Chapter 29
CHAPTER
TWENTY-NINE
KRAVEN
Hearing those words for the first time was probably the most surreal experience of my life.
“The doctor told me after Kraven went after you. I was waiting for the right moment and… it just came out.”
“Does that mean you’re keeping the baby?” I asked, needing confirmation.
Julius still hadn’t said a word. He just sat there staring at her stomach.
“Yeah…” she rasped, grabbing her stomach.
“I can’t imagine a life without him in it now, just like I can’t imagine a life without either of you in it.
This is how we work. We’re a team, and I don’t ever want to lose that.
Do you understand me? So you can either accept that, or you can walk away from it.
From me…” She hugged her stomach. “From us.”
Julius’s eyes snapped to connect with hers. “I’m not walking away.”
“Good,” I stated. “She’s ours. They’re ours.” The words came out quieter than I expected.
Julius didn’t react immediately. I watched him closely.
Waiting.
He stared at her, the way she was standing there with her arms on her stomach, then he peered at me. After a few seconds, he slowly nodded. It wasn’t in a forced or reluctant way…
It was in a real one.
ISLA
I felt it the second it shifted. It wasn’t in a loud, dramatic way, where it was all perfect after that.
Neither of them was fighting anymore. At least not like before.
The realization hit harder than any words they could have shared.
I’d been stuck between them for so long, and now they were pulling me in two separate directions.
I don’t have to choose.
My breath slowed as I looked at them. Julius’s jaw was still tight, like he was holding on to something he didn’t fully understand yet. Kraven was still steady, as always, but his eyes were sharper now. Focused on a way that told me everything I needed to know.
My chest rose as I looked between them again.
“I’m not choosing.” My words came out clear, stronger than they had been before.
Julius closed his eyes like he already knew what I was going to say next.
“Because I already chose. I choose both of you. You once asked me to say I was yours, now I’m saying—”
“You’re ours,” Julius ended, opening his eyes.
I firmly nodded. “No more standing on opposite sides of me anymore. No more acting as if one of you matters more than the other… You don’t.”
“Mouse—”
“No.” I stood my ground, letting them know what I needed, what I truly needed from them. “If you want me…” I continued, “then you take me like this, or you don’t take me at all.”
Julius dragged a hand down his face, pacing once before stopping in front of me again.
Julius remarked, “You’re asking a lot.”
“I know.”
“You’re asking me to just accept this?”
“I’m asking you not to walk away from it.”
His eyes searched mine, trying to find something to hold on to.
“And what happens if this doesn’t work?”
I sat down in front of him, staring deep into his eyes. “Then we deal with it”—I grabbed his hands—“together.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only one there is.”
I gripped his hands. “You really think this can work?”
“I think it already is.” I grabbed Kraven’s hand next, bringing it over to me. I held both of them near my heart. “I think we can make anything work. This is what I want.”
Julius’s gaze dropped to where I held him before lifting slowly to look at me again. There it was, clear across his face.
“I love you, Isla,” Julius expressed. “I’d do anything for you.”
And there it was…
The start of something new.
JULIUS
I needed space to think, but every time I left, I ended up right back where I was.
It was where I belonged.
I glanced at Kraven, not like he was something I had to beat the shit out of, or I had to argue with or take from. He was just there and part of this.
“That doesn’t mean I like this,” I admitted.
Kraven didn’t miss a beat. “You don’t have to like it. You just have to decide whether you’re staying.”
“I’m not sharing her,” I adamantly denied. “I’m not,” I repeated, shaking my head. “I’m keeping her. There’s a difference.”
Kraven mocked, “Whatever you have to tell yourself.”
I leaned back into the couch, studying both of them now. Not separately, but for the first time, together.
She suddenly stood between us. However, she wasn’t divided anymore, and we were simply aligned around her, which was the biggest difference.
The past year had been a roller coaster, to say the least. I started having intense flashes and sparks of emotion when it came to certain things. The sentiments that sparked within me were familiar yet foreign.
But I swear it was so much more than that.
It felt real.
Every single memory.
Maybe they were all leading up to this moment.
My mind wouldn’t go any further than that, trying to process this all. Remembering what my heart and soul wanted. There were times I’d lie back in bed and hug my pillow, pressing it tight against my body, immediately feeling comfort like I was embracing Isla.
Other times, it felt like I was going crazy, my mind battling maybe what was currently happening, knowing somewhere deep inside that it might end like this. With all of us.
I was extremely grateful that one thing had returned to normal, welcoming it with open arms, trying for the life of me to make this work for us. Needing to feel some sort of light in this darkness we had created.
I breathed a sigh of relief, not hesitating for one second.
Leaning in, I kissed her lips. Softly at first, wanting, needing to take away the memory of not having her in my life. In a matter of seconds, my kiss turned into something else entirely. Something we both wanted.
My heart sped up to an insanely rapid pace, threatening to erupt from my chest. Maybe it was the lost expression on her face or the fact that she was in my arms that made this okay.
“I love you, Isla… I’ll always love you. No matter what, I’ll always love you.”
I closed my eyes, my mind and heart battling against each other. It felt like I was on edge the whole time. About to jump off a cliff. Where we could all be together.
“Fuck,” I growled against her mouth.
I was close to losing it. It is all intertwined, mixing the pleasure with the pain.
I couldn’t take it anymore.
In one swift motion, I let go…
Speaking with conviction, I said, “Ours.”