➸

The five friends left Barry's and John B drove to The Wreck. Kie unlocked the doors and they sat down without a word. They sat in silence for a long while, and the whole time Claire stared at her feet. Her mind had been replaying every word she said to JJ and she wanted to find him, see if they could talk and just forget about everything, but she knew it wouldn't have made a difference.

"He'll come around. He's just doing a JJ thing." John B said finally.

"You think he'll go home?" Kie asked.

"There's about a zero percent chance that JJ goes home." Pope said.

"You okay?" John asked Sarah.

"Yeah. I'm okay." She replied. "Are you?"

"I mean, I'm in one piece, so..."

Pope sighed. "Okay. It's too dangerous to pawn this thing off piecemeal. So our best bet is to go down there and get the rest of it. Bring it all up at once. Put it in a safe or a vault or something. I don't know. Just until we can find someone who won't rip us off. Okay? I can go figure it out tonight, get it all done, and we can be out there as early as tomorrow morning."

"Alright, let's do it."

"Easy."

"What about that thing with my dad?" Sarah asked.

"Shit."

Claire finally looked up from the floor and raised her eyebrows at John B. "What thing?" She asked.

"I have to go fishing with Ward."

"You can't get four-hundred mil cause you're gonna go kill fish?" Kie questioned.

"Look, I have to go."

"Blow it off. It's four-hundred million in gold!"

"Make something up!"

"Look, I have to, okay? He...he saved me, alright? And if it weren't for Ward, I'd be in foster care. So...I have to go. Plus, it'll be better to do it at night. Right?" John B said.

"Fine. Fine. Go fishing."

"And at least JJ will probably have washed up by then."

Claire decided to walk home after she left The Wreck, even though her legs were aching and the hole in her thigh had bled a bit. It took her a total of thirteen minutes to walk home, and it took a total of thirty seconds for Jackie to start an argument as soon as she stepped inside.

"Where did you get this?" Jackie demanded, shoving the photo of Big John and Mark in her face.

Claire grabbed it from her and walked to her room, sitting down on her bed. "I found it at John B's. Why are you going through my stuff?" She asked. Jackie stood in front of Claire with her arms crossed and an accusatory expression on her face.

Claire was too tired to have another fight with her mother but these days it seemed like it was simply inevitable. If she was going to endure an argument, she was at least going to sit down for it.

"I was packing for you since you haven't bothered to start yet. I found it sticking out of one of your books." Jackie said sternly.

Claire sighed heavily and laid back. "When are you going to get it, mum? I'm not going with you."

"And I'm telling you now, you don't have a choice, Claire. The house sold and we are leaving at the end of the week."

Claire sat up again. "Why are you so insistent on making us leave?! This is our home, this is dad's home! He wouldn't want us to just abandon his home!"

"He also wouldn't want us to be suffering here without him."

"No one is suffering except you!"

"Oh, cut the damn bullshit, Claire. We're all suffering in one way or another. I don't care whether you want to stay here anymore. I'm tired of arguing over every single thing with you. I'm tired of this place, and I'm tired of living a life without your dad in it. I just want to go home."

Claire's eyes stung with tears and she bit her lip, looking down at the photo in her hands.

She thought back to all the trouble her father and Big John went through, and the sacrifices they made during their search for the Royal Merchant. She thought of everything she and her friends had been through over the last however many days while they searched for it. She thought back to how amazing it felt when they did find the gold, and again, everything they had sacrificed in the process. But most importantly, she thought about how no matter what had happened between them all, they had stuck together. They'd been there for each other from the beginning, and Claire couldn't begin to imagine what their lives would've been like if they hadn't been doing all of this. She didn't want to imagine it.

And she couldn't leave them. Not now. Not when they were all so close to getting what they deserved. Not when John B had finally finished what his father had started, and if anyone deserved it it was him.

But Claire had run out of arguments to make about staying on Kildare and was so tired of fighting.

Tears stung her eyes. "I can't leave them. I can't."

Jackie sat beside her. "Honey, I know we haven't seen eye to eye for a long time–and that is definitely more my fault than yours–but just because we're leaving the island, doesn't mean that you have to leave your friends. You will still be able to talk to them on video calls and I'm sure you'll find a way to come back here during your summer holidays."

"It's not going to be the same. Long distance never works, no matter what kind of relationship it is." Claire said quietly.

Jackie sighed, standing. "Please just finish packing, and we'll work out the rest from there."

Claire didn't reply, she just continued staring at the photo of her dad and Big John. When Jackie realised Claire wasn't going to talk about it any further, she turned and made her way out of the room, but Claire had one last question to ask her mother.

"Mum," she said, meeting her mother's eyes, "why were you so anxious to know where I got this picture from?"

"Because I took this photo over a year ago and haven't seen it since your father died."

"You took this?" Claire asked, bewildered. Jackie nodded, and Claire stood up and walked up to her. "Do you know what that is around dad's neck?"

"No, I don't. Big John and your dad were always being really secretive and I didn't ask questions because I figured it was just some side project of theirs. That's what they used to do before he left, and I just assumed they found a new one to work on when we moved here." Jackie explained. "Why? Do you know what it is?"

"That thing around Dad's neck is a compass that belonged to Big John, and the reason they had it is because they were searching for the Royal Merchant wreck. They didn't find it, but they got really close and somebody else must've known." Claire said. "I think that's why Dad and I were attacked that day we went fishing. Whoever attacked our boat clearly didn't want him to expose their research."

"No, no. Your father would've told me what he was doing. He told me everything."

"I thought so too but he didn't tell us about this. I didn't even know he was even that close to Big John until I found this picture."

"But he–I–" Jackie stuttered, clearly finding this difficult.

Claire sighed and continued, although she was sure she'd regret later on telling her mother this next piece of information, "My friends and I found it. And we found it's treasure."

"Treasure?"

She nodded. Jackie's eyes widened. "What kind of treasure?"

"I'm not telling you."

"What?"

"I'm not telling you. This is between me and my friends."

Jackie scoffed. "Fine. But I hope you and your friends know what you're doing because it ended badly for your father and I don't want the same happening to you."

In that moment, Claire realised that Jackie hadn't noticed her wounded leg. Was she really that un-observant? Or she had noticed and was pretending that she hadn't and was avoiding asking questions? Either way, Claire was kind of relieved.

"Noted."

With that, Jackie left, closing Claire's door behind her.

Claire decided she'd make an effort to at least pack one suitcase and then get to the rest another time.

➸

It took Claire the rest of the afternoon to pack, partly because she was losing the motivation for it, but also because her mind was too focused on how she would tell her friends that she was leaving. All she needed was a distraction from her mind, and luckily, Pope and Kie arrived at her place that night and the three went to the Chateau. It was a quiet and comfortable ride, the three occasionally singing along to a song on the radio or talking about the gold and whatnot. And when they weren't talking, Claire's mind unfortunately travelled back to the move. Her fear of how her friends would react was increasing by the minute.

If she could, she would just switch her thoughts off. It would make this all so much easier.

"So we gotta be done before my scholarship interview in the morning." Pope said, pulling up out the front of the Chateau.

"Okay, well, we gotta focus." Kie said.

"I know, I know. It's gonna be fine. We got John B and JJ inside the well, and me up top. And you, Claire and Sarah will be outside transporting."

"Got it." Claire said.

"Cool."

The three got out of the truck and walked around to the trailer to grab the tools for the tin set up.

"Uh, I got a winch." Pope continued.

"Yeah."

"That tin can hold over like...two, three hundred pounds."

"Thanks." Kie said.

"Uh, what for?"

"Stranding us, you know, making us make up."

Pope grinned. "What makes you think that was me?"

"Because it was you. And John B." Claire chuckled.

Suddenly a generator turned on, followed by a whole bunch of lights and the three friends glanced around at the lit-up trees.

"What the hell?" Pope muttered.

"Who the hell is that?" Kie asked, running towards the house. Pope and Claire followed her and they came to a halt when they saw JJ sitting in a hot tub drinking.

"What did you do, JJ?" Pope asked.

"I got a jet going straight in my butt right now." JJ slurred. "Y'all should get in immediately, you hear me?" He poured three glasses of champagne and raised his own, "Salud!"

"How much did this cost?" Pope asked.

"Uh...well, with the generator, the petrol, and oh, hey, express delivery...pretty much all of it, yeah."

"All of it?"

"Yeah, all of it."

"You spent all the money?" Claire asked incredulously.

"Yeah, burned a hole right through my pocket. But, I mean, like, come on guys, like, look at this! Finest in jet-based massage therapy, that's what they told me."

Kie stared at him in disbelief. "Kie, what? Can't a man have a little luxury in life? Come on, all this scrimpin' and scrapin'..."

JJ's expression faltered as he removed his sunglasses and Claire saw the dark circles around his eyes. Her heart lurched, and she couldn't help but start to cry.

"I mean, like...guys, we–you only live once, right?" JJ continued. "Enough of this emotional shit. Get in the Cat's Ass. Come on."

"In the what?" Kie asked softly.

"In the Cat's Ass. That's what I named her. Oh, hey, yo, I almost forgot." JJ flicked a switch and a disco ball turned on. "Huh? Yeah, that's right, I know. Disco mode. That's right, baby!"

"JJ, are you serious?" Claire asked.

"You could've paid for restitution!" Pope exclaimed.

"Or literally given it to any charity!" Kie said.

"Or better yet, you could've helped us buy supplies to get the rest of the gold out of the well!"

"Okay, well, you know what? I didn't do that!"

Claire's breath caught in her throat as JJ stood up. His entire torso was covered in large, golf ball sized  bruises.

"I got a hot tub! For my friends. I got a hot tub for my friends. No, you know what? Screw friends. I got a hot tub for my family!" He exclaimed.

"JJ, what the hell?" Kie asked, staring at the bruises in shock.

"I got this for you. Guys, look what I did for you! Alright? Look at this! Look at this!"

"JJ..." Claire whimpered.

"No, stop being emotional. It's fine, okay? I mean, it's sweet, right? Everything–"

She shook her head and without hesitation, climbed in the hot tub, wrapping him in a tight embrace.

"I just couldn't do it." He sobbed, hugging himself tighter around her. "I can't take him anymore!"

He buried his head in her neck and his body shook as loud sobs escaped his lips. Claire tried to be strong for him, but it was hard.

"I know, it's okay." Claire whispered, her voice breaking.

"I was gonna kill him." JJ hugged Claire even closer. "I just wanna do the right thing."

"I know." She sniffed. "I know."

Then Kiara and Pope climbed in and wrapped their arms around JJ, as they too cried. The four of them just stood in the water holding each other tightly.

It didn't matter to Claire anymore about their fight; she didn't care that he hadn't wanted to talk about their relationship or that he'd spent all the money. All she cared about was being there for him right here and now, because that was all he needed from her. He was just a boy, broken and vulnerable, and Claire loved him too much to allow him to suffer alone anymore.

If there was one thing she would do before she went back to Australia, it was to make sure that JJ knew just how much he was loved, and that she would never stop loving him, no matter where in the world she ended up.

➸