( CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE )
IT ONLY KEEPS GOING WORSE

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THE CHATEAU WAS EIRLY QUIET when the Winslow girl arrived after a good thirty minutes of cycling. She usually comes more quickly, but this time she went slowly with the anger remaining in her throat and her eyes clouded with tears. She also stopped in the middle of her path to text John B, asking if his fishing day was ending soon so they could meet up at the Chateau. She didn't get any answers, but she came anyway.

She stood there in front of the house, having leaned her bike against the trunk of a tree, and something was preventing her from entering it. Maybe the fact that it wasn't hers, that no one was there, or maybe because her father set foot in this house hundreds of times. But she found herself shaking her head. Although she and her father shared many things, this house was never his, but always Eden's.

She walked towards the porch, hoping for a second to find a blond lying there, but no one. JJ hadn't shown any signs of life yet, or he had and they just preferred not to warn her. In fact, she hadn't heard from the Pogues since the last time they spoke, which was at The Wreck. Had they left her, or were they just all busy? She decided not to think about it too much and wait for someone to show up. Then Eden entered the Chateau, finding Stanley lying on the couch in a little ball. She just smiled at the sight.

Eden went to drop her backpack in the room, taking Stanley with her. She placed the cat on the bed, while she had fun dragging her fingers over each piece of furniture in the brunet Routledge's room. His room would forever be a landmark for Eden, she always felt welcomed and reassured in this room. She suddenly sank into the bed that was much less comfortable than hers, but she didn't care. There was his smell. Eden curled up on herself, holding the blanket above her body. And a tear fell. A single tear.

    She thought she was horrible. When she left her house, taking the window so as not to be noticed, her world was in color for maybe two seconds. And then, the truth hit her in the face. She took revenge on her family, she confessed everything she had on her heart ( well, only 60% percent of what she had on her heart ), she showed them what it felt like to be humiliated. But yet, while pedaling her bike a few minutes later, she realized her mistake. She had acted like they had done to her. She had acted like her mother. She had been . . . Horrible and hateful. This is what makes her realize that even taking revenge won't fix things, it will only make them worse.

    "Eden?" Her name was pronounced softly without even startling her. She turned around after drying the tear printed on her cheeks, and discovered JJ, Kiara and Pope in front of her. The curly-haired girl continued, "Are you okay?"

    Eden was surprised to hear the first words from the Carrera girl. She expected to be yelled at for why she was going in without permission, what she was doing in John B's bed. But no, Kiara had asked her how she was. And she didn't know how to react, so she only shrugged, walking towards the trio of friends. Eden looked at them one by one, until she came across JJ Maybank who must have had difficulty keeping his eyes on her friend's face.

    She took a step towards him, grabbing him by the shoulders, which made him raise his blue irises towards Eden. "I know you didn't mean it." She pronounced with a smile, referring to their last discussion. JJ smiled back, whispering a sorry before she pulled him into a hug.

He was a brother at heart. She could never be completely angry with JJ, they shared the same traumas. Parents who are the reasons of their fears. That's why she understood him, because she did the same mistakes when things went wrong. She would throw the most hurtful words at the people she loved the most.

"Eden, what are you doing here?" Kiara asked again when the Winslow girl pulled away from the blond.

Oh god. . . Where to start, Carrera?

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    Eden had no idea why she was saying everything she was saying at that exact moment. Maybe because her brain was in "don't care about anything" mode. She had done it, she had said everything she had found last night in Thomas Perez's office. The faces were all different, even the most shocking was that of Kiara Carrera. It was understandable since the two girls had never really talked about their family, and Eden had just thrown a lot of bombs in her face. So yes, she was shocked. JJ didn't really understand the fact that Thomas had cheated on Yasmina, and Pope was trying to find the other woman aka Violeta's mother.

    Eden found herself stuck in her thoughts, she didn't know who to blame between her two parents. Maybe because there was none to accuse? Yasmina had often claimed that their relationship was dead, without feelings. She claimed it perhaps to demonstrate that Thomas had cheated on her long before the treasure hunt, long before their love died . . . But Eden didn't want to blame everything on Thomas. He had been a good father, as well as a good damn liar, he would never have cheated on Yasmina for any reason. It had to come from both sides.

    "It's crazy, Eden. This whole story goes beyond just a simple treasure." Kiara stated as they sat outside on the porch steps. Her eyebrows were furrowed as if she was trying to understand everything, but she couldn't. She knew nothing about her family. She couldn't play guessing in this situation. "Did you talk to John B about it?"

    Eden shook her head, biting her lip. "I couldn't. I just found out all of a sudden and . . . I just couldn't. Sorry."

    Kiara slipped her hand over hers, squeezing it a little which made Eden react and raised her eyelashes at her. The Carrera girl smiled at her, "That's okay. I totally understand. Well, not totally. I could never understand what you're going through right now, but I can help you by being present."

    Eden blinked before displaying a sincere smile on her face. "My God, it's so much easier being friends with you, Carrera."

    Kiara gave her a warm smile before throwing her arm over her shoulders. Eden let her head swing to the side, landing on the curly-haired girl's shoulder, and her gaze lost in the daylight.

    "You know, I think you're really strong." The Carrera girl suddenly declared. Eden frowned, and pulled away from her while waiting for the rest of her words. Kiara tucks a lock of her hair behind her ear, a little embarrassed to have thrown it out suddenly. "When we had that talk on the boat, I had no idea what you were going through. And everything you told me . . . I would never have had the courage you had."

    "Yeah, but that doesn't matter. I don't want to talk about that." She replied in a calm, non-direct tone, shaking her head.

    "Sure. But I wanted to let you know. I think you needed to hear that after what you went through."

    Eden left her response hanging as she stared at the sight before her. She didn't want to talk about it, she didn't want to talk about everything anymore. She had made a choice when she left the house this morning, the choice to never return to those old nightmares and to finally be able to move forward. But what she didn't know was that everything she experienced was stuck there. In her chest, she still felt a kind of resistance, a force locked there.

    Sadness.

    A core of sadness was there, and she didn't know how to make it evaporate from her body. Talking would be a choice, but it would take her so much time to explain everything and get out what it's stuck in there. So she preferred to do what she did best : lie. But she wouldn't lie to anyone, only to herself. She was going to lie to herself that she was fine, that she would forget . . . However, it will always be there. It will always be there — the hurts her mother hid inside her, the hurtful words people said, all the mistakes she made, what people think of her. Part of her will always belong to these bad memories. She will always be half of herself. Never complete. Never her true being.

    "Eden?" Kiara called, tapping her hand on Eden's shoulder, distracting her from her thoughts. "Are you okay?"

The Winslow girl bit her lip, trying not to get upset at hearing that question again. She knew Kiara just wanted to make sure she was okay, but every time she heard those words, it was harder and harder to contain herself. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm gonna . . . Um, I'm going to go see Pope."

"Okay." Kiara replied, nodding.

Eden stood up, wiped the dirt from her short pants, and walked towards Pope who was preparing the invention to go down into the well. She put her hands in her back pockets, and took a place next to him, looking at the plan he had come up with.

"Do you think we have a chance of transporting everything?" She questioned.

Pope shrugged his shoulders, and looked up at her. "It's a lot of gold, so . . . The chance of getting it all out without attracting attention is slim. Sorry to say that, but we won't be able to get it all out, Ed'. Why are you asking me that?"

"Because I want to have enough to leave far away from here." She grumbled as she moved away from Pope's staring eyes. "What will you do with all this?"

He chuckled a little, and muttered a little embarrassedly, "You'll probably think it's stupid but . . . I want to keep it for college. Forensic pathology."

She smiled back at him, looking up at the sky as if imagining Pope. "I can see you."

He smiled too, showing his teeth in the middle of the time. "And you? Besides wanting to leave here, what do you want?"

Eden raised her shoulders in turn, pouting. "I don't know. Travel the world, take time to surf. Live with Bella. I want to . . . Live my dream life."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." She sneered while Pope did the same thing as her — he looked up at the sky, imagining it.

"I can see it." He said, playing with the screwdriver in his hand, turning it between his fingers.

    They continued talking, Eden trying to understand what Pope wanted to do, until a blond guy came up to them, a beer in one hand and the cat in the other. The girl stared at him, putting her hands on her hips.

    JJ took a sip of her drink, and raised his eyebrows. "What?"

    She approached the cat, and gently grabbed it, hearing a meow from it. "You're holding my cat."

    "Oh, your cat?" Replied the blond, taking a step towards her, preparing to take him back in his arms.

    "Yeah, my cat." She affirmed, and he put an arm under the cat, but Eden took a step away. "Don't touch him, your hands are all greasy. Ew."

    JJ raised his hands in the air looking at Pope for some sort of support from him, but he only looked away, not wanting to be involved in this. So, the Maybank boy started making little noises to get Stanley's attention, but it failed miserably as the cat pushed himself even deeper into Eden's embrace, making her smile.

    "Whatever. This cat is two-faced." JJ grumbled, rolling his eyes.

Eden continued to play with the cat, petting it in a very sleepy way, and meanwhile, JJ went back into the jacuzzi. If Eden had been surprised when she discovered this, she never had an explanation. JJ said he was just drunk last night and things happened too fast for him to remember he bought that. Eden didn't believe him given the looks the other two friends exchanged, but she didn't ask any further questions. JJ wasn't the best at expressing his problems, he preferred not to alert others. A bit like Eden.

Then, she discovered Pope and Kiara finishing the preparations to take the gold out of the well. It was easy, a person would have to put themselves in a big jar who was hanging on a rope, and take out the gold.

"How's it feeling?" Pope asked Kiara while she was in position, looking if everything was correct. A mistake could cause a serious accident, they had no room for error.

    "Feels good." She assured, and turned to Eden. "Want to try Eden? You'll probably be the one to go down that hole."

"Oh, no. Never. Not a chance, Carrera." She sent, putting the idea out of her head.

    She placed the cat on the ground, and approached the jacuzzi, resting her forearms on it while JJ sat on the edge, only his bare feet floating in the warm water.

    JJ was the first to speak, asking the only question Eden had the answer to. "Do you know where John B is? We haven't seen him since yesterday, did he have something planned?"

    "Uh, yeah. He was going fishing with Ward. Mr. Cameron wanted to make it up to him for firing John B." Eden explained, playing with her hair and passing it behind her ears. "It shouldn't be long. It doesn't last all day, I think."

    Pieces of branches being broken caught the attention of Eden and JJ, and they turned their irises in sync towards the noises. They discovered John B Routledge coming towards them out of nowhere, with rapid and stressful steps. Eden frowned.

    "Speak of the devil. Hey!" JJ began, preparing to get out of the water. "Dude, I set up the entire winch to pull up the gold and everything."

John B didn't listen to them for a second, the words wandering from one ear to another. The other four looked at him, their faces questioning. They all looked at each other, trying to figure out what John B had. His mood was not normal for someone about to take out full gold. And Eden knew it, she knew that something was more wrong than normal.

Eden was the first to get away from the jacuzzi, placing the cat in JJ's hands as he too was about to get out. Pope and Kiara came running towards JJ, doubt running through their heads and stress mounting within them. Eden strode into the Chateau, hearing drawers opening and closing. The cabinet doors slammed under the force John B sent, not finding what he was looking for.

"John B, are you okay? What's going on?" She asked, not moving from where she was for fear of receiving a nudge from him because he was so fast and hasty. He ignored her, ran his hand through his hair and walked towards the sofa bed. "John B?"

"Bro, what's going on?" JJ asked as he arrived with Pope and Kiara at his side, and his eyes flickered to the movements of John B who pulled out the gun the Pogues keep with them. "John B, what do you need the gun for?" The blond continued, taking a few steps towards his best friend who didn't seem there at all.

He tried to put his hand around the weapon, wanting to remove it from John B's grip, but the brunette abruptly grabbed him by the shoulders, sending him flying to the side, and JJ landed roughly on the mattress. Eden widened her eyes in shock at the situation.

    "John B, chill!" Kiara screamed, her voice trembling while the Routledge boy didn't listen to any words.

Pope stood across the room, arms spread out to block the way. "What, are you JJ now?" Pope added, but was thrown out of the way too, bouncing on the table.

Eden said nothing, first trying to understand what was going on in John B's head. His eyes were not his, they were angry and devastating. The kind of eyes that most people don't look at for too long so as not to end up dead. John B looked like he wanted to kill someone, that's what Eden deduced.

He came out in a fury, pushing hard the back door of the house, and she hurriedly ran towards him, wanting to catch him at all costs. "John B, calm down!" She exclaimed, taking three large steps to finally grab his wrist, but he also pulled away from this movement. "What the hell is going on?"

"You should go home, Eden." He stated with a loud voice, anything but like the one he used last night. The voice he used when he hated her, she could recognize it among so many others. She hated that voice.

She shook her head, grabbing his arm as he got on JJ's motorcycle. "No. Not until you explain to me what's going on. Tell me."

He turned his swollen red eyes towards her, and she looked surprised to see this pain painted on his pretty face. "Go home."

She left her mouth ajar, her eyes trying to find what he knew, what had happened to make everything suddenly change. But, for the first time, she couldn't know. She didn't know what he was feeling at that moment.

"John B, what the hell?" Kiara's voice rang in their ears, but the two didn't move their gaze from each other.

He explained, shouting over the noise of the motorcycle's engine, "Ward knows about the gold." A silence followed, but he was still staring at Eden when he added, "He killed my dad. And Thomas knew it, and did nothing."

A bomb exploded in Eden's chest as the information entered her mind, and everything vanished. No, on the contrary, everything was now explained. But she didn't understand anything. Her thoughts were racing as she watched John B run away with the motorcycle, away from his friends. Eden's mouth remained open, and she turned to Pope, JJ and Kiara who were all equally shocked. An explosion had landed in their minds, and they didn't know how to deal with it.

    Eden shook her head as the informations from the last month settled into place in her head. Thomas disappeared before Big John, so how could he have been there while Big John disappeared? Eden breathed, now understanding everything. He was alive. He never disappeared, he was alive. And he supposedly helped Ward Cameron kill Big John, his friend. The man who helped him with this treasure hunt.

Thomas not only lied to Eden, he betrayed his teammate, faked his own death, left his family for a stupid treasure. He blew it all for gold. He was never who Eden thought he was. Never.

Maybe she never really got to know the man she thought he was. It was only an illusion.

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Night had fallen on the Outer Banks as the four teens tried to call John B, text him and even drove around his favorite places to find him. But he was not there, and anxiety was rising in each of them. Eden found herself sitting on the porch sofa, her leg bouncing while her elbows rested against her knees. John B's words echoed and echoed and continued to echo every time she closed her eyes.

She still couldn't believe it, and she didn't want to believe it. But the truth was there, everything was explained and the more she thought about it, the more sick and completely crazy it was for Thomas Perez to have done that. Big John was his best friend, the man who worked alongside him all his life, but he betrayed him. She didn't know all the pieces of the story, but she was sure of one thing : Thomas was not the man he claimed to be.

"You knew?" Kiara asked, standing in front of Eden with furrowed brows. Eden seemed too stunned to speak. "Did you know or not, Eden?"

"Of course not, Kiara." She stated with a firm tone, getting up from the sofa. Pope, who was pacing back and forth, stopped in the middle of the room, looking at the two girls now face to face. "I did not know."

"Yeah." Kiara scoffed in an irritated manner, making Eden sigh. "Look, we need to find
John B."

JJ, who was playing with his lighter, got up from the other sofa at the end of the porch, and walked over. "The boat is ready. We just have to go to the Camerons' house. He's probably there."

"Go for it." Eden declared. They turned to her, their faces all questioning. "I'll stay here in case he comes back." Kiara rolled her eyes, and Eden understood. She thought she had something to do with it all. But it still hurt her, they had finally managed to get along.

    Pope and JJ gave her a little nod, and she smiled as best she could. When they were all gone, she sat back on the sofa, moving her legs again, with a lump in her stomach. An awkward tear fell down her cheek, landing on the wooden floor. She bit her cheek to keep from losing control, and stayed wide awake to wait for John B to show up.

    The night was probably going to be long and boring, but Eden wasn't going to leave. She had nowhere to go anyway. She had planned to live here while she took the gold and bought an apartment or something, but if things go even worse than that, it probably won't just have any gold.

    Eden's eyes began to dim as time passed, and none of the Pogues arrived. She could only listen to the sounds of the insects, and stare into the night as it bowed straight before her. She grabbed a blanket, threw it around her shoulders and curled up on the sofa. A few more tears fell, but she didn't know why. Maybe anger or sadness? Betrayal or abandonment? Maybe all at the same time, it made a big mix. A big storm of emotions that she didn't know how to handle.

    But she pulled herself together. If John B arrived, she didn't want to be the one crying. She wanted to be the one who would be there for him. She wanted to help him through this, and not leave him like she did when Big John disappeared.

    The sound of an engine caught her attention, and her eyes opened wide like a fish's. She yawned, stood up lazily, then got to her feet when she saw John B climbing the porch steps. All the sleep she had contained vanished, and she stood straight in front of the Routledge boy, who looked out of breath and exhausted.

    "Hey." She started slowly, taking a step towards him, but he remained freeze and didn't move from where he was. She ran her hand through her hair, and approached John B. "I waited for you."

    "You should not have." He told her, letting his eyes in the darkness look into hers, and Eden felt a shiver. She knew something was wrong right now, and that he was angry with her. She just wanted to know why. "I told you to go home."

    "I know. But . . . I don't really have a home anymore." She informed him, shrugging. John B frowned, not understanding what she was talking about. "I left home. Like for good. But it doesn't matter, are you okay? Where have you been?"

    His breathing was so heavy that Eden could see his chest rising and falling. He threw the gun on the sofa, and grumbled, "You don't need to know. Either way, you'll tell."

    Eden remained in an expression of incomprehension, her eyebrows crossed. "What is that supposed to mean?"

     "That's suppose to mean that you knew all along, right?" John B pointed out, his face still turning towards that of the girl in front of him. She looked so innocent and troubled that he would like to think she knew nothing. "I can't believe I fell into this."

"John B, what are you talking about?" Eden questioned again, completely lost by John B's words. "I don't understand anything."

He shook his head, his eyes beginning to water more and more as he looked at Eden. He wanted to speak, but the words wouldn't come out, nothing would come out. Because he couldn't believe it. Eden took a step towards him, and placed her hands on his cheeks, making him look at her for real but he lowered his eyes.

She tried to look at him, and when he finally stared at her, she whispered, "Can you please explain? You're scaring me like that."

He took a breath, and everything he seemed to have built with Eden disappeared. He shook his head, trying to contain his anger at himself for falling into this trap. "You knew? You knew your father did all that, didn't you? You always protected him, you always believed that my father was the bad guy in the story."

The hands that Eden had on John B's cheeks fell to the ground as she took in what he said. "John B, I came to you. I asked for your help. I went against my family for this. I left everything behind for this simple treasure, and you would think I knew everything? That I was playing a double game?"

"I think above all that you were looking for the treasure to take it alone and leave us with nothing. Like your father did." John B continued, lowering himself towards Eden with an angry look. She blinked, letting a snicker escape in frustration. "You played with us."

"John B, that's completely crazy! I would never do that." She retorted, raising her voice as tears formed in her eyes. "You know I would never do that. Who put this stupid idea in your head?" A silence fell between them as John B let his gaze fall to his feet, and Eden took a moment before it dawned on her. "Ward did."

"Maybe he was right." He said, shrugging his shoulders before sniffing.

Eden took another step forward, seeking into the Routledge boy's gaze. "Are you that stupid? John B, he killed your father. And you believe the fact that I'm behind all this?"

"Then prove it to me." He replied in an exasperated breath. "Prove to me that you never played with me and my feelings, Eden."

Their gazes locked together, she shook her head. "I have nothing to prove, John B. You know that everything that happened between us was true. Last night . . . That was true." She said, sighing before speaking again, "The only person who needs to prove anything is you. Tell me what makes you think I'm the bad guy besides what Ward Cameron told you?"

He didn't respond, biting his lip as a tear fell down his cheek. John B was crying in front of her. Eden would have liked to take him in her arms at that moment, but she was afraid of being rejected a third time. So she stayed in her place, and waited for his response which ultimately never came.

"I thought . . . I thought we had something, John B. You never trusted me? I confided in you."

"Of course I trusted you, but was that . . . Was that just a way to coax me?" Her mouth hung open as he said this. He continued further, "I really like you. Like . . . I can't live without thinking about you. I can't live without seeing you smile, I . . . I constantly need you near me."

Eden's heart rate accelerated. Was he stating what she was thinking?

    "Look, you should leave, Eden." He snapped, and the hope that Eden had formed disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. "I need to think about all this alone."

Eden said nothing, and swallowed hard. She couldn't believe John B believed what his father's killer said. He must've been pretty shocked to think everything he had just said. It was completely crazy, and she found herself without John B again. She couldn't let this happen a second time.

He passed by her, about to enter the house when she grabbed his hand, and turned him slightly towards her so that she placed a kiss on his dry lips. John B remained frozen in place while Eden's lips remained on his for two seconds before she released them. He opened his eyelids slightly, but he just found Eden walking out of the house, letting a wind blow into the porch.

    Eden crossed the garden of the house to go in the street of the Cut, and the darkness of the night took her breath away. She hated walking in the night, but she had to. She didn't even know where she was going walking like that. Maybe at Pope's? Or at Drea's? Josie's? She found herself alone among the houses on either side of the road. John B hadn't run after her, and maybe that was the right thing to do.

    The lights of the street lamps flashed on her face filled with tears drying on her rosy cheeks. Her hands were on her arms, trying to keep warm as she walked quickly. A strange feeling awoke inside her. A feeling that something was wrong, that something was going to go wrong. She saw it often in movies, she knew they felt shivers and their breathing quickened. That's how she felt.

    Eden turned her head behind her, finding no one. She frowned. She felt bad. She continued walking again. But her steps stopped when she heard the sound of a branch cracking close to her. At that precise moment, she ran all the options through her head. She was being chased. She could escape or act as if nothing had happened. In any case it will end . . .

    A hand with a handkerchief placed over her mouth. She opened her eyes, trying to free herself but her eyes fell into darkness.

authors note: OMG HIII!! I missed this story so much, you can't even imagine. Anyway, welcome back John B & Eden!! Welcome back everyone who's still there lol... Oupss

Whatever, how you doing? What's going on in your life? It's been sooooo long, I'm so happy to be back with them! Quick explanation, I did a reread of this book, and saw some plot holes and slight cringe things so I thought about a rewrite but then I thought about just keeping it that way, and doing better in the incoming chapters!

Sooo... Did you guys knew it? Thomas being on this boat and somehow helping Ward? Well, that's what John B thinks but did it really happen this way? I don't know...

Whatever, I'm never gonna let my babies be happy, sorry for that :))

Hope the chapters will stop taking so much time but I can't promise anything. Plus, I'm preparing my own book ( no fanfic or anything, just my book lol )

Love you all and take care of yourself until next time . . . See you soon <3