Chapter 39
With the Parstons gone, Thomas in federal custody facing decades in prison, Victor's additional charges ensuring he'd join his father.
And their empire liquidated and absorbed into more ethical hands, the social landscape of the college shifted entirely.
The change was palpable, visible in the way students moved through the halls, the way conversations flowed in the cafeteria.
In the way power dynamics that had seemed permanent suddenly revealed themselves as temporary.
No one dared mock Remy anymore. The transformation was complete in the eyes of the campus.
From the "fat, ugly orphan" who'd been tripped and laughed at to the undisputed alpha male that most girls wanted and most guys wanted to be.
He couldn't walk across the quad without people stopping him without freshmen asking for advice, without business majors requesting internships at Beaumont Ventures.
Marcus Chen had transferred to another school, unable to handle the constant reminder of his humiliation.
Tyler and Brad had become social pariahs after their attempted assault in the gym.
The old hierarchy had completely collapsed, replaced by something new that Remy hadn't asked for but couldn't entirely avoid: influence.
However, the newfound peace, the absence of external threats, and the stability of their growing business empire.
The completion of the semester without crisis or attack brought a different kind of challenge.
One that Remy had been avoiding thinking about too directly, but that was becoming impossible to ignore.
The three heroines.
Lyra, Nyx, and Indigo had all requested a meeting at the penthouse on the first Saturday of December, as autumn finally surrendered to winter, and the first snow of the season dusted the city in white.
The request had been formal, coordinated, a group text that simply said, "We need to talk. All of us. This weekend. It's important."
The atmosphere when they arrived was no longer one of crisis or urgency or the adrenaline-fueled energy of battling enemies.
Instead, it was something heavier, more profound: intense romantic gravity, the weight of feelings that had grown from attraction to something deeper, from casual arrangement to something that demanded definition.
They sat in the living room, the space where they'd planned the downfall of the Parstons.
The place where they'd celebrated victories, where they'd spent countless evenings just being together.
But tonight felt different. Formal, almost. Like a negotiation or a courtroom, though the stakes were emotional rather than financial.
"We've helped you build this, Remy," Lyra began, sitting in the armchair with her back straight and her hands folded in her lap like she was giving a business presentation.
Her yellow hair was caught in the soft evening light filtering through the windows, making it glow like captured sunshine, and her silver eyes looked at him with a mix of pride and vulnerability that made his chest tight.
"We've invested not just emotionally but practically. We've used our skills and connections to help Beaumont Ventures grow.
We've accepted each other... not easily, not without jealousy and hurt, but genuinely, because we all love you."
She paused, gathering courage for what came next. "But we need to know... how does this end for us?
Are we just girlfriends in an unconventional arrangement until you get bored or meet someone else?
Are we business partners who happen to sleep with the boss? What are we building here, Remy? What's the endgame?"
Nyx, sitting on the couch with her laptop closed for once, a deliberate choice that emphasized the seriousness of this conversation, added her analytical perspective:
"The current arrangement is sustainable short-term. We've managed the logistics, the emotional complications, and the social judgment reasonably well.
But long-term, it's unstable. People will want to know what we are. Our families will ask questions. Future business partners will need to understand the structure of our relationships and how they affect decision-making in the company."
She met his eyes, her coal-black gaze steady but uncertain underneath.
"I've run the numbers on polyamorous relationships. The success rate is lower than traditional monogamy, primarily due to unclear boundaries and expectations.
We need to define this. Give it structure. Or acknowledge that it has an expiration date and prepare accordingly."
Indigo, who'd been quiet until now, spoke last. She sat cross-legged on the floor near the fireplace, her purple dark blonde hair loose around her shoulders.
She was wearing comfortable clothes that emphasized she wasn't performing anymore, just being real.
"I spent my whole life being something temporary for men. The model they dated for a while.
The pretty girl they showed off. The trophy they got bored of once the novelty wore off.
I can't...." her voice cracked slightly, "...I can't do that again. Not with you. Not after everything.
If this is temporary, I need to know now so I can protect myself. But if it's permanent..."
She looked up at him, her indigo eyes bright with tears and hope. "If it's permanent, I need to hear you say it.
I need to know that when we talk about the future, I'm actually in it. Not just hovering around the edges waiting to be replaced."
In the corner of the room, invisible to the three women but clear as day to Remy, Silas materialized.
The ghost's translucent form shimmered in his usual 1850s attire, his expression gentle and knowing.
He gave Remy a subtle nod of encouragement, a gesture that said
"This is the moment, boy. The real test. Not defeating enemies or building wealth, but having the courage to commit to something permanent and vulnerable."
Remy looked at them, the three women who had once seemed like distant stars when he was the "fat, ugly orphan" sitting at the back of the class, trying to be invisible, surviving each day rather than living.
The school belles who'd laughed at him or ignored him or used him as an example of what not to be.
They were different now. He was different now. But the vulnerability in their eyes was the same vulnerability he'd felt standing on that chair with a rope.
The fear of not being enough, of being abandoned, of building something beautiful only to watch it collapse.
"I won't lie and say I can choose," Remy said, standing up and moving to the centre of the room where he could see all three of them clearly.
His heart was pounding harder than it had facing Thomas Parston, harder than it had during any business negotiation or enemy confrontation.
"Because I can't. I've tried to imagine a future with just Lyra, just Nyx, just Indigo.
I've used Foresight to look at those possible paths. And none of them feel right. None of them feel complete."
He took a deep breath, preparing to ask for something that society said was selfish, that conventional wisdom said was impossible, that every rom-com and romance novel said wasn't how love was supposed to work.
"I asked for your forgiveness for being selfish once before when we started this arrangement in the courtyard some months ago.
I'm asking again now, but for something bigger. Something permanent." He met each of their eyes in turn.
"I want all three of you to be my wives. Not girlfriends, not partners, not some casual arrangement.
Wives. Legally, if we can figure out how to structure it. Spiritually, definitely.
A commitment that says this isn't temporary or experimental. This is forever."
The room went silent except for the distant sound of traffic and the soft hiss of the radiator heating the penthouse against the winter cold.
"Well said, boy," Silas whispered from his corner, his voice carrying pride and warmth.
"You've come a long way from the broken child who couldn't imagine tomorrow, let alone forever."
"I want a life where we aren't defined by what others think, but by what we've built together," Remy continued, his voice gaining strength as the words came easier.
"A family that looks different from traditional families but works for us.
A marriage, or three marriages, or one marriage with four people, whatever we want to call it, that prioritizes partnership and mutual support over conforming to expectations."
He moved to the window, looking out at the snow-dusted city. "I know it's complicated.
I know there are some issues and social judgment and a million practical problems we'll have to solve.
I know my parents are gone, so I don't have family to introduce you to, but you all have families who will have opinions.
And I promise to properly meet all your families if you agree to my proposal.
I know this is asking you to choose something difficult."
He turned back to face them. "But I also know that every difficult thing we've chosen together has made us stronger.
Choosing this unconventional relationship made us face our jealousies and insecurities.
Choosing to build Beaumont Ventures together made us develop skills we didn't know we had.
Choosing to fight the Parstons together made us realize we're better as a team than as individuals."
"So I'm asking you to choose one more difficult thing: Forever. With me. With each other.
Building something that doesn't have a blueprint or a guidebook, but that's ours.
What do you say?"