One String Attached

94.

.James.

"What'd you do this time?" Piper asks with an eyeroll after Mum had suggested Riley and I bring the kids down for the day to spend some time together.
We always came over here at least once a month so we would have done so anyway.

The timing couldn't have been better, considering there was so much going on which I well and truly needed some advice on.
I had already admitted to cheating in front of them and Mum helped me with that. But I can't help but feel like if I admit who I cheated with they won't be as supporting this time. They'll react the same way Riley has, and with good reason.

We stood in the kitchen as she filled a glass with water to place down in front of me on the table.
I take it from her hand to hold in my palms as I thought deeply in my head in silence, trying to figure out the best way to tell her the truth. "I cheated on Riley," I tell her.

She raises an eyebrow, not because she was shocked but because she had already heard that information before. Twice in the past, to be precise.
"That's not exactly news to me, James," she says, sitting herself down on the stool opposite me across the table.

I raise my glass and take a light sip but barely finish swallowing when the words escape my mouth before I had the chance to stop myself. "With Whitney," I tell her.
She pauses and then looks down at the table whilst shaking her head at me, just like I'd expected. "Does Ri know?" she asks me. I nod again and it causes her to frown. "Why, James?"

"I don't know, Pipes. I really don't know. I don't remember any second of it. I was completely wasted. But then during the court procession, when I saw Whitney stood there, suddenly the look on her face came flooding back to my mind. Her face is the only thing I can funny remember from that night. I'm such a terrible person, I know."

"What did Riley say?" she asks me.
I knew whatever Riley's reaction to this situation was would match Piper's. She wouldn't hate me if Riley didn't. But if Riley did hate me then she would too. She looked up to Riley a lot and at times I think she trusted my wife more than she trusted me.

I steal a quick glance out towards the living room by looking through the window where I find her stood up in the centre of the room, stepping back and forth to try and send Autumn to sleep.
Mum and Dad were busy with Asher and Aaliyah, but then Riley looks out to me and she instantly sighs, quickly looking away as if our gazes had never locked.

"She won't talk to me," I mumble.
She has every right to be ignoring me the way she is. I just wished she wasn't. "I don't know what to do, Piper. Please. Tell me what to do."

She looks out towards her sister-in-law and then shakes her head at me, stretching her arms across to place her hands above mine.

"I don't know what you should do, James. I can't tell you what to do either," she states.That definitely wasn't what I wanted to hear her say.
"I can try talking to her though, if you want me to? I think she just needs some time to wrap her head around everything. Didn't you say something about Aaliyah being a little difficult with her too?" she asks me.

I nod again. I never realised how much I told my younger sister until now. I used to help her with everything before but now it's as if we've reversed roles. She's helping me a lot more than even Nathan could, but that's probably because she's so similar to Riley herself.

"Okay," I agree, because I knew if there was one person Riley would confide in, it would be Piper. I also know that my sister has her ways of talking Riley into spilling her thoughts and feelings.
I think that's one thing Piper and I have in common, just that the skill doesn't seem to fit me in this current situation.

"Don't lose hope, okay," she says when she looks up at me. "She won't leave you. Not with three children and one being just a couple months old. Ri's more sensible than that."
But I couldn't be too sure.