Falling For My Enemy’s Brother

Episode 2

Flora’s POV

My destiny was seemingly tied to the very floor I walked on.

Everything I had done,

From my childhood led up to tonight

Arthur had told me to be ready by eight, but I could not sit still at home any longer.

It seemed like every minute I stayed back preparing, the farther my destiny slipped away and the more I was likely to lose Arthur.

To that effect I spared one final glance at the mirror, before stuffing the envelope in my bag and joining the driver Arthur had sent.

***

I knew this house like the back of my hand, like this very very hallway where Arthur and I shared our first kiss.

I was on my way to his room when I heard my name, and I couldn’t help the smile that crept to my face. He was probably just as nervous as I was.

“She is the most practical choice,’

I stopped walking, not because his voice gave me butterflies, it wasn’t because I was daydreaming of how I would wake up to him every morning. This time it was because I honestly thought I misheard him and I was hoping that maybe he was talking about something else. A business deal. A charity event. Anything else.

But then I heard him again, that deep baritone that had become my favorite melody.

‘She has been obsessed with me since childhood. That works in my favor. She is easy to manage and she will not complicate things.’

But now it pierced something and it wasn’t my ear.

The word obsessed did not sound the way I had imagined it would if he ever said it about me. It sounded was endearing, like I was a parasite.

Someone else cleared their throat before speaking, it was softer and I instantly knew it belonged to his mom, “You make it sound like a business arrangement.”

‘It is,’ Arthur replied, I could imagine him rolling his eyes. ‘I just needed an heir before Carter marries. Once he produces a son, the pressure shifts. I am not willing to wait for that.’

For a second, I stood frozen, denying my mind the ability to connect the words properly. Heir meant child. Child meant marriage. Marriage meant us.

But the way he said it, it had nothing to do with us.

My fingers tightened around my purse without me realizing. I could hear my own breathing, uneven and louder than it should have been. I tried to quiet it, afraid they might somehow hear me through the door.

His mother spoke again. ‘And what about her feelings? Flora has always been devoted to you.’

‘That is exactly why she is suitable,’ Arthur countered befire I could even afford any reaction. ‘She believes in me. She will not question my decisions.’

My body subconsciously leaned in closer to the door in hope. Hope that he would say something else, that he would offer that dry laughter of his and call it a joke.

I knew he barely joked around but hope had a way of making you wish for even the impossible.

His mothers voice had dropped this time, “do you care for her at all, Arthur?”

“Do not be ridiculous,” he laughed. “I needed a breeding vessel, not a love story. She fits the requirements. That is enough.”

Breeding vessel.

For a second, I honestly thought I misunderstood the word, maybe it was a new fancy term used among CEO’s. I was waiting for him to double down and correct it to something else, maybe wife, fiancé or even partner at least… but he did. That's really all he had seen me as.

A breeding vessel? Shouldn’t there be a lot art of the law rhat sees such terms as degrading and derogatory?

I felt my lungs constrict in my chest and my mouth fell open as I struggled to inhale every bit of air I could get.

The ground beneath me was spinning with me on it and I could have sworn that the hallway ad always had four paths. Because somehow even that was easier to believe than what I had just heard, he could not have meant it like that.

Maybe it was just the way he talks. Maybe he was exaggerating. He does that sometimes. Maybe—

My hand slowly tightened around my purse. I did not even feel my fingers anymore. I just knew they were gripping something.

“And if she expects more from you?”

“She will not,” I hated how certain he sounded and how predictable I had become over the years. “She has waited for me her entire life. She will accept what she is given.”

He wasn’t wrong, I had waited my entire life. Every moment of my being had always led up to this, but now he said it so easily, that it made me small.

I suddenly became very aware of myself. Of how I was standing outside his door. Of the envelope in my bag. Of the stupid smile I had walked in with.

Sweat beads formed on my forehead, and my cheeks tingled from raw embarrassment. Shame from how certain I had been about his emotions, I could bet a thousand bucks that every single house help here knew that he didn’t give a damn about me.

And now it made sense, the pitiful glances they all gave me whenever I visited, I always just assumed it was envy or something else.

My hands found their way to my head, smacking it as loud as possible.

“Did you hear that?” his mother asked, reminding me that I was very much still standing right in front of the door.

“f**k” I cursed under my breath, taking a step back and holding my breath.

Tye echo of her heels against the wooden floors was a telltale sign that she was coming to check what had made the noise and as though things would not get any worse? The envelope I held slipped from my fingers.

I tried not to curse, instead I reached out quickly for the piece of paper I had imagined would be the icing on the cake for tonight.

My hands were shaking as I brought it closer to me and stuffed inside my bag, the silver dress I had put on this night an illumination of my shame and how much I dared to dream.

Carefully I slipped into a corner in the hallway. I had been here all my life but never had it felt this suffocating before.

I heard the door handle, followed by footsteps.

“Is someone there? Flora?” he called out casually, like he hadn't just belittled me moments ago.

And then I realized something, he hadn't changed drastically, I just refused to see beyond my delusions.