𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐘 𝐈 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐃 𝐘𝐎𝐔, 𝗷𝗼𝗵𝗻 𝗯 𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗹𝗲𝗱𝗴𝗲

𝟬𝟬𝟰, the beginning of everything

Chapter Four
The Beginning Of Everything

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THE DEATH OF THOMAS PEREZ HAS AFFECTED MORE PEOPLE THAN YOU CAN EXPECT. He was not only the miracle of the Outer Banks, but also the one who helped the Pogues, and the Kooks. He made peace between the two rival clans, and it worked. One day, Eden and her father had succeeded in convincing the Kooks to help all the people in need, they said yes. It was on that day that the eight-year-old girl realized that not everyone was bad, but sometimes, they have so much things, they think they have nothing left to give. That day, a star was lit between the Kooks and the Pogues, like an end of a war but infact. . . The worst was yet to come.

When Thomas disappeared in the deep waters of the sea, Eden not only lost her joy of being in this world, but she also lost what she had half managed to build with her father — Peace on Outer Banks. She still remembers when Sheriff Peterkin called Yasmina in the middle of the night, asking for her alone to come to the police station, but of course she brought her two children. Eden remembers her gasping breath when she took out the three words that have been haunting Eden's head ever since : He is dead. She will also always remember the nights when Yasmina started drinking as much as Thomas did.

          She had no one, but the others had her. Eden helped each person who passed by her, wanting to give the love that she had left in her, and didn't even ask to receive a little, because she had lost her father's love. And the love of a father can make all the difference in a life. Eden never asked for anything, she only waited. She was waiting to see this man with his old grandpa's beard who would come into her room and say to her : Come on, cutie pie, we're going on an adventure. She was waiting to run away like she did with John B when they were younger. Eden would take her father's hand and run in a direction that only God knows where.

But for now, her mind must have been fixed on only one thing — the letter she received the other night. Dozens of questions slammed into her little Kook brain. Who put this on her doorstep, why is it given to her personally and not to Yasmina, and why John B's fucking father's name is at the end of the letter? Like, what the hell? Is this like a prank? She kept telling herself it was just a dream, but when she woke up this morning and saw the letter, she had to scream in her pillow, venting the frustration for understand nothing at all.

John Routledge. Eden knew this man, he was a kind of second father for her, but why was his name there? Why not the name of her father? It doesn't make any sense. Cutie Pie was the nickname only Thomas gave her, so what was it. . . She banged on the kitchen counter, getting mad at herself.