Eden August came to Springfield in late 2002 because of a custody battle between Harley Cooper and her ex-husband, Phillip Spaulding. Because Phillip disapproved of Harley's boyfriend, Gus Aitoro, he dug into his past and learned that he had a juvenile record. Confronted by Harley, Gus admitted that, as a teenager, he was arrested for murder but was innocent and was really covering for a woman. Not one to let something go, Harley investigated in the hopes of finding the woman and getting her to confess. Within weeks, Harley found the woman from Gus's past who turned out to be his own sister, Eden August. Apparently, years earlier, Eden shoved a man off a roof and, at the request of their father, Gus lied for her. Hating Harley on sight, Eden refused to help her but relented when Gus begged for her help. That was until Phillip started making threats about what could happen to her if she was prosecuted for murder. Realizing she could go to jail for what she'd done, Eden kept quiet but blackmailed Phillip. While Harley and Gus tried to persuade Eden to tell the truth, she got a job at Infierno and started dating its owner, Tony Santos. Unbeknownst to everyone, Eden had an ulterior motive for being close to Tony--she was being paid to spy on him by his aunt, Carmen. Though Gus suspected that Eden was trying to get revenge on the Santos family for the death of their father, it was finally discovered that she was trying to stop Carmen from revealing the truth: Eden killed Tony's father because he told her Joe Augustino was on their payroll. The secret out, Gus demanded that Eden tell the truth or he'd disown her. Again Eden lied out of the need to preserve their father's memory as well as annoyance at Harley for looking into Joe's past.

After leaving town for a few months, Eden returned in early 2003 and received the shock of her life from Harley--Gus was not her biological brother! Though disbelieving at first, Gus confirmed that he was indeed adopted by the Augustinos. Unsure as to where she stood, Gus assured her that they'd always be family no matter what. Bolstered by Gus's reassurances, Eden offered to help him find his biological family. Though Gus and Harley didn't feel there was anything she could do, Eden provided one key piece of evidence--the memory of an old family friend named Lucia Renaldi, who turned out to be Gus's biological mother. In addition to this personal crisis, Eden set out running her very own legitimate escort service. Though there were some doubts, Eden maintained that sexual favors were not included, a claim that was verified when she asked Harley to help her with a client who was demanding those favors from one of her girls. Though Harley was able to help, Eden's troubles compounded when people connected to her escort service starting getting murdered. Just prior to this, Eden convinced a young man named Ben Reade to work for her with promises of easy money. However, when Ben started being blackmailed by his client, Ramona Hendon, who he was sleeping with for extra money, a cold Eden refused to help him. Not long after a client and escort of Eden's service were murdered, Ramona was killed and Ben was arrested! Soon, another one of her escorts was murdered and both Ben and an uncooperative Eden became the prime suspects. In the midst of this investigation, Eden allowed herself to be comforted by Bill Lewis while she also sought Tony's attention. Maneuvering to be near Tony, Eden staged a near hit-and-run so he'd think her life was in danger. Though her plan worked, with Tony asking her to move into the museum with he and Marah, Eden was forced to vacate the museum when Gus offered her protection somewhere else.

Throughout the summer, Eden avoided Gus's questions and refused to give him her business information, she finally conceded and gave him what he wanted when he made it clear that sister or no sister, he'd go after her for the murders since she was hiding something. Not long after, Ben was revealed as the murderer. Meanwhile Eden continued to grow obsessed with Tony, while marking out photos of those who made her angry in her cryptic scrapbook. Though Marah didn't completely trust Eden, despite the fact that Eden helped her land a prestigious designing account, Tony did and vowed to protect her from her former employer, mobster Vinnie Salierno. Trying to get Tony interested in her all summer, Eden changed her mind when she heard Bill's passionate defense of her to his father. Hearing Bill call her a beautiful, intelligent woman touched Eden since no one had ever given her unconditional love like that. That night after making love to Bill, Eden took out her scrapbook, looked at Tony's picture, and threw it away. Then Salierno sent Eden some cryptic photos of Tony beating up a girl! Unnerved, Eden suspected Salierno was setting Tony up and went to talk to him about the photos, only to have Marah accidentally see them herself! Unnerved, Marah broke up with Tony since she couldn't trust that his violent side wouldn't return. Distraught, Tony accepted Eden's help and went to New York to confront Salierno. After Salierno admitted to doctoring the photos, an angry and bitter Tony sought comfort in Eden's arms and the two gave into their passion and made love. Immediately regretting it, Eden wanted to keep the indiscretion a secret from Bill, however making it difficult was a guilt-ridden Tony who was on the verge of confessing! After leaving town for a few weeks, Tony returned and started flirting with Eden, making her very uncomfortable.

Despite her discomfort, in 2004, Eden found herself thrown together with Tony, when they were both summoned by a mysterious, disguised, figure who warned them that Lewis Construction was in league with the mob. Not believing it, Tony and Eden investigated the matter by gaining illegal access to Bill's office. As Eden kept watch, she allowed Tony to enter Bill's office and copy his files. Although, they were almost caught when Bill arrived at the office, Eden was able to sufficiently distract Bill and convince him to leave while Tony copied the files. With the files, the pair learned that men connected to a gangster named Angelo Bruzzi were in fact on the Lewis payroll. However, Tony and Eden were still skeptical that Bill was involved in any wrongdoing and were certain that this was a set up concocted to destroy Danny Santos's run for mayor. Wanting to protect his cousin's best interests, Tony not only confronted the men and forced them to leave Lewis Construction, but he also met with Bruzzi, and after overpowering Bruzzi when he threatened Eden, Tony ordered him to get out of town. Although Tony seemed to scare Bruzzi off, his scuffle with the mobster left him hurt and the incident was leaked to the press. Shortly after, Eden, against Tony's wishes, confessed the truth about the set up to Danny and later Bill.

The trouble apparently over, Eden was rattled several weeks later when she received flowers from Vinnie Salierno. While she was unnerved at her former boss's attempt to insinuate himself in her life, Tony tried to console her by pointing out that Salierno was simply trying to rattle her and remind her of where she came from. Not long after, Eden was ecstatic when Bill proposed marriage. Unfortunately, Eden's perfect world was about to be shattered forever. After receiving several cryptic messages from Salerno, Eden got frightened and tried to convince Bill to run off and elope, to no avail. Finally, the moment Eden was dreading happened--she was approached by Vinnie and asked to do one job for him, since she owed him. Seeing that her life was on the line, Eden agreed. The job turned out to be for Eden to intercept up a shipment of the drug Antimonious that was being delivered from San Cristobel , so the mob could sell the drug on the streets as Delirium. Although Eden complied, Harley unexpectedly discovered her! Believing Eden's story that she was being coerced, Harley offered to help her, since she was working with D.A. Jeffrey O'Neill to bring down Salerno. Unfortunately, things took a terrible turn, when an angry Eden impulsively went into Salerno's house and flushed the drugs down the toilet! Without the evidence, O'Neill informed Eden that she'd have to testify, which meant that for her protection, she'd need to disappear into the Witness Protection Program.

The same night that she, Harley, and Jeffrey told Gus what happened, Eden went to meet Danny Santos at an old warehouse where he implemented the plan. With Eden in the back of the warehouse, Danny detonated a bomb and then took a picture of her supposedly broken remains. After Danny left, Eden was rushed out of the building and in front of the police, including Chief Frank Cooper, declared dead. However, unbeknownst to all of Springfield, except Harley, Gus, Jeffrey, and Danny, Eden was alive and well. Although Eden wanted to see Bill one last time to say goodbye, Jeffrey finally convinced her that for her safety, as well as Bill's, he couldn't know. Unfortunately, the day Eden was leaving the safe house, she and Bill came face to face! Although Bill pleaded with her to stay and fight Salerno, that was impossible; the only way Eden would be safe was to disappear forever. Though Bill offered to leave with her, Eden couldn't let him sacrifice his life in Springfield and, in an effort to drive him away, she cruelly confessed her affair with Tony and told him that she wasn't the decent girl she pretended to be; that she liked being bad and she'd only hurt him in the end. Recognizing that she was purposely driving him away, an angry Bill branded her as a selfish coward for being unwilling to fight for them and declared that she wasdead to him. With Bill gone, a devastated Eden left Springfield and Gus, forever, to begin a brand new life.