Chapter 9 - The Broken Brother
The tension snapped like a dry twig. Two of Jax’s riding companions rose silently from their booths, flanking Miller before the corporate agent could reach inside his coat for a defensive weapon. Miller looked at the sheer mass of muscle surrounding him, recognized the impossibility of the immediate situation, and slowly raised his open hands.
""This doesn't end here, Jackson,"" Miller said through clenched teeth. ""Eleanor has the full weight of the legal system behind her. You cannot hide a mother and child forever.""
""Get out,"" Jax said coldly. ""Tell Eleanor if I see her dogs near this town again, I won't use the courts. I'll use the press. She knows exactly what documents I kept when I walked away.""
Miller backed out of the diner slowly, his eyes burning with venom. He signaled the two operatives outside, who reluctantly stepped away from Clara’s truck. Within thirty seconds, the two black sedans backed out of the gravel lot, their tires spinning before speeding back toward the highway.
Clara rushed through the diner’s heavy glass doors, soaked and shivering. Leo broke free from Jax’s side and ran straight into her arms, burying his face into her wet wool coat.
""I did it, Mom,"" Leo muffled into her collar. ""I showed him the photo.""
""You did, sweetheart. You were so brave,"" Clara whispered, hot tears spilling over her cold cheeks as she lifted the boy and held him tight.
Jax stood over them, his broad shoulders rising and falling heavily. For the first time in five years, Clara looked into eyes that shared Julian’s bone structure, but none of Julian’s weakness.
""You look like hell, Clara,"" Jax said gruffly, though his voice cracked at the edges.
""Survival isn't pretty, Jackson,"" she replied, straightening her posture despite her trembling legs. ""Eleanor won't stop with this. She's desperate. What happened to Julian?""
Jax sighed, running a thick, calloused hand over his bearded face. ""Julian is at the old lodge by Blackwood Lake. Eleanor stripped his voting shares last month after the Vance merger turned into an SEC investigation. He’s drinking himself to death, broke, and Victoria left him the second the bank frozen the secondary accounts. Eleanor wants the kid because the family trust has a clause: direct male heirs regain majority board seats upon their sixth birthday, bypassing the mother-in-law's control.""
Clara’s eyes widened with sudden, piercing clarity. ""Eleanor never cared about the boy. She needs his legal guardianship to maintain control of the company before the restructuring takes effect next month.""
""Exactly,"" Jax nodded grimly. ""And the only person who can legally block Eleanor's emergency conservatorship petition is the biological father.""
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Clara’s heart turned to lead. ""Julian wouldn't help me five years ago. Why would he help me now?""
""Because,"" Jax said, pulling a set of heavy keys from his belt, ""he doesn't know the child survived. Eleanor told him you terminated the pregnancy before disappearing.""
