Chapter Eight #4
“Yes. I’m madly in love with my wife, but I’m madly in love with my best friend too.
You don’t exist in the static, but if you did, I know to the depths of my soul, I’d love you there too.
I’m two people, one there and one here. Now, I’m caught between the reality of it all.
I didn’t know it happened, or I would have stopped it. ”
As he spoke, she sat there.
Bishop had to decide what path she wanted to be on, and if this was the hill she’d die on, or not. Marriage was about give and take, and this situation wasn’t a normal one.
There was no part of her that believed that Lucian went out of his way to sleep with Ridge.
That wasn’t his style.
When she didn’t say anything, finally, he spoke.
“Is this the end for us? Is my punishment losing my wife and my children?” he asked. “Because if that’s the punishment you feel is justified, I have no right to fight it. I have no right to blame anyone but myself.”
As he spoke, she heard the tremor in his voice. Lucian was the strongest person she knew, and this was crushing him. He held up the world on his shoulders, and this…
This might be his breaking point.
“Do you want it to be the end?” she asked.
He was honest.
“I’d get on my knees and beg if I thought that would get you to forgive me. I’d crawl in the street and let people know the truth if it meant proving that I didn’t plan this. None of it was my intent.”
Then, it hit him.
Oh, and it hit him hard.
“Jesus,” he whispered.
When she looked up at him, she lifted a brow.
“What?”
Lucian couldn’t believe he’d not considered it until now, but he just realized something.
“Maybe all of this was his intent,” he said. “This person might have damned me to really make sure I couldn’t get back up.”
Bishop stared at him.
And blinked.
“Bish, maybe this was the other way to break me. This man watched us and knew how to take away my ability to work in the static. I can still go in, just not deep. This might have been the attack on me where it would really level me. Maybe this was to make me broken on this plane too. Losing you and my children…that’s a fate worse than death to me.
That evil locked me into that plane, and he knew I’d not have control here. He’s studied all of us, and he knew…”
Oh, shit.
That was something she’d not considered.
Maybe this was this person’s way of incapacitating Lucian beyond Ridge. She didn’t feel a lie, and she was damn good at spotting them.
Lucian closed his eyes.
Goddamn it, but he walked right into a nightmare, and he wouldn’t be shocked if this person was laughing in glee.
He’d killed his tuner’s help, and now, he’d brutalized his wife’s trust in him.
With one act.
Bishop couldn’t say if that had been the intent, but she wouldn’t put it past this person. She dealt with the here and now, so that’s what she did.
“You’re bound to him?”
Without hesitation, he nodded.
“We were warned by Raven. It’s not undoable. In the other plane, it would stay there, and not manifest here, but now that we’ve crossed the line here…”
She let him explain.
What choice did she have in the matter?
They were all hostages to this.
“Before, the lust there was ridiculous, but when we came out of it, you saw us. We didn’t have any signs of arousal. Now, here, when he touches me, it’s like when you touch me. I’m physically attracted to both of you. My body craves both. I don’t know how to shut that off.”
She said nothing.
“Like now, I can smell your perfume, and all I want is to hold my wife. I didn’t mean to complicate our world, Bish. I never meant for this to enter this plane. It was easier keeping both people I loved apart in two different planes.”
She was curious.
“So, you still love me?”
His heart ached.
“Oh, Bishop, I love you more than you’ll ever know.
I wake up loving you, and I think about you all of the time.
I’m enthralled by how you’re the best mother I’ve ever seen, and how you’re growing another child for us.
When I see Cassia, I see your old face, and I know that she’s going to grow up just like you.
There’s pride in that. I’m going to have another daughter, and I’m speechless when I think about growing old with you.
What I feel about you is beyond love, Bishop. It’s always been more than that.”
She went there because if he was right that this person damned them, she’d not let them go down like that. There had to be a solution.
And she’d find it.
Bishop was a fighter.
So, she’d fight.
“And how do you feel about Ridge?”
He laughed sardonically.
A part of him couldn’t believe that they were having this conversation. Two days ago, he’d been excited to show his friend their space.
It had been his promise to his love on the other plane, and now, he was sitting here with his wife, their fates hanging in the balance.
As he promised he still loved her.
“Just tell me.”
So, he did.
There was no doubt that Bishop was holding their fate in the palm of her hand.
“I love him too. It’s like my heart got bigger. It didn’t split with each of you, it just got bigger, so I could have so much more love. It’s like with our child. I won’t love Cassia less because we have another. I’ll love the next child just as much. Love has the ability to grow.”
As he spoke, there were no lies in his words. She’d know if there were.
He was being genuine.
Slowly, she reached across the table.
When he saw that, he glanced over.
“I’m sorry, Bish. I can’t undo what I did. I don’t know if I wish I could or not. That makes me a horrible person, but I love him, and he’s part of me now too. I don’t know if there is a solution, or just deeper water to drown in. I’ve never been here before, and I never believed I would be.”
Because he was scared, Lucian reached for her fingers, and when they met, he pulled her toward him so she could sit in his lap.
“Don’t hate me, Bishop. I love my wife so much. She’s been my everything. You saved me, and I’m sinking again. I can’t lose you. I just can’t undo this to save us all.”
As he spoke, she rested her chin on the top of his head as she sat in his lap. She could smell her perfume on him and Ridge’s cologne.
“I don’t hate you, Lucian. I love you so much.”
He held her.
“Bish, baby, I don’t know how to fight this anymore.
It was all cut and dry. Then, this happened, and Oracle is back.
I feel like I’m being pulled in a million different directions.
He’s tied to me now, and his wife died. I can’t abandon ship, and even if I wanted to, I can’t.
I can feel and hear him sleeping. I can tell his dreams. I’m bound to him. ”
She ran her hand up and down his back. The last thing she wanted was for this to take them down.
“I’ve got you, Lucian.”
When he looked up at her, she kissed him on the mouth, and it was the perfect kiss.
There was the tangle of tongues and that gentle warmth that always washed over them.
Nothing was different.
NOTHING.
In that moment, it was crystal clear to her that he still loved her and wanted her. She could feel his erection beneath her bottom, as that kiss woke him up.
When she broke the kiss, she stared into his eye.
“We’ll work it out. I don’t want a divorce, Lucian. I don’t want our girls to grow up with a part-time father. We’ll figure this out and find a solution that works for us.”
He was honest.
“Ridge is a victim in this, too. Please don’t hate him. He’s never tried to take what wasn’t his. I’m the stronger psychic, and I’ll carry this blame.”
She was to the point.
“I don’t blame him. Only, he shouldn’t have lied to you. Couples don’t lie, Lucian. They deal with the fallout. We’ve always had a lie-free rule.”
Lucian was well aware, but fear made you do crazy things. This was proof of it.
“We aren’t a couple. We’re just trapped in this mess.”
She stopped him.
“You are a couple. You and I are one, and you and he are one. That bond was made, and we both know it won’t be broken.
Eventually, we’ll have to figure out how this is going to work.
In a way, he’s damn lucky that Wynter never found out about this.
She would have divorced him. She didn’t know, right? ”
Oh, he was pretty sure she hadn’t known, or it would have been a bloodbath.
Ridge would have lost his wife over this, and ironically, he had. Fate had made sure of that.
Now, though, Lucian had hope that they’d figure this out.
“You’d let me have that?” he asked.
Truthfully, he hadn’t seen that coming.
She nodded.
“What happened wasn’t intentional. I’m not jealous of your relationship in the static with Ridge. So now, I’m going to have to adjust to it on this plane. As long as you’re not replacing me…”
He stopped her.
That was NEVER happening.
If Ridge ever wanted that, he’d be gone in a heartbeat, regardless of their ties. His wife was OFF LIMITS and was never going to be collateral damage.
She was his queen.
“Bishop. Never. I can’t replace you. We began this journey when you saved me. We’ve been a couple for a while, and I love you more each day. Not less.”
She believed him.
“Then, I’m okay with it. I mean, I’ll become okay with it.
Ridge needs his family now, and we’re it.
He and Sophia are part of us now, and we’ll adjust, and we’ll go from there.
We can’t turn him and his child out in the world to figure this out.
It looks like our intermediate family just got bigger. ”
His heart thumped.
That Bishop was not crucifying him, and instead understood the situation made him want to do anything he could to help her adjust.
“Just tell me what you need me to do, Bish.”
She was to the point.
“We need to stand by him and give him support in whatever he wants to do. If you both decide to continue this journey, I’m okay with it. I don’t want either of you to suffer.”
Lucian knew he didn’t deserve this mercy. Most women would have murdered him, but then again, Bishop wasn’t most women.
She was HIS woman.
“Do you believe I would never have allowed this to happen on this plane intentionally?”
She nodded without hesitation.