguing, just watching. Rafe saw his fathers face, and quickly escaped outside to stop himself crying. pacing and panting. Wheezie was lying with her head on the table- crying.
"I think-" Ward continued, "It was my fear of going back. Of losing everything I have, that made me lose sight of everything I am. Everything I wanted to be. I killed big John Routledge." 
Tears pricked Sarah's eyes as she saw Ward take a deep breath to ease his sorrow.
"I murdered sheriff Peterkin." Ward sighed. Rafe shook his head, salty tears dripping down his cheeks. Remembering drilling a bullet into the sheriff himself. He returned to the laptop, settling down next to Rose.
"I shot Gavin Barnstead." Came Ward's last confession. Rose reached past the laptop and poured herself some of Ward's whiskey- they same he was drinking when the Druthers exploded.
"I know. That there is nothing... Nothing I can do to ease all the pain that I've caused. Many will sat that I... Took the easy way out. But I leave this world with the terrible pain of knowing how disappointed my family are in me. How the mere mention of my name will fill them with shame. I leave my children fatherless, my wife- a widow. Shattered by grief. Broken by my sins. They will never be the same and I know that I am the one to blame. It didn't have to be this way... and I don't expect forgiveness for leaving this way."
At this point Sarah had to turn away, closing her eyes as the tears fell over the edge. She rubbed Wheezie's back as she sobbed through her glasses, fogging up the lenses. Rose reached towards the screen and brushed the edges, reaching for the last shreds of the man she loved.
"I just pray that you understand, I can't go on with all this trauma. I can't go on ruining your lives." He looked straight into the camera, "It has to stop. To all of you, I- uh, leave my estate. To be divided equally. And I leave a love, deeper that I could ever believe to be able to express. Take care of each other." He had one last gaze into the camera, and after that, was gone.
Wheezie ran back to her room, overcome by hiding hysterical sobs. Rafe swigged more whiskey and escaped back outside. This left Sarah, and Rose.
Sarah looked at the video of her father with tears in her eyes, he had put her in the worst position she felt was possible... She slammed the laptop closed in a fury. 

John B fiddled with the Twinkie's wheel on the way back home. He was thinking of the pain that struck his heart when his own father, Big John, died. He tried to keep up hope but... the day he accepted he was truly gone, was the day that he felt his heart truly break. He wondered how Sarah was feeling... just for a moment. Then he remembered seeing Ward's boat combust. Knowing he was gone... Knowing he had justice. Even if justice was more of a... grey term these days. Rather than black and white.