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CHAPTER FOURTEEN

❝BUT WHAT ABOUT YOUR HEART?❞

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As Winnie stood before Jade and Iris hyperventilating with tears coming down her cheeks, she realized that her and Peter may never ever be together — if only she didn't let her emotions cloud her judgements.

"Winnie, are you okay?"

"Yeah. . .yes, um. . .Iris, did you take the test?"

"Yeah, but I haven't checked it yet."

Winnie creased her eyebrows. "Why not?"

"Honest? I'm scared. . ."

"That sounds like a first."

Iris flared at Jade momentarily as Jade shrugged her shoulders as Iris shook her head and looked back over to Winnie.

"What if I'm pregnant?"

"Then you'll be a kick ass mother that you know you are?" Winnie murmured softly as she wiped her wet cheeks and heard Iris laugh softly making her laugh as well.

"Thanks, Winnie."

Winnie nodded and crossed her arms over her chest as she watched Iris slowly look down at the pregnancy test and let out a slow breath.

"I'm not pregnant."

To say a wave of relief had washed over everyone in the room was an understatement.

"I guess that's it. . .I'll see myself out."

Winnie pursed her lips and leaned off her bedroom door and let Iris pick up her things and make her way out of the bedroom as Winnie shut the door behind her.

Once she was gone, she sniffed and wiped under her eyes again as she heard the sound of footsteps making her turn around and see Jade. "What happened downstairs?"

"I messed up, Jade. . ."

"What do you mean?"

"Justin is playing a sick and twisted mind game. . .and it costs me a chance at a relationship with Peter."

Jade sighed softly and held Winnie in her arms. "I'm so sorry, Winnie."

"Why does everything bad happen to me, Jade?"

Jade didn't even know how to respond, but she felt an ache in her chest at the sound of Winnie's words. She huffed through her nostrils and held Winnie closer as Winnie started to cry again.

"How about I stay over, cool?"

"Y-Yeah. . ."

Jade smiled even though Winnie couldn't see it and rubbed Winnie's back before separating from the hug to take a look at Winnie and wipe away the tears.

"You're gonna be okay."

Winnie let out a shaky breath. "I hope so."

Jade gave a closed mouth smile and took Winnie's hands and guided her over to her bed as the two sat down and talked.

And that night they didn't just talk, it was more like a heart to heart session. They were telling each other what they needed to hear — more like Jade was telling Winnie what she needed to hear.

After talking until almost midnight, Jade and Winnie both fell asleep that night knowing everything was going to be okay in time.

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Justin decided to sleep in, but the thing about sleeping in was that you'd actually have to be asleep — which Justin was not.

He was completely awake and staring at the ceiling like it had all the answers to his problems lined up and solved for him.

Sighing heavily, he looked over at his phone and picked it up and pressed the power button to check the time and as he did so, the time turned from 10:59 to 11 o'clock.

Justin groaned and tossed his phone onto the sheets and ran his fingers through his hair as his eyes went to glue back to the ceiling.

Justin snapped out of thoughts at the sound of the door opening and closing making him crease his eyebrows and slowly get himself out of bed.

Once he slipped some clothes on, he headed downstairs and walked over to the front door and opened it to see Jade's truck pulling out of the driveway making him wonder.

Maybe Winnie is still here, Justin thought.

Justin bit the inside of his cheek and started to walk into the kitchen, he looked around but there was no sign of Winnie, he then checked the living room and still no sign of her.

Justin had then decided to just check the house, but in the end Winnie was not in the house, he sighed softly as he walked back into his room and plopped down onto the mattress.

All he wanted to do was explain himself.

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Jade pulled into Peter's driveway and looked over to Winnie seeing her eyes glued on the baby blue colored house before her.

"Do you want me to come?"

"No. . .I need to do this myself."

Winnie puffed out a breath as she opened the passenger side door as Jade rubbed her arm and pursed her lips once she took her seatbelt off and slipped out of the truck.

"Good luck."

Winnie smiled softly and nodded as she turned back around and headed up to Peter's porch, with ever step she took, it felt as if the air around her was getting thinner.

But she needed to do this.

She needed to talk to Peter face to face.

Once Winnie reached the front door, she let out a shaky breath and shook her hands slowly at her sides before raising one up to the door to knock on.

After a few seconds, the sound of the door unlocking made Winnie prepare herself making her swallow hard and see the door swing open.

Winnie's face went still as she came face to face with a woman who seemed to be middle-aged, she had dark brown hair and green eyes with a hint of blue, a perfectly sculpted face with her hair pulled back to show off her beautiful facial features, and plump baby pink lips.

"I-I. . ."

"I'm sorry, are you lost, honey?"

"No, I'm looking for Peter."

"Ah, he just left for work."

Winnie let out a breath. "Oh. . .thank you."

"Do you want me to leave a message for you?"

"I'm sorry. . .but who are you?"

The woman laughed softly. "I'm Mrs. Solano's caretaker."

That's when it hit Winnie.

Winnie looked down at her attire and saw she was dressed in turquoise colored scrubs with a white long sleeve under the top and a gold cross necklace around her neck.

"O-Oh, I'm sorry. . .I'll just see him later."

The woman nodded and smiled softly before waving to Winnie as she shut the door back making a weight on Winnie's shoulders fall off as she headed off Peter's porch and headed back to Jade's truck.

Once she slipped inside, she saw Jade looking at her with creased eyebrows making Winnie purse her lips as she placed her seatbelt back on. "So?"

"He's at work."

"Which is. . .?"

"Crab shack."

Jade smacked her teeth. "Of course."

Winnie smiled softly and snickered as Jade sighed softly and started the engine again and the sound of Best Life by Cardi B started to play as she sped out of Peter's driveway.

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Justin let the droplets of water cascade down his perfectly tattooed back and down onto the tub floor, and run down into the drainer.

The continuous pattern didn't faze Justin, he simply kept his palms on the wall of the shower, his head down with his chin on his chest, and his muscles somewhat tense.

Small breaths left Justin's lips as the steaming water eased his back tension, making fog form in the atmosphere to mix with the steam of the shower water.

Justin had become so tense in just two days and it was about to drive him crazy, he didn't expect his summer to go like this at all — hell, he didn't expect to share a house with another woman.

But here he was catching feelings for her.

After a long shower, Justin turned the water off and slowly stepped out of the shower and wrapped his towel around his waist and walked out of the bathroom and over to his closet, but he was stopped at the sound of the doorbell.

Justin huffed and threw his damp hair out of his vision as he headed out of his bedroom and downstairs to the front door.

Once at the door, Justin opened it and leaned onto the door as he looked up to see Frank making him crease his eyebrows. "Frank?"

"Mr. Bieber."

"Frank, I told you stop calling me that when I finished high school. You make me sound older than what I am."

Frank chuckled lowly. "My apologies."

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm driving your father around while he stays in Santa Monica."

Justin's smile slowly faded. "Of course."

"He's asked for you to have lunch with him at the restaurant at his hotel."

"Right now?"

Frank nodded as Justin stepped away from the door as a sign that Frank could come in, Frank stepped inside slowly and shut the door behind him as Justin ran a hand through his damp hair.

"Since you've showered you've saved about 20 minutes, yes?"

"U-Uh yeah, I'll be back in about 10 minutes. Make yourself comfortable."

Frank nodded and watched Justin jog upstairs as he held his towel and made his way back into his bedroom to get dressed as Frank laughed and headed to the living room to watch television.

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"Honest, I'm hungry for some seafood so I'm coming with you this time."

Winnie smacked her teeth. "Fine by me."

Winnie and Jade both took their seatbelts off and then got out of the truck and made their way up to the front door of the crab shack and walked inside with the instant smell of seafood and seasoning as usual.

Winnie squinted her eyes to adjust to the dim lit area and found the bartender that she met her first time coming and rolled her eyes as she headed over to him as Jade followed.

Winnie walked right up to him as he typed away on his phone and leaned against the shelf behind him, at the sound of Winnie clearing her throat he looked up and smirked.

"Well I'll be damned. . .haven't seen you in a while, how are you? How's that twenty doing ya?"

"I bought some tampons, now where's Peter?"

"I'll tell ya if you give me forty bucks."

Jade scoffed. "She ain't giving you shit, not while I'm here."

The bartender rose an eyebrow and looked over at Jade and looked over her outfit seeing she was dressed in a denim button up shirt, a nude pencil skirt, and nude colored heels to match with her curls in a bun on top of her head.

"Well. . .how about you and I just sit here and chat while her and Petey boy chat, huh?"

"Boy bye, you can't handle all this. Tell her where he is or I'm fucking up this bar."

The bartender groaned and rolled his eyes as he put his phone back into his back pocket and he looked from Jade over to Winnie.

"He's on the docks."

Winnie grinned and looked over to Jade and patted her on the shoulder and leaned over to whisper in her ear. "Thank you."

Jade smiled and winked as she watched Winnie jog past her and head out the back door that she remembered headed out to the docks.

Winnie huffed and walked through people cooking and people chopping up the seafood before she headed out the other backdoor and was instantly hit with the sunlight from outside.

Winnie looked around and saw different men working on the docks to rope in the seafood they caught and some on the boat getting ready to leave or some cleaning the boats machinery.

Winnie squinted her eyes and looked to her left and felt a wave of relief wash over her when she saw Peter on the edge of the docks cleaning his boots.

"Pete!"

Winnie smiled softly and started to walk over to Peter as everyone stared at her confused and just when she was about to reach Peter, she was stopped by a large man.

"Um. . ."

"What the hell are you doing back here? No customers are allowed out at the docks."

"Benny, it's cool, she's with me."

Benny turned around to Peter. "Take care of this elsewhere, we leave in 10."

"Yeah, I know."

Peter swallowed a lump as he watched Benny clench his jaw and head off back to where he came from making Winnie bite the inside of her cheek as Peter creased his eyebrows and stepped closer to her.

"Winnie, what are you doing here?"

"I-I came to see you, I wanted to talk about yesterday—"

"Winnie, I'm over yesterday, okay? I don't hold grudges."

Winnie creased her eyebrows. "S-So we. . .?"

"Winnie. . .I told you how I feel about you and you obviously never answered my question simply because you have feelings for Justin."

"But I don't—"

"Don't deny it. . .okay? I know you do, you were just blinded by it because I came into the spotlight and showed you another picture. But the truth, Winnie? You want to be with Justin. . .I don't think your mind is denying it either."

"N-No my mind is made up, Peter! I want you!"

Peter chuckled softly and shook his head. "But what about your heart?"

Winnie had paused for a moment, she was mostly trying to process what Peter had said about her thinking with her heart. What did it say? She had been so conflicted for the past few days, maybe it was trying to tell her who she really had feelings for.

"Peter. . ."

"Winnie, if you don't mind. . .I was hoping we'd go back to being just friends?"

"Friends?"

Peter pursed his lips and nodded as he looked down at the grass making Winnie chuckle and cover her mouth momentarily.

"I-I think it's for the best. . .take care, Winnie, I'll see you around."

"Solano, time to go!"

As if on queue, the boat let out a loud noise making Winnie gasp softly as she watched Peter wave to her one last time and head over to the dock and jog down it to get onto the boat.

As he did, Winnie stood in her same spot and watched Peter get onto the boat as she felt a pang in her chest and she watched the boat slowly pull off.

Winnie bit her bottom lip softly and tried to hold back the tears as she headed back into the crab shack and made her way back up to the restaurant where Jade waited at the bar.

Once Jade saw Winnie, she hopped up from her seat and rose an eyebrow. "So?"

"He wants to stay friends."

"Oh, Winnie. . ."

"Maybe it's for the best, Jade. . .," Winnie whispered softly as the sound of her voice started to crack making her sharply inhale a breath. "Can you take me home now?"

Jade nodded and bit her bottom lip as she interlinked arms with Winnie and took her with her to head out of the restaurant, as they stepped outside, Winnie stopped and looked over to Jade.

"What about your food?"

"I'll grab something else, you're ready to go home, let's go."

Winnie thanked her softly as they headed to Jade's truck and got inside, once Jade got in and started the engine, Winnie rested her head on Jade's window and kept her eyes glued on everything outside as she drove her home.

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Justin slipped his black leather jacket on top of his short sleeve smoke gray t-shirt as he walked over to the mirror and looked at the rest of his outfit, his black jeans and his black Timberlands on his feet.

Justin grabbed his phone and keys and made his way downstairs and walked into the living room and saw Frank watching the news and reluctantly he was on the news.

"Look at you, superstar."

"Eh, shut up, let's go."

Frank chuckled and turned the television off and fixed his blazer as he headed to the front door with Justin and headed out with Justin shutting the door behind them.

Once they were outside, Frank unlocked the limousine and opened Justin's door and heard him thank him as he shut his door and got in the driver's seat and started the engine and headed out of the driveway.

After driving for a few minutes, Frank had pulled into the valet parking lot of the restaurant and Justin saw someone else opening his door making him crease his eyebrows.

"Thanks, but that's my boy right here's job."

"Indeed, sir."

The young guy cleared his throat. "My apologies."

Justin snickered and saw Frank grin as he gave him a fist bump and took his shades out of his leather jacket pocket and place them on his face.

Walking around the limousine, he stopped when he saw Iris standing at the entrance dressed in a skin tight pencil short black dress with a beige jacket that stopped at her ankles and black stilettos on her feet with her hair in a low bun.

At the sight of Justin, she pursed her red lipstick covered lips and approached him as he lowered his shades on the bridge of his nose and smirked. "You look pretty sexy."

"Justin, can we talk?"

"Why are you here? Surprise board meeting I don't know about?"

"No, Justin, please listen to me."

Justin chuckled. "Okay, what's wrong, babe?"

Iris pursed her lips and looked around before hugging and pulling Justin by his wrist and pulling him over to the side of the restaurant where no one could hear.

"Justin. . .that was my test yesterday."

"Your test? The pregnancy test?"

"I-I thought I was pregnant. . .," Iris whispered softly as Justin creased his eyebrows and slowly took his shades off his face and looked Iris in the eyes. "Well say something."

"I-I. . .are you pregnant?"

"No. . .no."

"Wow. . .um—"

"Justin, what the hell?!"

Justin and Iris turned around to see Jeremy looking at them both confused as he threw his hands up making them clear their throat and fix their posture.

"Sorry, we're coming."

Jeremy nodded and turned around to head back into the restaurant as Justin and Iris followed behind, but just before they went inside, Justin pulled Iris's arm to get her attention.

"This conversation isn't over, Iris."

Iris stared up into Justin's eyes. "I know."

Iris went to walk again, but Justin pulled her back again making her crease her eyebrows and look into his eyes once again.

"No more secrets. . .I mean it."

Iris pursed her lips and nodded as Justin nodded slowly and let go of her wrist and let out a breath and rubbed his jawline as he headed into the restaurant with Iris.

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