Chapter 92 | You Were Supposed To Be Mine

Diane pulled back, releasing him with a soft pop. "Language, darling."

"Language?

Language

? You’re—you’re—"

"Tasting what you’ve been enjoying?" Diane rose to her feet, smoothing her skirt. "I can see the appeal."

Lukas hadn’t moved. His eyes darted between mother and daughter, body tense as if preparing to flee or fight.

"I don’t understand," Sloane said, her voice small. "What’s happening?"

Diane sat on the edge of the bed, remarkably composed for a woman who had just tasted her ward’s cock in front of her own daughter.

"Lukas and I have an arrangement," she said simply. "As it appears you two do as well."

Sloane’s face paled, then flushed with anger. "How long?"

Diane glanced at Lukas, whose expression had become carefully blank. "Two weeks, give or take."

"Two weeks? Since his manifestation? Since—" Sloane’s eyes widened. "While we were training together? While we were—"

"Yes," Diane admitted. "Though I had no idea you two had progressed to this point. A mother likes to be informed of these things."

"Informed?" Sloane’s voice rose. "You want me to inform you when I’m fucking the same guy you are? My mother and the boy who lives with us? Who you’ve raised since he was eight?"

Diane flinched at the raw hurt in her daughter’s voice.

"Sloane—" Lukas started.

"Don’t." Sloane cut him off. "Don’t say anything. I can’t believe—both of you—"

She wrapped the sheet around herself and stood, dignity reasserting itself despite her nakedness beneath the thin fabric.

"I need to think," she said, voice shaking. "I need to—I can’t be here right now."

She walked to the door, paused, then turned back. "You were supposed to be mine," she said to Lukas, her voice breaking on the last word. "Just mine."

Then she was gone, the door slamming behind her.

Diane and Lukas sat in silence for a long moment, the only sound their breathing and the distant slam of Sloane’s bedroom door.

"That could have gone better," Diane finally said.

Lukas stared at her incredulously. "Better? That’s what you have to say? Your daughter just found out we’ve been sleeping together."

"And I just found out you’ve been sleeping with my daughter." Diane raised an eyebrow. "While continuing to sleep with me."

Lukas reached for his boxers and pulled them on. "This is insane. All of this is insane."

"Perhaps." Diane watched him move, appreciating the play of muscles under his skin. "But it’s our reality now."

"Our reality? Diane, Sloane is devastated. She thinks I betrayed her."

"You did betray her," Diane pointed out. "As did I. As did she, unknowingly."

Lukas ran a hand through his hair. "What happens now?"

Diane considered the question. What did happen now? Her carefully constructed world had just imploded. Her daughter knew about her affair with Lukas. Lukas had apparently developed genuine feelings for Sloane. And Diane herself...

Diane herself wanted both to comfort her daughter and to push Lukas back onto that bed and finish what she’d started.

"Now," she said, standing and smoothing her skirt, "I go talk to my daughter. And you consider what exactly it is you want."

"What I want?"

"Yes." Diane walked to the door, then paused, looking back at him. "Because contrary to what Sloane believes, I don’t think you were ever meant to be just hers. And I know now you were never meant to be just mine."

She left him there, stunned and confused, and walked to her daughter’s room. She knocked softly on the door.

"Go away." Sloane’s voice sounded thick with tears.

"Darling, please. We need to talk."

"Talk? Now you want to talk? After I caught you with your mouth on my boyfriend’s dick?"

Diane winced. Put that way, it did sound rather awful.

"Sloane, please. Open the door."

Silence. Then footsteps. The door opened to reveal Sloane in sweatpants and a t-shirt, her eyes red and swollen.

"You promised me," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "You promised to help him. To keep him safe. Not to—not to—"

"I know." Diane stepped forward, reaching for her daughter, but Sloane backed away.

"Don’t touch me." Sloane hugged herself tightly. "How could you do this? How could he?"

Diane felt the weight of it suddenly—the magnitude of their betrayal. The pain in her daughter’s eyes. The years of trust shattered in a single moment of unthinking desire.

"I never meant to hurt you," she said softly. "Neither did Lukas."

Sloane laughed, a bitter sound. "Then what exactly did you mean to do?"

What had I meant to do?

The answer felt cheap, pathetic.

Help him? Give myself... something?

She had no clean explanation for this mess. None that didn’t sound selfish.

"I don’t know," she admitted. "It just happened."

"Things like this don’t ’just happen,’ Mom."

"No." Diane sighed. "They don’t."

They stood in silence, the gulf between them wider than it had ever been.

"I love him," Sloane said finally, her voice small.

"I know." And Diane did know. Had known for years, watching her daughter grow from childhood crush to genuine attachment. "But do you know why?"

Sloane frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Why do you love him?" Diane asked. "What is it about Lukas that draws you to him?"

"I don’t—that’s not—" Sloane struggled, then straightened her shoulders. "He sees me. Not just what I can do or who my mother is. He looks at me and sees

me

."

Diane nodded. "Yes. That’s exactly it."

She moved to Sloane’s window, looking out at the darkening sky. The lights of Verano glittered in the distance.

"He has that gift," she said softly. "The ability to see people as they truly are, beneath all the masks we wear. It’s what drew me to him too."

"So what, we’re supposed to share him now?" Sloane’s voice dripped with sarcasm. "Take turns? Make a schedule?"

"No." Diane turned back to her daughter. "We’re supposed to figure out what happens next, together. All three of us."

Sloane stared at her mother for a long moment. "I need time to think," she said finally. "This is too much."

"I understand." Diane moved toward the door, then paused. "For what it’s worth, Sloane, I am sorry. Not for what happened, but for how you found out."

Sloane didn’t respond, just turned away, arms still wrapped protectively around herself.

Diane closed the door softly behind her, the weight of the situation settling fully on her shoulders. She had made a mess of things, as she rarely did in any aspect of her life. And she had no clear path to fixing it.

She walked to her bedroom, removed her heels, and sat on the edge of her bed. Ten years ago, she had promised a little boy in the rain that she would fill his life with happy tears. Now she had brought nothing but pain to both him and her daughter.

Diane closed her eyes, remembering Reina’s smile, the way she used to laugh at Diane’s worries.

"What would you do now, my friend?" she whispered to the empty room. "What would you tell me to do?"