From Darkness

  Chapter Eight

  Shaylon pulled her Lexus into the garage, her mind filled with her newest project. She had done it all in the years since she’d first followed her father to the studio as a teen. The same studio where she’d met Bane and in a moment of adolescent angst began a relationship that has spanned two marriages, five children and decades of ups and downs. Her father had been the drummer for Bane back in the day and boy had the fertilizer hit the ventilator when he found out that his darling little girl was fraternizing with the lead singer and Bane’s first wife hadn’t been too happy with it either. Ah youth. Since then she’d tried her hand at modeling, singing, acting, and whatever else had sounded interesting, she had even started writing her memoirs. People just love a juicy story and theirs was the juiciest. From their first whirlwind wedding in pure rock and roll fashion in combat boots and a shredded wedding dress the day after his first divorce was final, to their very public divorce when she decided there wasn’t enough room in their marriage for her, Bane and his much younger mistress. After the divorce she went through her ‘interview’ phase where she told her story to anyone who would listen, mostly just to get the free publicity and help drum up some business as a music producer.

  That’s what brought her back into the path of one Bane Bronson. He was on wife number three at the time. Saying ‘I Do’ wasn’t the problem, it was all the other women he was ‘I Doing’ at the same time. She thought they could be professional about their new business relationship, but that fire was still there, burning hot and steady and hard to ignore; so they didn’t. It only took one wild night together for them to realize that neither one would be satisfied with something casual, and she was done playing the part of mistress. Once was enough and once again on the day after his divorce from wife number three was final they exchanged their own vows at the courthouse and this time it stuck. The tabloids ran headlines for weeks blaming her pregnancy for the break-up. True she had been pregnant with Dane, but it wasn’t the reason for his latest divorce, just a happy little bonus. She took a break from work after that to be with her kids.

  Now she was helping a friend of hers launch her own designer line of clothes and jewelry and her head was full of every aspect of it. She loved her family don’t get her wrong, but it felt so good to be working to be actually ‘doing’ something again. She didn’t want to be like a lot of the other celebrity wives she knew that lived for the next public appearance and the thrill of shopping. Not that she had any problem with shopping or anything else, she just wanted more and this new opportunity was just the thing.

  She grabbed her binders and bag from the passenger seat and headed straight for the kitchen. Then dumped her goods on the counter and grabbing the first cold drink she could get her hands on nearly chocking as Bane slid his arm around her waist from behind pulling her close to him.

  “Bane, you scared me! What are you trying to do choke me to death? Look if you’re tired of me there’s easier ways of getting rid of me that don’t include a prison sentence if you’re caught.” She chuckled as she leaned her head back onto his chest. She melted into him as he gently kissed her neck and pulled her tighter in the embrace. She sighed and smiled wide. “The kitchen’s fine, but I think the kids would prefer us to take this upstairs.” She teased as he rested his chin on her shoulder.

  “That would be great, but I need to tell you something first.” He felt her body tense against his and she slowly turned to look at him.

  “How bad is it?”

  “It’s not actually; at least I hope you won’t think it is?”

  Shaylon looked at him curiously. “Bane?”

  “Let’s go to my study where we won’t be interrupted.” He took her by the hand and led her through the house into the study and closed the door behind them.

  “Okay, you got me here. What’s going on?”

  Bane took a deep breath and sat on the edge of his desk. It was now or never. “In a word Shaylon, I’ve changed.”

  “Changed?”

  “Everything I thought, everything I’ve believed in and haven’t believed in.”

  Shaylon only stared back at him, waiting.

  “I don’t know why, why me out of all people. I still haven’t figured that part out, but... God is real.”

  “Bane, you know I believe that there’s some greater force out there.”

  “No Shaylon, I’m not talking about some force or energy. I’m talking about God, this God.” Bane picked up the Bible he had left on his desk when she’d come home and shook it. “The God of the Bible, Jesus, the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost God. The one I’ve been rejecting all my life, the one I walked out on the day I walked out... the day I left home. Shaylon, I was wrong about everything and I’m so glad I was because He found me and He saved me.”

  “What are you talking about Bane? Found you?”

  Then he told her, he told her everything. About the dreams, the barefoot savior, the children; everything. “Shaylon I’m done, I’m done with it all. The excessive drinking, the drugs, the pornography, the woman, even my career; everything. I can’t do it anymore; I can’t make money telling people that God doesn’t exist and that the Devil is the good guy. I can’t sew hate. It’s people like me that have turned this world into the cynical, selfish, cruel place it is where we have to lock down our children because their own classmates slaughter them and people can’t even feel safe in their own homes. Shaylon, I did this. I did this...” Bane’s voice caught and tears began to well in his eyes as the realization hit him. He knew his music would have to change because of his new life in Christ, but the truth of what he had been a part to hadn’t sunk in, even when he relived those moments by the lake of fire and he leaned into his wife wrapping his arms around her as if just being with her could ease the pain. “What have I done Shaylon, what have I done?”

  “Hush Bane, hush.” She pulled back to look at him holding his face so that she could look into his eyes. “Bane that wasn’t your fault. None of that was. Those people that did those things were unstable. Anything could have set them off. Look I don’t know what all this is about, but I know that you’re a good man. You’d never intentionally hurt someone like that and as for these dreams; I can understand why they’d freak you out. I know they would me, but Bane you shouldn’t let it bother you. They were just bad dreams, probably brought on by all this stress you’re under.”

  Bane leaned back onto his desk torn between what he’d feared and what he’d hoped. She hadn’t treated him like a pariah, but she was on the far end of skeptical. How could he make her understand? How could he do this without her help and support? “Okay, okay Shaylon, you don’t have to believe me. I get that it’s hard... to believe; to believe in me, but what I went through, what I’m going through is real. I was hoping to have your help because I don’t know if I can do this without you, but I have changed. I am changed and even if you can’t believe me now I hope you can soon. I need you Shaylon, I need your support to be a better man, a better husband, a better father, for all of us. You and the kids are the one thing in my life that I don’t regret, but if something happens to you, to them because I was too blind to see, too angry and too wrapped up in myself to see the truth and to be the person I needed to be I could never forgive myself.”

  Shaylon closed the gap between them stepping between his legs and running her hands up his arms resting them on his shoulders. “Bane whatever you’re going through I’m here for you. If you say you’re changed then okay. Hey, don’t worry I’m not going to go running from the house screaming. I’m right here.” She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him tight feeling his heart beat between them, but the look in her eyes held the concern she truly felt.