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John scratches the stubble on his chin "I beat the shit out of him"

I choke on my own spit "You what?"

"Beat the shit out of hiain, I’d call the police and let theain and then they could arrest us both"

"Damn"

"Yeah But I could never stop hiuy because of you," I say

"Your cousin doesn’t have o"

"I can’t stay"

"I hoped by training West you’d find your fight again"

"My fight’s gone"

"You’re too young for that, Haley Take a look at your father Is that what you want to be? We could blaht in you then When you lied about what happened with Conner to save Jax and Kaden, I thought ht track"

I turn ht to protect rolls off his tongue "How did you know?"

"Jax and Kaden knew the moment you came home with no meds you were jumped and they knew Conner was the one to do it Besides, they also knew you could kick Conner’s ass"

I chuckle, though I don’t knohy Matt never flinched froh to take on Conner, but I wasn’t I trained Matt I dated him You’d think he would have known

John continues, "I told Jax and Kaden to let you fight your own fights With Matt, Conner and your uncle--hoever Unless you asked for help I thought if you had to fight in so you really are or at least teach you how to rely on us Even if anted, we couldn’t help unless you let us"

I think of ht "It almost worked"

"It doesn’t have to be almost Stay, Haley You’ve always had the heart You just need to start leading with that instead of your head"

I snort Here I’ve been trying to convince West differently The uy I loved I loved him I loved him so ers He couldn’t have loved ht, I’ve been able to pretend the truth hasn’t existed "Dad’s a hteen There co your own decisions about your life You can’t control your father and you can’t help your mother They’ll either ie?"

"I raised your reat-aunt will keep Maggie in line, too The old bat is too mean to die"

John scratches his forehead and I’ve never seen such an unsure gesture fro and I don’t feel like hitting a few rocks on the way down

"When you get to California, you should talk to someone"

"Talk?"

"Yeah" His hand waves in the air "A professional--like that Mrs Collins"

Uhno "I don’t need--"