Page 108 of Oracle Returns: Time will Stop

“And where does this leave me? You have a new love now, and I’m the old one. Are we done? Am I having and raising this baby alone, along with our daughter? Am I the training-wheel spouse, no longer needed or wanted?”

Jesus.

Did she actually think that he didn’t love and want her? That he’d walk away, or cheat on her to get out of being a husband and father?

He wouldn’t.

Above all else, his career and his accomplishments, being a husband and father, was far more important to him.

He loved being a dad.

That she genuinely felt what she was saying…

That hurt him in ways he couldn’t explain. It was a dagger to his heart that his sweet, protective Bishop believed she was no longer wanted or needed.

Staring into her eyes, he saw the fear and damage.

When Raven said sex magick was problematic when you weren’t doing it with your spouse, he wasn’t kidding.

This was one hell of a triangle.

“I don’t know where this leaves you, Bishop, because I don’t have the power here. I did the crime, but you’re the one who decides my punishment. I know I could lose you, Bishop. I know that I technically had an affair. I know that now, because it was part of the sex magick we did in the static, it’s bound us here. I can’t answer that question. I’m at your mercy like this put you at mine.”

The whole time he spoke, she wanted to weep.

No.

Vomit.

The bottom line was that she loved this man more than anything. He’d stood by her and paid for her face to be fixed, and the whole time she was life-flighted to the hospital, it was his voice in her ear, begging her to stay.

For him.

And she had.

Lucian was the ONLY reason she fought for her life.

Now, she had to know the truth.

“Do you love him like you love me?” she asked, holding her breath the entire time.

Slowly, he nodded.

“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…