IT WAS THE EARLY HOURS OF THE MORNING.

pope and kie had left to give the group space, jj was still clinging onto emery and mara like his life depended on it. the water had gone cold hours ago, but everyone stayed where they were.

"j?" emery asked, breaking the silence that had consumed them since jj had stopped crying.

"hm?" he mumbled into the girl's shoulders.

"you need to go inside." she said quietly, the boy nodding. levi moved to let emery and mara help him out of the tub. when they got inside, emery helped mara get jj to the bathroom, where she left her and jj alone.

"wordlessly, mara began cleaning the boy's torso, stopping for a moment when he'd flinch.

"i tried to pay my restitution." jj said suddenly, mara stopping what she was doing to look at him. "i really did, i tried."

"i know." mara assured. "i believe you, j." she muttered, pushing some of his hair out of his face.

"he seemed... proud of me at first, like i had proved something. but then he started talking about how he wanted to go gamble it- y'know the rest." jj mumbled, mara nodding and squeezing his hand tightly. she began to work on cleaning his bruises again, but her hand never left his.

a knock echoed the door, both teen's heads moving over to see levi holding a pair of sweatpants.

"found these in my truck, figured you could use them." he said, jj smiling a little.

"thanks." he mumbled, levi putting the sweatpants on the counter and walking out of the room, softly closing the door behind him. mara squeezed jj's hand one more time, walking out of the bathroom to give him privacy to change. emery was at the end of the hall, leaned against the wall looking at her phone, now wearing the hoodie from earlier with the box shoved in the waistband of her shorts.

"is he okay?" she asked once the door shut, mara pausing, shaking her head.

"i don't think he's ever been 'okay', ems. you've known him longer than i have." mara stated, the melville girl nodding slowly.

she still remembered the first time jj had ever sought out help from her because of his home life. he was only nine and managed to scale his way up the gutter on the side of the house to emery's bedroom, after running all the way to her house from the cut.

she ran to her mom, despite jj's protests, and amelia let jj stay at their house for a week after that, the woman being surprisingly hospitable to jj. it was after that she was dubbed 'the cool mom' by john b.

jj emerged from the bathroom, not even looking at emery and mara before going to his room, mara following behind him

"hey." emery said to mara, the girl turning to face her. "can i talk to him? alone?"

"yeah, is everything okay?" mara asked, emery nodding.

"yeah, there's just been something on my mind i need to tell him about." she said, mara nodding and letting emery go past her into jj's room. he was laying above the covers, hands placed carefully on the little unbruised skin on his body, making emery's heart ache. he looked over at her as she walked in, giving her an artificial smile.

"hey." he mumbled, pushing himself up on the bed to sit against the headboard.

"hey." emery breathed, sitting next to him. they sat in a silence before jj spoke up again.

"what's up?" he asked, emery pulling the box out from under her hoodie, jj raising his eyebrows. "houdini, are we?"

"no, no." emery replied with a laugh, opening the clasp on the box. the photo was face down inside, amelia's scrawl of 'emery and her daddy' visible at the the top of the white backing. jj wrinkled his eyebrows.

"what's that?" he asked, confused.

"look at it." emery replied simply, jj picking up the picture, revealing the dozens of letters underneath, jj momentarily forgetting about the photo in his hand.

"what're those?" jj asked.

"don't worry about those right now, look at that." she said, jj looking intently at the scrawl on the back of the paper and wrinkling his eyebrows.

"what does this have to do with me?" jj questioned, emery nodding towards the picture, barely smiling.

"flip it over." she muttered, jj flipping the photo over. emery watched his jaw fall slightly at the face staring back at him in the picture, holding a bundle of pink blankets with a baby wrapped inside them

luke.

"that's..." jj trailed off, looking at the young version of his dad.

"there's more." emery said, pulling the letters out to grab the polaroid at the bottom. it was some sort of family photo- emery had no idea who would've taken it- of amelia, luke, and two babies bundled up in blankets, one blue, one pink.

"so, if that's you..." jj trailed off, pointing at the baby wrapped in pink cloth his finger moving to hover over the baby in blue. "does that mean..."

"that's you." emery whispered. "these-" she said, grabbing the stack of letters from the end of the bed, "are from your dad to my mom."

"holy shit." jj whispered. "some of these are from before levi was born."

"i know." emery muttered. "she was still living in australia when she wrote some of these." she said, reaching back into the box and taking a final letter out. "this one never got sent."

dear luke,

i hope life is treating you and jj well, i hate that i haven't been around to see him. emery is great, and she has her daddy's eyes, she and jj look exactly the same.

im writing again because i decided i want to divorce jackson, my affair with you has left me feeling so guilty about still being with him. besides, there's no love between the two of us anyways. and it's only a matter of time before he realizes emery isn't his daughter- she doesn't look like either one of us or our parents.

i want to ask you and jj to move to figure eight with me, jackson will be gone in a couple months. it's only right for jj and emery to grow up knowing they're twins, i plan on letting them spend time together even if we can't be together.

i wish i had married you when i had the chance. when jackson and i hadn't had levi- but i cant imagine life without him. but, we were both young and i was still in australia with no desire to leave, but, clearly things have changed. i want to be with you, to raise the twins and maybe even levi with you.

i'm moving back into the obx house for good next month. i hope in that time, you will have made the decision to come live with me and the kids.

forever yours,
amelia

jj's eyes had welled up at the letter. he was quick to blink them away when he finished, wiping under his eyes. he was unable to hide his smile when he looked at emery, however, the girl smiling back.

"hey, twin." jj said after a second, pulling emery into a hug. the girl laughed, hugging him back as she felt hot tears on her shoulder.

"hey, twin." she whispered back.

EMERY, LEVI, AND MARA WERE ALL OUT IN THE YARD.

pope and kie were going to be there in about twenty minutes, but emery, levi, and mara had come out early in the morning to clean up jj's mess from the previous night, but leaving up the christmas lights. levi had talked them into it, surprisingly.

jj joined them after about five minutes, slightly guilty that they had done most of the cleaning of his mess. he started rigging up the generator to the chateau so they could have power inside once kie and pope got there, and was done by the time everyone else had set the winch up.

"how's it feeling?" pope asked kiara, who was suspended in the air in the bucket. jj had sat on the edge of the hot tub with his feet in the water next to levi. mara and emery were sitting on a branch of the tree the bucket was in.

"feels good." kiara replied.

"i'm gonna let you down." pope said, beginning to lower the bucket.

"john b pulling a houdini." jj mentioned, making emery smile as she remembered last night's conversation.

"yeah, where is he? i have my scholarship interview tomorrow." pope muttered.

"you're not gonna miss your interview, pope." mara assured.

as if on cue, john b stormed through the back yard.

"speak of the devil, hey! i set up the entire winch to pull up the gold and everything." jj called.

"no he didn't, i did that." pope replied, but john b wasn't acknowledging the group as he stormed towards the chateau.

"hey, b, you good?" emery yelled after him, but he didn't respond. she and mara jumped down from the tree.

"what's that all about?" jj asked emery, the girl shrugging.

"that's was i was gonna ask you." she muttered, already starting towards the chateau where john b was ransacking his home in a similar manner to jj just a day prior.

"hey, man, what's going on?" levi asked.

"john, what are you looking for?" mara asked, the boy pulled up a couch cushion, pulling jj's gun out from under it.

"john b, what are you doing?" emery asked, but he turned to ignore her. "john-"

however, she was cut off when john b shoved the gun into the waistband of his shorts, shoving emery against a wall, her breath hitching in her throat and making her flinch.

"what the fuck!" levi yelled, jj standing with his jaw dropped in the doorway.

"did you know?" john b yelled at emery, turning to levi abruptly. "did you?"

"what are you even talking about?" emery shouted back.

"your dad's back on the island." john b gritted. "has been for about a year now."

emery pulled herself out of john b's grip, staring at him with wide eyes.

"what do you mean he's back?" emery asked, but john b shook his head in disbelief, storming towards the back door.

"john, what the hell?" mara yelled, she and emery following him closely. the brunette was on jj's dirt bike now, emery and mara standing in the driveway behind him.

"john, what does my dad-"

"ward knows about the gold!" john b shouted. "jackson does too, and they killed my dad." he added, voice breaking. emery's jaw dropped, and she could imagine everyone else's had too.

john b sped away on the bike before anyone could stop him, kiara and pope trying to run after him, but failing miserably.

"what the shit?" levi said from behind emery, voice cracking slightly. "he's- he's lying. he has to be. dad wouldn't- he couldn't-"

"lee..." emery trailed off, turning to face her older brother, who was looking like a mess and appeared to be on the brink of cracking any second.

"emery, he's lying." levi stated, but he almost sounded like he was convincing himself. emery shook her head, pulling her brother into a hug, but he tugged away from her. "no, no, i have to go home."

"lee, no!" emery shouted. "do you think mom's just going to let jackson waltz through the front door- he isn't going to be there and he hasn't been for a year! he's back, and he's a murderer!" emery yelled, levi shaking his head.

"dad isn't a murderer." he stated firmly turning on his heel and storming to his truck.

"shit." jj breathed next to emery, who's hands were dug into the roots of her hair.

"okay, you guys, go to tannyhill." she said to the pogues. "i'm gonna stay here, clean the house up. if you guys find him and stop him, that's great, but he's probably going to come here after he's done whatever. john b might be pissed, but he isn't capable of killing someone."

"emery, you just found out your dad-"

"jackson isn't my dad." emery cut mara off, glancing at jj, who nodded.

"what do you mean jackson isn't your dad- if he's not then who is?" pope asked, appalled by this new news.

"luke." emery deadpanned. "i found out a week ago, jj and i are twins, levi is jackson's son and we're all amelia's kids, but luke is my dad. my mom had an affair the summer before she moved here."

"holy shit- if my life just boring?" mara asked.

"you guys go to tannyhill, if john b comes back, i'll be here." emery assured, mara giving her friend a hug and following kiara and pope down to the dock to get on the hms pogue. jj lingered back for a minute.

"you sure you're good alone right now?" he clarified, emery nodding.

"he'll come back. guarantee it." she said, jj nodding and running down the dock to catch up with the others.

emery could just hope she was right.

NIGHT HAD FALLEN.

and still, sitting in the dark living room of the chateau, emery couldn't help but worry since john b was still nowhere to be found. she hadn't heard anything from mara or even levi, which meant he probably hadn't shown up at her house, but also meant he probably didn't go to tannyhill.

the girl had deep cleaned the house in a fit of anxiety, the place now looking better than it had since big john left. the house also smelled much better now, having the aroma of a lemon floor cleaner, despite some places on the hardwood being beyond her repair. she had even cleaned jj and john b's rooms, done their laundry since the power was back to the dryer, washed the mounds of dishes, taken trash out, all things that had seemed irrelevant when summer started but now seemed to be all emery had left.

the rattle of a doorknob took her from the scrubbing of a suspicious red substance off the kitchen table.

"emery?" john b called, his voice shaking, the sound breaking emery's heart. she had heard it for almost a year, and it never got easier. "mara? jj?"

"jb?" emery called back, the boy rounding the corner and standing in the kitchen doorway. he was trembling, tear tracks on his face showing that he had likely been crying for awhile, his red and puffy eyes doing him no favors. he was hiccuping with every breath, his chest hitching to show he had most likely sobbed the whole way home.

"ems." he breathed. every part of him appeared ready to break.

emery peeled the yellow rubber gloves off her hands, tossing them onto the table as she tugged john b into the hug he had needed since that morning, especially after he had left the chateau. as soon as her arms are around him, the guilt and grief hits him like a ton of bricks, and he finally crumbles in her arms.

"i'm sorry." he sobs into her shoulder, squeezing emery so slightly it hurt, but she knew it was what he needed. "i'm sorry- i shouldn't have yelled at you- it wasn't your fault-"

"hey, hey, it's okay." emery assured, running hand up and down john b's back as he continued to fall apart.

"i miss him." the boy sobs, letting out every repressed thought of him father's death he's had in the last year. "i- i told him he was a shitty dad- he just wanted to help me-"

"it's not your fault." emery murmured, her hand rubbing circles into the sobbing boy's back. "b, you guys had a fight. dads and sons fight all the time, you're not responsible for this."

john b doesn't say anything after that, just cries into emery's shoulder. she stays with him, his grip on her like iron, like he thinks that if he lets go, she'll walk out the door and never come back. when his distraught state winds down, emery removes her arms from his back, cupping his face in her hands and pulling his head off her shoulder.

"i'm really, really sorry." john b whispers. "i'm sorry i pushed you, im sorry i yelled, i'm sorry for thinking you knew about it- i'm really, really, sorry."

"i know." emery assured, wiping under his eyes with her thumb. "i know you are, and it's okay. i forgive you."

"i just... there's no way to have a funeral." john b mumbled. "he deserves one, it's not fair."

"hey." emery mutters back, shaking her head. "we can make one of those little boats he showed us how to make forever ago, we'll give him a little send off."

john b smiles a little, nodding his head. "i think he'd like that."

emery grabbed a photo of big john, a candle, and a blowtorch, walking out to the backyard and helping john b build the boat, the two working in silence. when the boat was done, emery tucked the photo between the sticks so it was standing and place the candle behind it, carrying the torch out to the dock while john b brought the boat.

silently, emery watched him light the candle, setting the boat into the water, the two watching the little flat of sticks float away.

"goodbye, dad." john b muttered, voice cracking. emery pulled him close, the two watching as the boat floated into the distance. john b's body began to feel heavy on top of emery, and she begrudgingly nudged the boy awake.

"we have to go inside." she whispered, john b groaning as he stood up. the two walked, hand-in-hand to the chateau. when they got to john b's room, he practically collapsed into the crisp, clean sheets emery had washed during her cleaning spree. the girl laid down next to him, john b nuzzling into her chest and wrapping his arms around her waist.

"thank you for always being here." he mumbled tiredly, emery smiling.

"of course." she whispered back, exhaustion hitting both of them as they fell into a contented sleep.

kens speaks 🪐

almost done with this book?? do we want a sequel??