Chapter 21
Heads turned toward the parking lot entrance.
Remy's matte-black Audi R8 pulled into view, the afternoon sun glinting off its polished surface.
The engine note was a deep and throaty roar that was unmistakable. He parked in a visitor spot near the courtyard, killed the engine, and stepped out.
He wore jeans and a fitted black T-shirt that showcased the athletic build he'd worked so hard to develop, his leather jacket slung over one shoulder.
His golden-amber eyes scanned the courtyard, and even from a distance, several people swore they saw them glow faintly.
Then he saw them. All three of them. Standing together by the fountain, waiting for him.
His expression flickered, surprise, then concern, then something that might have been resignation as he realised what was happening.
The three beauties moved as one to intercept him, creating a wall of feminine beauty and determination between him and wherever he'd been planning to go.
The crowd of students held their breath collectively. This was the moment of truth. This was going to be legendary, no matter how it played out.
"Ladies," Remy said calmly, though his eyes were already glowing faintly gold as the Foresight activated, showing him dozens of possible futures branching from this moment.
"I'm guessing you've all compared notes."
"Remy," Lyra said, and her voice was trembling slightly despite her attempt at composure.
She was the first to find her courage, stepping forward from the group. "You can't keep us all hanging. This isn't fair. You have to choose.
You have to....." her voice cracked, "....you have to tell us which one of us you actually want."
Remy looked at them, really looked at each of them in turn.
Lyra, the proud heiress who'd learned to let her walls down, who'd been cruel and was learning to be kind, who'd kissed him under city lights and told him he made her want to be real instead of perfect.
Indigo, the reformed siren who'd been hollow and was learning to be whole, who'd tried to seduce him and been rejected so completely she'd shattered and rebuilt herself into someone genuine, who'd kissed him in the grass with gratitude and terror and desperate hope.
Nyx, the liberated scholar who'd been crushed under expectations and was learning to breathe free, who'd cried in his arms and trusted him with her vulnerability, who'd rebuilt her entire life based on a few words of encouragement and was trying to figure out who she was when no one was watching.
He saw the genuine emotion in their eyes, love, fear, hope, desperation, a far cry from the mockery he had endured in his first year.
A far cry from the girls who'd laughed when Marcus tripped him, who'd called him ugly and fat, who'd treated him like he was invisible or worse.
They'd changed. All of them. Or maybe they'd always been capable of this, and circumstances had just never forced them to be real before.
His Foresight showed him the futures:
Path one: He chose Lyra. Nyx accepted it with quiet dignity and remained a friend. Indigo spiralled back into her old patterns and broke someone else's heart, trying to fill the void.
He and Lyra were happy, mostly, but she always wondered if she'd won by default or by choice.
Path two: He chose Indigo. Lyra's pride was shattered, and she became cold again, walls rebuilt higher than ever.
Nyx threw herself into work, pursuing her father's path after all because at least achievement was reliable. Indigo and he tried to build something real, but the shadow of what might have been poisoned it.
Path three: He chose Nyx. Lyra felt betrayed after their dinner, their kiss, the promises implied if not spoken.
Indigo accepted defeat but never quite recovered from being rejected twice by the same man.
Nyx and he connected intellectually, but she always felt guilty about the others, like she'd stolen something that wasn't hers to take.
Path four: He chose none of them. All three were hurt but eventually moved on. Found other relationships and other futures. He remained alone, successful, and powerful but emotionally isolated, the cost of protecting everyone, including himself.
Path five...
"I... I can't," Remy said, and his voice was thick with a mixture of guilt and honesty that made it clear this wasn't a game or a manipulation.
"I can't choose. Not because I'm trying to be cruel or play games, but because I'm selfish. I've grown to care for all of you too much to pick just one.
And I know that's not fair. I know that's asking for something that shouldn't be asked. But I want all three of you in my life."
The courtyard went completely silent. Even the fountain seemed to pause its bubbling.
Somewhere in the distance, a car horn honked, but in this bubble of space and time, there was only Remy's confession hanging in the air like a bomb waiting to detonate.
The three heroines blushed furiously, Lyra's cheeks turning pink against her pale skin, Indigo's face flushing from her neck upward, Nyx's normally stoic expression cracking as colour rose in her cheeks.
They looked at the floor. Then at each other. Then at Remy. Then back at each other.
In a world where they were used to getting everything they wanted—where their beauty and status had always guaranteed them first choice, exclusive access, complete devotion, they had finally found the one thing they were willing to share.
"This is insane," Lyra said finally, but her voice wasn't angry. It was almost... amused? "This doesn't happen in real life.
People don't just... share."
"People don't see the future either," Indigo pointed out softly. "Or transform themselves completely in three months.
Or save lives with supernatural reflexes. Maybe normal rules don't apply here."
"Logically speaking," Nyx said, her analytical mind trying to process the emotional chaos, "if we all care about him, and he cares about all of us, and the alternative is that two of us end up hurt while one of us gets what she wants... the mathematical optimisation would suggest...."
"Don't turn this into a math problem," Lyra interrupted, but there was affection in her voice.
"Some things can't be solved with equations, Nyx."
"Can't they?" Nyx countered.
"Three women plus one man equals either one happy relationship and two broken hearts, or one unconventional relationship and three people willing to try something new. The numbers seem clear."
"You're actually considering this," Indigo said, looking between them with something like wonder.
"We're actually considering this. Sharing him. Being... what? Sister wives? A harem? A polyamorous situation?"
"I prefer 'unconventional relationship structure,'" Nyx said primly, which made both Lyra and Indigo laugh despite themselves.
Remy watched them, his golden eyes glowing brighter now as he saw the future solidifying around this choice.
He saw complications, jealousy, arguments, moments of doubt, and insecurity.
But he also saw something beautiful: three women who'd been broken in different ways healing together, supporting each other, building something that society hasn't fully accepted but that felt more real than any conventional relationship he could imagine.
"Are you sure?" he asked quietly. "All of you? Because this isn't something you can half-commit to. This only works if everyone's genuinely okay with it. If anyone has doubts...."
"I have doubts," Lyra admitted immediately. "About a million of them.
But I also know that I'd rather have part of you than none of you. And if that makes me weak or desperate or unconventional, then so be it."
"I've spent my whole life being what other people expected," Indigo said. "Playing roles, performing, being hollow. This is the first real thing I've ever wanted. I'm not walking away from it just because it doesn't look like what relationships are supposed to look like."
"And I've learned," Nyx added, "that following conventional paths just because they're conventional is a recipe for misery. If we want something different, we should have the courage to try for it."
Around them, the crowd had grown to at least eighty students. Phones were out everywhere. This would be legendary. This would be talked about for years.
The mysterious transfer student and the three school belles publicly declare some kind of unconventional relationship that wasn't a social norm.
Marcus Chen stood at the back of the crowd, his face twisted with jealousy and rage.
This was supposed to be his story, his redemption, his rise back to the top. Instead, he was watching Remy Beaumont claim all three of the most desirable women on campus while he nursed his bruised ego and fading social status.
But Remy didn't care about Marcus anymore. Didn't care about the crowd. Didn't care about social norms or conventional relationships or what anyone thought.
He looked at the three women standing before him, proud Lyra, genuine Indigo, and liberated Nyx, and made his choice.
"Then we try," he said simply. "We figure it out together. Set boundaries, communicate honestly, and be patient with each other's insecurities.
And if it doesn't work, at least we tried for something real instead of settling for something safe."
Lyra stepped forward first, rising on her toes to kiss his cheek. "You better not make me regret this, Beaumont."
Indigo followed, her lips brushing his other cheek. "Thank you for seeing me. For saving me. For giving me a chance to be real."
Nyx, characteristically practical even in this bizarre moment, simply took his hand and squeezed it. "We'll need to establish clear communication protocols and boundaries.
I'll create a shared calendar for scheduling time together. And we should probably have weekly check-ins to....."
"Nyx," Lyra interrupted gently. "Maybe we don't need to turn this into a project plan quite yet."
"But organisation is important for....."
"Later," Indigo said, smiling at both of them. "We can organise later. Right now, let's just... be."
The four of them stood together in the courtyard, an unconventional constellation that defied every social norm and expectation, while the campus watched and whispered and recorded and judged.
In the invisible realm, Silas watched his great-great-grandnephew and shook his head with a mixture of admiration and concern.
"You've built yourself quite the complicated life, boy," he murmured.
"Three hearts to protect, three women to cherish, three different kinds of love to navigate. I hope you're ready for the weight of it."
But Remy couldn't hear him. He was too focused on the present moment, on the three different hands holding his, on the future that was uncertain and unconventional and possibly doomed but felt more real than anything he'd ever known.
The game had changed completely.
And for better or worse, Remy Beaumont was all in.