Chapter 145 I Finally Understand You

Chapter 145 I Finally Understand You

Adam fell into thought.

Flying straight back wasn't out of the question—they'd just get home a bit late.

While he was still weighing their options, Tessa made her decision in a matter of seconds.

"Eve and I will stay with the girls. Ryan, Adam, and Sawyer can bunk with the boys."

A perfect arrangement.

The girls' dormitory looked like a children's bedroom, with wooden bunk beds—the most childlike space in all of Eden.

Tessa directed them to push the beds together, creating one massive sleeping platform.

Eve settled beside Tessa, the two of them taking the outer edge of the makeshift bed.

After they lay down and turned off the lights, silence filled the room.

These kids were unnervingly mature for their age. Tessa hadn't expected them to skip even the whispered conversations typical of sleepovers.

"Are you all asleep already?"

"Ms. Garcia, we've only been lying down for five minutes." Eve's voice was calm as she reminded her.

"No."

A chorus of voices followed in quick succession.

"There's no candy here. No snacks... Eve, does your sweet tooth have anything to do with this place?"

The moment the question left Tessa's lips, she distinctly heard the person beside her breath catch.

"Ms. Garcia, I have the right to refuse to answer that question."

"The candy Ms. Garcia gives us tastes really good. I like it a lot."

Tessa was surprised when the oldest girl in the room suddenly spoke up in the quiet space.

She let out a genuine laugh and offered a sincere thank you.

Meanwhile, in the boys' dormitory, the children were equally silent.

That didn't stop the room from feeling lively—Sawyer talked enough for several dozen people.

He spent ages griping about recent events, and only when no one responded did he finally turn to Adam.

"Mr. Dobbins isn't stepping in. Don't you think Ryan should know?"

Adam let out a deep sigh.

"Frank's been causing trouble lately. His people keep stirring things up and creating major headaches for us."

Adam and the others could still handle it, so they hadn't told Ryan.

"I know," Ryan said.

Both Sawyer and Adam froze, their brains simultaneously short-circuiting as they let out twin shrieks.

"Frank making trouble isn't exactly easy to hide from everyone, is it?" Ryan asked.

"Mr. Dobbins's intention is to leave him for you to handle. After all, plenty of people are watching the Dobbins family right now. They've been trying to figure out who Mr. Dobbins will pass the family to."

Outsiders knew nothing about Eden's internal affairs.

Brian had no biological children of his own, which many saw as a sign of the family's decline.

Frank was Brian's only cousin—still family by blood, which had to count for more than Ryan, a stepson.

"Let him do what he wants."

"Aren't you worried Frank will turn on you like Oliver did?"

"Things we can't touch in Astoria can be used here." Ryan's voice dropped low, reminding Adam of a crucial fact.

They'd been playing by the rules for so long that Adam had forgotten what the Dobbins family actually did.

The day Ryan took over would inevitably trigger chaos.

It was unavoidable.

As the night deepened, the talking gradually died down until silence reclaimed the room.

Training started early the next morning. The kids were up before seven, and their movements woke Tessa as they got ready.

Tessa saw Eve's eyes open, but she lay motionless in bed.

"Aren't you getting up?"

Eve's voice was as flat as an undisturbed lake, without a single ripple.

"I'm not getting up. I've had enough of early mornings. I need sleep."

Thinking of those children, Tessa completely understood Eve.

The fact that Eve hadn't cursed them out was probably because she'd been through something similar.

Downstairs, the kids had already finished breakfast and were training with fierce intensity.

Ryan, Adam, and Sawyer sat in a neat row.

Tessa walked over, and Ryan handed her a carton of milk, gesturing for her to sit down.

Watching the children breeze through their exercises made Tessa think she could do it too.

After hesitating for a while, eager to try, she finally walked over to something resembling a pull-up bar.

Except it was just an iron chain—no real support.

Only the older kids attempted this exercise. After watching them, Tessa's confidence soared.

"I think I can do this," she said, turning around.

Sawyer already wore an expression of pure entertainment, arms crossed as he lifted his chin in what looked like a challenge.

Ryan said nothing, simply standing up quietly.

Tessa leaped upward with all her strength and grabbed the rope.

The moment she gripped it, she realized the rope was made of braided wire—the harder you pulled, the more rigid it became.

But she had absolutely no strength to pull herself up.

Tessa's face flushed red. After holding on for five seconds, she suddenly lost her grip and let go.

Her body fell backward without warning, toward the unforgiving marble floor below.

The pain she expected never came. Tessa felt herself grow weightless as Ryan caught her securely in his arms.

"Don't be fooled by how easy they make it look. They've been training since they were little. These are the ones who made it through physical screening. Others like Eve, who are better suited for behind-the-scenes work, were sent elsewhere."

Ryan explained to Tessa.

"In the first group, only Eve showed that kind of aptitude. It wasn't until after us that Mr. Dobbins allowed specialization." Adam walked over and added.

Tessa looked at the children with nothing but admiration now.

Anyone who could persevere in this environment was exceptional. Tessa knew she couldn't have done it.

After lunch, Adam allowed them to show Tessa around.

The girls conferred briefly, then pulled Tessa toward the southeast side of the island.

The trek required an alarming amount of physical exertion. By the time they arrived, Tessa felt like her lungs were about to explode.

The six girls, however, showed no signs of exertion whatsoever.

"Adam says when we grow up, we can leave," the oldest girl said, sitting beside Tessa and pointing toward the tall buildings of the distant city. "We can choose where we want to go. We can control our own lives, just like Adam and Eve."

Listening to this bold declaration, Tessa felt a bitter ache in her chest.

She gazed into the distance. The city that seemed so ordinary to her was an unreachable dream for these children, existing only in their imaginations.

In that moment, Tessa finally understood why Ryan disliked Eden.

The atmosphere here had a suffocating weight to it. The lives these children lived every day made you want to destroy this entire island.

She finally understood him.

"Do you like your life here?" Tessa asked.

"...If not for Mr. Dobbins, we'd be people the world had thrown away," another child said.

'Like' was too distant a concept for them.

Their lives only had room for acceptance, not refusal.

Tessa turned her head, studying their profiles.

Her heart swelled with mixed emotions, and she felt Ryan's helplessness more clearly than ever before.