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CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

❝LIFE IS A HEALING PROCESS, NO ONE SAID THIS IS EASY.❞

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Jade carefully placed the omelette down onto Winnie's plate as she read over the latest chapter she had typed up for her book.

"Thank you."

"No problem. . .how much longer on your book?"

Winnie took a sip of her coffee. "Maybe a week or so?"

"Well I'll be the first to buy s copy when it hits the bookshelves."

Winnie giggled and shook her head as she sat her coffee down onto the kitchen table and picked up her fork to start eating her omelette.

Just as she did, the sound of footsteps made her turn around and see Peter walking into the kitchen rubbing his tired eye as he walked up to Jade and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and kissed the top of her head.

"Good morning."

"Mm. . .morning, omelette?"

Peter hummed in response and walked over to the kitchen table and sat down next to Winnie. "Morning, Winnie."

"Good morning, Pete."

"Any word from Justin?"

Winnie had paused momentarily from eating as she took in Peter's question, and suddenly, the kitchen fell quiet as Jade turned her head to hear the response as well.

"No. . .he hasn't spoken to me since the last time I saw him."

"He'll come around, Winnie."

Winnie let out a shaky scoff. "I hope so. . .I'm worried about him."

Jade finished up Peter's omelette and placed it down onto his plate for him and walked over to the kitchen table to give it to him and sit down to eat hers next to him.

"Winnie—"

"D-Did I do the right thing? Leaving him like that?"

Jade placed her hand on top of Winnie's. "Of course you did, you're both not stable."

"But. . .I feel like that just broke him more."

"That's just life, Winnie. . .life is a healing process, no one said this was easy."

Winnie pursed her lips and nodded slowly as she went back to eating her breakfast as Jade slowly removed her hand from Winnie's and looked at Peter seeing him nod slowly and go back to eating.

Even though the kitchen was quiet, the thoughts in Winnie's head were speaking louder than what anyone in the room would.

Was all this my fault? Winnie thought.

Winnie sat down on Jade's couch wrapped in one of her big fuzzy white blankets she let her borrow, as Jade came back into the living room with hot soup, she adjusted the temperature for Winnie.

Walking into the living room, she let out a breath and sat down next to Winnie and passed her the soup making her take the soup slowly and thank her.

"Winnie, what happened? Did you and Justin get in a fight?"

"No. . .his father passed today, Jade. . ."

Jade's eyes went wide. "Oh my god."

"Then Justin told me about my Papa and his. . .a-and I couldn't handle it. . .Jade I had to leave him."

And that's when Winnie poured her heart out to Jade and told her everything that had happened in the past two days with Justin, from them having sex to her learning about the real reason her Papa had died.

After talking to Jade, Winnie couldn't help but feel like there was a hole in her heart and the missing piece was nowhere to be found.

Winnie let out a sob as Jade brought her into her arms and hugged her tight as Winnie let out more sobs onto Jade's shoulder.

Winnie was in pain, there was no denying she wasn't and to factor in that Justin had dropped a bombshell of news about her Papa onto her like that didn't make anything better — maybe this summer wasn't going to be the best for Winnie.

Winnie closed her laptop and sighed softly as she picked it up and took it with her to her guest bedroom, after going into her bedroom, she shut the door and tossed her laptop onto the bed and went into the bathroom for a shower.

After taking a few minutes to wash her body off and relive her tense muscles, she finally got out the shower and wrapped her white towel around her body and walked out of the bathroom and toward her dresser to pull out her clothes.

She decided on wearing a lavender off the shoulder flared top that tied in the front with a knot and some white high waisted shorts.

As she slipped her shorts up her legs, she looked down at her ankle and saw her anklet still there making her softly bite her bottom lip.

After filling getting dressed, Winnie put her curls into a messy bun on top of her head and headed out of her bedroom and walked into the living and saw Peter sitting on the couch.

"Tell Jade I went for a walk."

Peter turned around. "Do you want some company?"

Winnie shook her head and gave a closed mouth smile as she watched Peter nod slowly and watch Winnie walk away from the living room and head out of the house.

Winnie sharply inhaled a breath of fresh air as she started to walk down the sidewalk of Jade's neighborhood, trying to clear her head up of any thoughts.

That's when her mind began to wander off and she thought about what her and Jade talked about this morning, how she was still feeling guilty for leaving Justin broken like that.

She just felt like she was responsible for most of his suffering.

"So. . .you and Peter?"

Jade let out a scoff. "You don't think we should date, don't you?"

"I'm fine with it. . .you had this look in your eye when he was here."

Jade paused from cleaning up the kitchen table from the dinner they just had with Peter, she looked Winnie in the eyes and creased her eyebrows. "What look?"

"Like. . .you liiike him."

Jade rolled her eyes. "Can you just clean?"

Winnie giggled softly as she walked away from the kitchen table with the dirty plates where the rolls were placed on and sat it down on the kitchen counter.

Just when she was about to start washing the dishes, her phone vibrated in her back pocket making her pause and pull her phone out to see it was a text from Justin making her heart thud.

you might not want to hear from me, but call me when you can?

Winnie let out a shaky breath as she read over the text a couple of times, she had then felt a touch on her shoulder making her slightly jump.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. . .just reading some news article. . .it was pretty intense."

Jade nodded slowly and helped Winnie finish up cleaning the dishes and cleaning the kitchen until it was clean.

After cleaning, Winnie went to her bedroom and closed the door behind her and sat down at the edge of the bed and pulled her phone out.

Letting out a small breath, she unlocked her phone and went to Justin's contact name and made the call, pressing the phone to her ear, she waited for Justin to pick up.

"Winnie. . ."

"Hey, Jay."

"How. . .how are you?"

"I'm fine. . .you?"

"Well. . . I just went to talk to my lawyer about my father's will. . .turns out he left me a letter along with the will, listen. . .I know you said we need time. . .but it would mean a lot to me if you met me to open this letter he left me."

Winnie let out a slow breath. "J-Justin. . .I don't think that's such a good idea."

"Right. . .right, I-I was just asking, it was worth a shot, right?"

Winnie heard Justin let out a soft laugh making her shut her eyes and purse her lips as she let her mind capture his laughter she hadn't heard in a few days.

"Yeah. . .I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize. . .I just wanted to make sure you're okay."

Winnie let out a small scoff. "I should be asking you that, Bieber."

"I just wish I could see you. . ."

"Justin—"

"I know. . .but I signed up for therapy. . .I've had one session already and he's helping me with all of this coping, Winnie."

"That's. . .that's amazing, Justin."

"Winnie?"

"Yes?"

"I really miss you. . ."

That's when Winnie lost it, she let out a low sob followed by a small laugh as she momentarily covered her mouth.

"I miss you too, Justin. . .I have to go, goodnight."

Before Justin could speak, Winnie hung up the phone and started to let more sobs escape from her lips as she buried her face in her hands and then ran her hands down her face and through her curls.

You did the right thing, Winnie, Winnie thought.

Winnie didn't even realize she had zoned out so long, she didn't hear the loud horn blaring in her ear, she gasped and looked over to the right of her and saw Jade on her truck.

"Winnie, what are you doing?"

"Just walking. . .needed to clear my head."

"Is this about this morning?"

Winnie took a long pause. "Yes."

"Get in."

Winnie stopped walking as Jade stopped the truck in the middle of the road, she sighed heavily and looked both ways before jogging into the street and hopping into Jade's truck.

Jade put the car back in drive and started to drive out of the neighborhood and drive all the way down to the nearest store and park in the parking lot so her and Winnie could talk.

"Please don't beat yourself up about this."

"I won't."

"You're letting it. . .yes, it was a lot to take in at once, but Winnie, you're forgetting you're a fighter, okay? You dealt with Iris and Justin's bullshit all summer and still came out with Justin wanting you in the end and you almost fucking died on your birthday! If that's not a fighter, I don't know what is."

Winnie let out a small laugh. "Thanks, Jade."

"How about we go in here and grab some snacks for a movie night?"

"You mean a movie night. . .plus one with me being the plus one since you and Peter will probably just cuddle the whole movie?"

Jade rolled her eyes. "Okay, I'll kick him out tonight."

"Really? You'd do that for little ol' me?"

"Sisters before misters."

Winnie let out a laugh and watched Jade wink at her and take her seatbelt off and open her side door and get out making her follow out and head into the store with her.

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"Mr. Bieber, your father left you over half a million dollars to your name, do you choose to accept it?"

Justin looked down at the paperwork he needed to sign to take his father's will money he'd left to transfer it into his bank account.

"Yes. . ."

Justin puffed out a breath and leaned forward and signed the paperwork and leaned back in the cushioned seat and rubbed his jawline.

"Anything else, George?"

"Well. . .there was this letter he'd left for you."

Great, another letter, Justin thought.

Justin mentally rolled his eyes and reached out for the letter and took it in his hands and looked down at the letter and looked at the back seeing his father's handwriting:

For my son.

Justin puffed out a breath and rose up from his seat and slipped the letter into the back pocket of his jeans and licked his lips. "Thanks, George."

"You're welcome, Mr. Bieber, the money should be transferred to your bank account by Monday."

"Can you have them transfer it to savings, please?"

George nodded and packed up the paperwork as he nodded and headed out of his office and made his way outside into the sunlight.

As he walked to his Bentley, he pulled the letter out of his back pocket and looked down at it and felt his heart thud.

Why was this separate from the will? Justin thought.

Justin shook his head and unlocked the car door and slipped himself inside and shut the door behind him and put the key into the ignition as he tossed the letter into the passenger seat.

Justin slammed the door to the Bentley shut and jingled his car keys into his palm as he walked into the store and walked up to the carts and grabbed himself a handheld basket.

Walking through the store, he grabbed some milk and eggs and a few more things he needed for the house before he went onto the snack aisle and looked for some snacks.

As he turned onto the aisle, he stopped himself when he saw Winnie on the aisle with Jade as she went to reach the bag of Doritos, but it was too high for her as Jade watched her and laughed.

Justin swallowed hard and slowly let his feet guide him over to Winnie, even though she hadn't seen him yet — Jade did, making her stop laughing slowly.

"Not so funny, huh?"

"Winnie. . ."

Winnie froze in her spot as she felt a chill come to her spine at the sound of the all too familiar voice she heard speak her name.

Winnie got off her tippy toes and turned around slowly to see Justin making her heart start to beat faster than before. "Justin. . ."

After Justin heard the line go off from calling Winnie, he let out a small sigh and tossed his phone to the side and took the letter off the mattress and looked over he faded blue envelope.

Slowly ripping the flab, Justin cleared his throat and took the letter out and let his eyes quickly scan before reading it from the beginning.

Dear, son

By the time you're reading this, I've passed away, I'm sorry that I was too coward to tell you this before while I was still on the earth with you. But you need to know I never told you this because your mother and I promised to never speak of it because she was ashamed of me and didn't want this to ruin your future because of my mistake. It all happened when you were only 8 years old. . .your mother and I fought more than usual and I had found myself becoming infatuated with a woman I had met on my business trip to Europe, her name was Elizabeth and we had an affair. Your mother found out after a few months. I had cut off all ties with Elizabeth because I had to think about my family and I didn't want to lose your mother, but by the time you were 10, Elizabeth had contacted me and told me she had a child. My child. His name was Elijah Bieber, but since nobody should know about him, she had him enlisted in school as Elijah De La Fonte, her last name. Now you must be wondering why I'm telling you this and why it took me being six feet under to do it, but it's because I want you to meet him and have a relationship with him, you're probably grieving and I want you to know that you have family out there that can help you cope. You're not alone, son.

– J.B.

Justin dropped the letter to the ground as he felt his hands start to violently shake as he looked at the wall in deep thoughts.

I have a brother? Justin thought.

Winnie looked into Justin's hazel eyes and bit her bottom lip softly as Jade smacked her teeth and wheeled the cart backwards.

"I'll be on the dairy aisle. . ."

Winnie gave Jade a look and nodded as she cleared her throat and looked back into Justin's eyes seeing them still holding a look of lust.

"Justin. . .I. . .I really didn't plan for us to meet like this."

Justin softly chuckled. "Tell me about it."

"How are you?"

"Good. . .therapy really helped me. . .I had some things I needed to work on."

Winnie smiled softly. "I'm glad."

"You?"

"Great. . .I'm almost done with my book."

"And the summers almost over. . .I'm glad you're doing well, Winnie."

"Listen, Justin. . .I never got to apologize face to face to you about leaving that night—"

"Wouldn't be the first one night stand I've had." Justin murmured softly as he shrugged his shoulders and heard Winnie scoff as she playfully slapped his arm.

"I'm being serious here."

"Sorry. . .but it's fine, Winnie, honest."

Winnie took a pause. "How did things go with your father? The letter?"

"His funeral was back home. . .it wasn't as pleasant as I thought. . .just Frank and I. . .and the letter. . .well I found some things out."

"Like?"

Justin licked his lips. "Like I have a half-brother."

"What? Really?"

"Yeah. . .he's from Italy, his name is Elijah, he's 24 years old and he's an architect."

"Justin. . .that's. . .wow, have you contacted him?"

"Yeah. . .he's actually planning to meet me in September." Justin breathed out as he let out a soft laugh making Winnie gasp softly and smile as she shook her head.

"That's great. . ."

"Yeah. . .Winnie. . .have you thought about. . .you know, coming back to the beach house with me?"

Winnie bit her bottom lip softly. "I have actually. . .just something I've put to the side in my mind."

"Ah. . ."

"Do you really think we're okay, Justin?"

Justin creased his eyebrows. "You said we were."

"Yeah but. . .I don't know, where do we go from here?"

"Where we left off. . .," Justin murmured softly as he stepped closer to Winnie and brushed a fallen curl out of her face and rubbed his thumb on her cheek. "With us working to be together."

Winnie felt her breath get caught up in her throat as she reached out and touched Justin's hand and brought it off her cheek and held it with both her hands.

"Give me till Saturday."

"Saturday?"

"Saturday."

Justin sighed softly and let his hand drop from Winnie's making her cross her arms over her chest and look at the ground momentarily.

"I'll be waiting, Winnie. . ."

Winnie pursed her lips and watched Justin lean down to her level and kiss her cheek softly making her heart flutter as she watched Justin walk away from her.

Me too, Winnie thought.

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