Forty-Three
It was like a sixth sense.
Just a feeling of eyes on his back, an instinctive awareness of a presence. Her presence. Chibs knew even before he turned around that he was about to come face to face with his estranged wife.
"Filip …" Eden said softly, having turned with him and spotted the visitor staring at them both.
He didn't have to explain. The look on his face did that for him, and his heart sank to see it dawn on her too. The last thing he wanted was to cause her hurt or make her doubt her place in his life. But he couldn't shy away from this. Couldn't just send the mother of his child packing without a word.
The arm around Eden's waist gave her a gentle little squeeze before pulling away.
"Stay here," he said, in a tone that bore no argument.
The biker strode across the clubhouse, squaring his shoulders to weather whatever storm might come to pass.
"Fiona."
"Filip," she said coolly, those dark eyes roving slowly over him. "Another near miraculous recovery, it seems. Getting to be a habit, my boy."
"Aye. Not exactly planned, I assure you," he said, nodding in the direction of the club's inner sanctuary, somewhere away from curious the curious eyes of those around them. "We should probably talk."
"I'm sure we've plenty to catch up on," Fiona agreed, her tone wry and knowing. "Not keeping you from anything … pressing, I hope?"
"Nothing that won't still be there when we're done."
She raised an eyebrow at that pointed barb, but followed him without a word.
"How's Kerri?" the biker president asked, forgoing his usual seat at the head of the reaper table to perch on its edge instead. He'd pushed out a chair with his booted foot, but it seemed his visitor preferred to stand, her arms crossed over her chest.
"Worried about her da's latest efforts to get himself killed," came the short response, before she softened slightly. "She's well. So grown-up these days. Talking about university."
Chibs shook his head at that, emotion plain on his scarred face. "University! Our wee girl goin' off to university … Jesus. Must get her brains from her ma."
Fiona actually smiled at that, despite herself. "Well, she sure gets her stubbornness from her da."
"Oh, aye, 'cause her ma's lacking in that department," he shot back, lips quirked in a little grin, before he sighed and simply got down to brass tacks. "You didn't need to come all this way, Fi."
"You really think, after everything, a call to say you're at death's door wouldn't bring me here?" Fiona said, stepping closer to touch a hand to his cheek.
He covered her hand with his, feeling a pang of regret for how things had played out between them, but then gently removed hers, knowing that what was done was done. Any chance they might have had together had been back in Ireland and Jimmy's interference had long since destroyed that.
They had to move on, once and for all.
"Ruin the fantasy, does it? The wife turning up," Fiona said, a bitter smile on her face. "Neglect to mention that little detail, do you? To the- What do you boys call your little whores again? Croweaters? Still amazes me how some girls will debase themselves all over a piece o' leather on a man's back and a patch on his chest. I'm sure you've noticed, Mr President …"
Chibs scoffed a little at that, folding his arms slowly as he let her say her piece. Better she did it here, in private, than out there in the clubhouse in front of everyone. In front of the men he was supposed to lead. In front of Eden.
"You done?" he drawled. "Look, you know the score, Fi. You ain't ever had time for the club and that's your right. You don't have to be here. As long as you let Sambel keep an eye on you and Kerrianne for protection, that's as far as your connection to the Sons has to go."
"Really? You don't think being the wife o' the mother charter president makes it run a little deeper?"
"We both know you ain't been my wife in any meaningful way in a very long time," he said.
"Meaningful," Fiona echoed mockingly. "Am I supposed to believe the wee girl you were wrapped around out there is anything more meaningful than being willing to get on her knees any time you click your fingers?"
"Don't push it, Fi."
"How chivalrous. Getting all offended on behalf o' your latest little bit on the side …"
"Bit on the side? On the side o' what, Fi? Huh? On the side o' what?" he demanded, his temper starting to simmer, reluctant as he was to really start a fight. "A quick shag in a bathroom in Belfast a couple o' years ago. You and me ain't been a real couple since I left Ireland – and that ain't today or yesterday! That girl out there … She ain't some croweater. I didn't want to tell you like this, but I was going to tell you. I owe you that much. She's my old lady."
Fiona stared at the man in front of her coolly and then seemed to simply dismiss what he was trying to say.
"Oh please, Filip, she's hardly the first younger woman you've had your dalliances with while we've been married. You always were too soft, deep down. What? Did you seriously think I didn't know you were bedding Jimmy's wee slut o' a sister? Was that where you were when I was giving birth to our daughter alone in that godforsaken excuse for a hospital?"
Chibs stayed silent at that for a long time, struggling to keep his warring emotions in check.
"You know it wasn't," he said finally, seeing no point in denying anything else this far down the line. But he wasn't having her make out that he hadn't tried to be there, not when keeping him away had been their doing – hers and Jimmy's. Not Aoife's. Not for a second. "And that wee girl's dead, and on that murdering bastard's say-so, so let's just leave her out o' this."
She seemed to know better than challenge him on that score at least.
"So, are you really going to try telling me that's serious?" Fiona demanded, with a curt jerk of her head in the direction of the bar, a scoff already on her lips at the thought of her husband and the attractive young woman she'd witnessed in his arms. She knew the life. Knew the kind of women that flocked around the club. Croweaters held no threat, as far as she was concerned. Not really.
But something in his brown eyes was already warning her this wasn't like that. Not just a quick roll between the sheets with some younger woman only interested in one thing – the kudos of fucking a patch.
"Aye, it's serious," Chibs said, his voice quiet, but his words firm and leaving no room for interpretation. "You and me … You know it's over. Has been for a long time. I … I'm wi' Eden now."
"Oh, for Jesus' sake …"
"I'm wi' her, end o' story," Chibs said, cutting her exasperated rant dead before she could really hit her stride. "Look, Fi, I ain't asking your approval. And I sure as shit ain't asking your permission. But, for both our sakes, don't you think it's time to draw a line in the sand?"
A lesser man would have baulked under her gaze, but he stood his ground. Even though, to be honest, he would have rather faced a hail of bullets than that look.
"Divorce. You're asking me for a divorce? For some wee slapper nearly young enough to be a sister to your own bloody child!" Fiona practically spat, her voice rising shrilly, even as she stayed rooted to the spot, with her fists clenched as if to keep herself from clawing his eyes out.
His jaw clenched at that, but he forced himself to stay as calm as he could. "I love her-"
"Love …" Fiona sneered.
"Aye, you remember that?" he growled, anger etched across his face as he took a step towards her, even as the door opened.
"Filip?"
The soft, hesitant voice was enough to stop him in his tracks. "Eden …"
"So you're the little tart whose been shagging my husband."
"Fiona!" Chibs barked, in warning to his ex not to cross a line he wouldn't let her come back from, but Eden simply smiled tightly, stepping forward to meet the accusation head on and closing the door behind her, right in the face of Tig as he made helpless I tried gestures to his president.
"If you want to put it that way," she shrugged. "I mean, there's a bit more to it, but the way I see it, you wouldn't understand."
"You're seriously going to lecture to me-"
"Oh, come on," Eden sighed. "Let's just get this over with. You don't want him, you just don't want anyone else to have him either. If you loved him, you wouldn't be thousands of miles apart from him!"
"You have no idea the struggles-"
"No, and I don't want to either," the younger woman insisted, her fingers seeking out the biker's and curling around them. "I'm not interested in your cause, or your life in Ireland. Go back to it, if it's so damn important."
"That's it? No big sob story urging me to let him go?"
"I don't need to," Eden said evenly. "You don't have anything to hold onto in the first place. I love Filip and I know he loves me. I don't need a piece of paper to confirm it. If a piece of paper's all you've got, keep it."
"I have his child," Fiona seethed.
"And I … I'd never try to get in the way of that."
But something in the look on Eden's face and the way she faltered just a little made even the formidable Irishwoman draw up short, her dark eyes seeming to burn into the younger woman as they raked over her. "No …"
And just like that, Fiona's incredulity turned to rage and she rounded on her estranged husband, confused as he was by what had just transpired between the two women. "You stupid, stupid bastard!" she all but spat, before storming out and almost taking the door off its hinges in the process.
That left Chibs staring after her in bewilderment. "Okay, I knew she'd be furious, but what in the name o' all that's holy was that?"
Pale-faced and almost trembling, his old lady couldn't seem to meet his gaze, her fingers nervously twisting the hem of her top.
"Eden? What am I missing here, darlin'?"
"I … I don't know how she guessed … I was going to tell you, I just … didn't know how …"
"Tell me what?" the biker growled, not liking this one bit. "Eden, what the fuck is going on here?"
"I'm pregnant," she blurted out, making him feel for all the world like the floor had just dropped out from under him. "And yes, it's yours. I'm three months gone."
"Fuck," he managed, for lack of a more eloquent response. "You're … I … Jesus fucking Christ."
