Secrets

chapter four

Once Gabby was happily occupied in the living room, they all gathered into the kitchen to discuss why they were a there. Jesse sat next to Sam and gave her hand a quick squeeze before they got into it all. She looked to her left where Happy had decided to sit. She was surprised to see him as calm as he was since the last time she saw him was almost five years ago and the last time they spoke they were screaming at each other. She's be lying if she said that she didn't miss him. She thought about him every day and what their life would have been like if she had stayed. She pushed those thoughts away as the others sat across from her. Happy cleared his throat and looked at her expectantly. When she didn't say anything, Juice's kind eyes looked at her.

"What happened, Jess?" he asked. He tried searching her face for any hints as to why she needed their help.

She finally got the courage to explain herself to them. She cleared her throat and took a deep breath. "I ran into some shit with an ex. His name was Jeremy Whitmore. A recovering addict. He relapsed and shit went south. Fast." Jesse explained. Noticing the look on Happy's face she trained her eyes into the tabletop. "At first it was small things. He'd get angry quicker, come home later, grab me. But soon after that it escalated. He started to hit me. Then one night he rapped me."

She heard the grumbles from her old friends and felt a squeeze to her shoulder. Raising her head, she met Happy's eyes. They were the darkest she had ever seen them. "I called the cops one night after he had hit me, with Gabby at home. He was removed and cops interrogate her and I for hours. Mostly about if I knew anything he was doing illegally. Which I didn't. He stayed away after that for awhile." She went on. "One day I saw him at the bank. He looked good. He'd been sober for a couple of months, was going to meetings. Then he asked if we could get coffee. I agreed and he was the man that I fell in love with again."

Happy's whole body tensed at the mention of her falling in love with another man. She was his. The tattoo she still had on her back was proof of that. "Why did you go back to him if you knew what he was capable of?" he asked a little more harshly than he had intended.

She sighed, running a hand through her hair and looked up to meet his hard glare. "I loved him. The man that was sober. I loved that man. I gave him another chance." she explained. "I didn't let Gabby around him anymore, though."

"So what happened that you had to call us?" Tig asked, looking at the two. "And how does Trevor factor into all of this?"

Jesse looked t Sam and continued her explanation. "I started to find baggies around the house. I knew he was using again. I sent Gabby with Sam for the weekend to deal with Jeremy. He came over about a week ago to talk and I told him we were done. Next day, I came home from work with him in the house, with a gun." tears began to well up in her eyes as she replayed everything that happened that night. "He hit me, raped me, and I passed out from a blow he landed to my head. When I woke up I left. Went to Sam."

"When she got to my place she was a mess. It was the worst he had ever done to her." Sam took over. "When I was trying to get her to go to the hospital, Trevor woke up and saw the damage done to her face. He went to the room, got dressed and left us to deal with Jeremy."

"So wait, how do you know Trevor?" Juice asked.

Sam gave him a sad smile. "Trevor and I had been seeing each other for a couple of years. I had no idea he was a Son though."

Happy sighed heavily. "What'd Trevor do?"

Sam looked up to Happy and shook her head. "We waited at the house for Trevor to come back, but he never did. A few hours after he left, Jeremy pulled up to the house." she said through tears. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see it was Opie. "The asshole got in through the backdoor before I could lock it. He forced himself inside and tried to get to Jesse. I held him off long enough for her to hide Gabby."