Consider Me Gone

Chapter 27.

Toni

"Mark was asking for you, have you spoken to him?" Clara asked the question softly as we sat down for brunch. I had caught her up on all the drama with Mark and the mystery woman who vandalized his car.

I hadn't been able to speak to him yet, because I honestly didn't know what to say. This whole thing had brought up bad memories for me, and until I knew the truth, I was slightly avoiding having a much-needed conversation with Mark.

Mark still claimed that Jax was behind this whole thing, but he had no proof. So it was his word against Jax, and considering that Jax hadn't been arrested, it was just his word.

I wanted to believe Mark when he denied cheating on me because I had developed strong feelings for him and saw a future together. However, it was difficult for me to believe that Jax would frame Mark for cheating. I couldn't understand why Jax would go to the trouble of lying to me about something like that. It didn't make sense to me how he would benefit from it. Even if I did believe that, I knew I would still have to leave Charming, but I wouldn't be going with Mark.

"Not really," I admitted to Clara.

"Toni," she began, but I stopped her.

"Clara, I'm not saying he did it," I paused, "But I'm not saying he didn't either."

"Toni, you really believe that he would cheat? After everything he knows about you, you think he'd put you through that again?"

"Clara, I'm not saying anything! The only thing I know for sure is that I don't want to go through this again. I did it once, and once was enough."

Clara looked at me sympathetically, "You're right, I'm sorry. It's just...I was so happy for you. I thought he was one of the good ones."

I sighed, "Well, let's hope he still is."

"Have you talked to that girl?"

I shook my head, "no, I wanted to talk to her to see if I could get the truth, but she was bailed out after a few hours. She didn't even spend the night."

Clara's brows furrowed, "how much was her bail? A dollar?"

I shrugged my shoulders as I took a sip from my coffee. The whole thing just seemed strange to me.; the car, the girl, and most importantly the timing.

"I smell a rat," Clara stated. "You mean to tell me that this random woman came out of nowhere, and you've never seen her anywhere."

I shook my head, "Mark said that she bartends down at Rundown, but I'd never seen her before. Says he goes down there on his nights off."

"Oh, and what is that? Like one night a week?" Clara scoffed. I smirked because it was so clear that she was rooting for Mark. "I'm serious, Toni. You know how hectic his schedule is. When the hell would he have time to be with this woman, let alone drive her to the point of insanity?"

"What can I say? It's the work of a man," Clara scolded me while I held back a laugh. Clara never really liked Jax, even when we were together. I never really tried to repair the relationship because the feeling was mutual on both sides.

"Ugh, what is he doing here?" I turned around to see what Clara was looking at, and then immediately regretted it when I did. Jax was walking up to our table with a serious look on his face, and all I could do was pray that the ground would open and swallow me whole.

"Toni, we need to talk," Jax said as he stood before me and Clara. Clara had a look of disgust on her face that Jax ignored, and he walked away so that I would follow him. I could tell he was upset just by the way he stood and I braced myself for whatever he was going to say.

"Something tells me I know what this is about," I said trying to bypass the awkward introductions.

"Yeah, did you tell the cops I had something to do with your boyfriend's car getting messed up?" He was angry and he had every right to be, especially if he didn't do anything.

"Jax, that isn't," I tried my best to explain, but Jax cut me off before I could.

"Look, I don't have anything against you or your little pretty boy, so I'd appreciate it if you kept my name out of your mouths."

"Jax, I never said you did anything!"

 "But you didn't speak up, and that makes it just as bad. I was at home with my boys, and you had Roosevelt knock on my door for some bullsh*t." 

"Jax, I'm sorry. You should have never been brought into it."

"Yeah, you're right about that, and tell your boyfriend the next time he wants to be sloppy and cheat, maybe he should take some responsibility for it instead of blaming someone else!"

I kept my eyes off Jax as he walked away from me, and I wanted to do nothing more than crawl into a hole and die. This probably tipped the scale on the most embarrassing moment of my life. I was mortified and I felt awful about Jax getting questioned.

When I got back to my table, Clara could already see the look on my face. She looked just as disappointed as I felt, and there were no words that could soothe my bruised ego.

"My ex-husband who cheated on me, just told me to make my boyfriend take accountability for cheating on me." I shook my head as I kept repeating the sentence in my head.

"Damn," Clara blew out a gust of air and then motioned the waiter over. She proceeded to order another bloody Mary and another mimosa for me, but given what I'd just been through, I needed something a lot stronger to make me forget about what just happened.

Even more so, I needed to figure out what to do about Mark. He was so adamant that he didn't cheat, and that Jax was behind this whole thing. But with Jax out of the equation, what did that mean for Mark?