Falling For My Enemy’s Brother

Chapter 1

Flora’s POV

Arthur Stone had always been the kind of man who planned three steps ahead, even when the rest of us were still trying to understand the first.

From graduating early from high school, to choosing to work at his dads company while still in college

And I have come to accept that loving him meant learning to trust that whatever he did, no matter how strange it seemed at the time, was part of something bigger.

That was what I told myself the night he asked me to prove we were “compatible” before he ever asked me to be his wife.

And that was what I kept telling myself weeks later, as I sat across from my best friend trying to defend him again.

“I still don’t understand why you haven’t told him,” Lara snapped, wrapping her fingers around her coffee while giving me a very stern look in the eye. “You’ve been walking around with this secret for three weeks, Flora.”

Her words hit me hard…harder than the noise that filled the cafe. I looked down to the small white plate in front of me, drawing invisible circles on the edge with my fingers

“I will tell him,” I assured, “Just not yet.”

“Not yet?” She demanded, attracting a few staresin our direction.

“Im sorry ,” she whispered, “but tell me when exactly were you planning to?”

“After the engagement,” I replied, and I couldn’t stop the soft smile that touched my lips. “It’ll be perfect timing.”

Lara blinked slowly. “Perfect timing for what?”

“For everything,” I beamed, placing my hand unconsciously over my stomach. “He proposes, everyone celebrates, and then I tell him he’s going to be a father. It’ll be like a blessing over the night.”

She followed the movement of my hand and her expression shifted from confusion to disbelief. “You’re serious.”

“I’ve never been more serious about anything.”

For a moment, she simply looked at me as if trying to measure how deep my optimism ran. I knew what she was thinking. I could see the concern hint in her eyes, the silent questions she was too polite to ask.

Finally, she leaned forward and lowered her voice. “Flora, I don’t even understand why he had to start sleeping with you before he proposed. That part still bothers me.”

My intestines knotted and despite my attempts to remain still, I still reached for the towel on the table as a means to steady myself.

This wasn’t the first time we were having this conversation, just never this direct.

“He didn’t have to,” I admitted carefully. “He wanted to.”

“That doesn’t make it better.”

“He said he needed to be sure,” I explained, repeating Arthur’s words the way I had memorized them. “He said marriage is long-term, and it would be foolish to ignore something as important as compatibility.”

Lara let out a quiet, incredulous laugh. “s****l compatibility.”

“Yes.”

She shook her head, reaching out and patting me like I was some middle school girl. “Most men propose first. They don’t treat intimacy like an evaluation process.”

I remembered that night more clearly than I wanted to. The way Arthur had been in control all through. The way he had spoken afterward, asking if I was satisfied in the same tone he used when discussing quarterly reports.

It hadn’t been the romabtic moment i had imagined eighteen years of my life, but then it wasn’t unkind still.

“He’s different,” I countered softly, still fiddling with the napkin. “You know that.”

“Different is one thing,” Lara replied. “Cold is another.”

Arthur wasn’t cold and Lara couldn’t see that because she hadn’t watched him grow into the man he was. She saw discipline as coldness but I knew better, and when we get married, she would understand me too.

“He carries responsibility most people can’t even imagine,” I offered a nonchalant shrug. “The Stone name isn’t light.”

Lara studied my face carefully. “And where do you fit in that world?”

I didn’t hesitate this time. “Right beside him.”

And soon, I thought, carrying his heir.

“I just don’t like the way it started,” she said. “The fact that he needed to test you before promising you anything.”

“He wasn’t testing me,” I insisted. “He was protecting our future.”

“Or protecting himself.”

I didn’t respond to that.

Arthur might not have been expressive, but he wasn’t careless. He had chosen me. Out of all the women who orbited the Stone family, he had chosen me. That had to mean something.

When we left the café, Lara hugged me a little longer than usual.

“Just promise me you’ll protect yourself,” she murmured.

“I will,” I said, though I wasn’t sure what protection even meant when your heart had already been given away

***

That evening, I stood in front of my bedroom mirror, the ultrasound image spread carefully across my dresser.

The tiny shape on the screen didn’t look like much yet, but to me it was everything. It was the only hope of a family i had, a sure connection i had to a future with Arthur and that to me, was everything.

I rubbed my belly softly

“You’re going to surprise him,” I whispered.

The sound of my phone pulled me out of my thoughts.

Be ready by eight tomorrow. I’ll send a driver.

There were no emojis or affectionate ending, but it was enough to make my heart skip a beat and I was used to how Arthur communicated, direct without unnecessary pleasantries.

Tomorrow was the dinner where everything would be made official. His family would be there. The announcement would be made and the ring would be placed on my finger.

I pressed the phone to my chest and allowed myself to imagine it.

After the applause and congratulations, I would lean toward him and tell him quietly that he was going to be a father. I pictured tye way his lips would curve slightly and his carefully practiced demeanor would change a bit. I pictured him holding me up in his arms and promising to always be here for the baby.

Everything was falling into place.

I placed my hand over my stomach and closed my eyes, smiling into the darkness.

By this time tomorrow, I would be his fiancée.

And by the end of the night, he would know he was going to be a father.