Friends and Enemies

Regrets

Sebastian

I was in my office avoiding the house as I had done since the day Emily served me divorce papers, I hadn’t been home since that day as it no longer felt like my home. I had refused to sign the divorce papers. I knew after the car accident where I had abandoned her calling her attention seeking and suggest she get help for her mental health that I had gone too far. Rebecca had assured me Emily was well looked after. It turned out that Emily had recuperated alone, she’d had to attend physio sessions and learn to walk again alone. Her body had healed slowly with small amounts of nourishments because she had struggled preparing her own meals. I had found out from Alfred the day Emily returned from the hospital Rebecca had moved herself into our home and Emily consequently had moved out. I had caused this. I had done this to Emily. I had placed another woman above my wife and allowed her to twist the way I saw my wife. I was so ashamed of myself that I couldn’t bear to face Emily. Things between us had become too strained and we both knew why.

I had known Rebecca all my life, but she was like a sister to me. I had no romantic feelings towards her. Rebecca had inserted herself into the place my wife should have been, and I had let her. I had never announced my marriage with Emily. I had met Emily at a family function. Emily had caught my eyes immediately. She was so happy and carefree. Her long blonde hair fell to her waist in soft curls. Her fair skin contrasted her dark brown eyes. We had dated for 6 months before we had gotten married. Emily finished her nursing degree but with me being CEO of a multi-billion-pound business it wasn’t recommended Emily start working as a nurse as we couldn’t ensure her safety. She began working for the company starting at the bottom and worked her way up. She worked hard too and never complained.

The day I married Emily I was so happy. Unfortunately, that was also the day the whispers in my ears began to increase from Rebecca. Looking back, it’s obvious to me that Rebecca never liked Emily and perhaps saw her as competition, but to me there was never any competition. It should have always been Emily. I started to doubt Emily to begin with. I accused her of being unfaithful, trying to pull Rebecca and me apart. Even stealing from the family business along with many other things. I took Rebecca’s side when they had disagreements and insisted Emily apologise. I never wanted to lose my friendship with Rebecca, but I sacrificed my marriage to Emily. The defining moment was the car accident. With some coaxing from Rebecca, I had accused Emily of crashing her car into a tree for attention. For months she put the effort into our marriage. She cooked all my meals, brought my lunch with her to work and had all my suits dry cleaned without me asking. Emily kept a tidy house; she never annoyed me whilst I was out at business functions despite her not accompanying me. She always defended herself from the accusations that Rebecca was whispering in my ear. The day of the car accident she didn’t defend herself. She turned around and faced the window and ignored me whilst I carried on shouting myself hoarse. I’d said some awful things to her, and she only uttered two words to me “get out.”

Those were the last two words she had spoken to me. Emily had been hospitalised for a month following the accident. Turns out that I lost more than my wife following that accident. Emily’s medical report had showed she was around 6 weeks pregnant when she had the accident. The accident had caused her to have a miscarriage. Rebecca would tell me she had checked in with Emily and Emily had had a man visiting her and helping her and so I kept my distance. The day she was discharged the hospital called me to come pick her up. I told them I would, but I never bothered. I assumed she would get her lover to collect her in my absence. Turned out that no one collected her, and Emily took herself back to our home in a taxi. Alfred greeted her from the taxi anticipating helping her in with her belongings, but Emily asked the taxi to wait for her. She walked herself into the house on crutches and saw Rebecca making herself at home in our bedroom. Emily walked into our bedroom packed her bags and left. Alfred had called me to inform me of what had happened and that was the defining moment for me. I hired an investigator to investigate everything Rebecca had accused of Emily, and it was a lot. I also asked for someone to follow Emily.

Which brings us up to now. I’m sitting in my office with evidence exonerating Emily and showing Rebecca was behind it all up to now. Rebecca had hired someone to cut the brake cables in Emily’s car causing the accident. The brakes were supposed to fail earlier but by some miracle they had held out causing Emily to crash into a tree and break her right tibia instead. There was video evidence of Rebecca breaking into Emily’s office and the next day money from the company was missing which was blamed on Emily. The guy I had had following Emily reported no secret lover either. Emily would go to work, go home and then go to work again. On the odd occasion she ventured anywhere else it was to get some groceries. Or to see her lawyer. Never once did he find evidence of the affair Rebecca had accused her of. The pieces were falling into place. To me it was becoming more and more evident that Rebecca had been trying to replace Emily. I was so angry and ashamed of myself. How could I not see this earlier? I placed my head in my hands overwhelmed by the information that was in front of me.

“We need to discuss how you wish to proceed with Rebecca Hanson. She has committed many serious offences against both you and Mrs Kavanagh. I have a friend in the police force who I can pass this onto for Rebecca to be prosecuted.” Robert was speaking calmly so as not to aggravate me further. Rebecca had destroyed my marriage for her own selfish wants and tragically for Rebecca our wants did not align. She had painted herself the saint and Emily the sinner. I looked at Robert with tears in my eyes. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted justice for Emily. My internal phone signalled my secretary wanted me.

“Yes Bridget?” I asked coldly. I was in no mood for entertaining business associates. Taking my curt nod as his cue to leave Robert got up from his seat and signalled, he would contact me later. I watched him putting his coat on. The weather outside matched my mood. Bleak and stormy.

“Sir, Miss Rebecca Hanson is here to see you. She said she has brought you some dinner as she is concerned you haven’t been home this week.” I could hear Bridget pursing her lips as she said this. Bridget has never like Rebecca and now I knew why. Robert mouthed “play along with her” and left my office. I ran my hand through my brown hair in frustration. It was messy from me doing this so frequently tonight. I didn’t want to see Rebecca. She was not my wife. I drew my lips into a thin line I could feel my anger boiling over. Ready for Rebecca to play the doting wife I answered Bridget curtly “send her in.”

Since Emily had filed for divorce Rebecca had grown her hair from shoulder length and changed its colour from brown to the same shade blonde as Emily’s. Emily used to bring me lunch or dinner if I was working late. She would always eat with me. I could see now that Rebecca was trying to replace Emily. I just wished I had seen it months earlier. I started gathering the paperwork back up and placed it in a manilla folder. I looked up when I heard the door open and there the she-devil herself stood with a smile on her face that I knew she reserved only for me.

“Sebastian.” She breathed out like she was concerned for my well-being.

“What do you want Rebecca?” I could barely hold back my anger and so just acted like I was busy.

“Sebastian, you haven’t been home this week and I was concerned about you. I brought you some dinner. Mrs Adams made you favourite. Lasagne!” She had started talking with a frown but had finished with a smile on her face. I could barely stand to see her at this moment. Gritting my teeth, I answered her as politely as I could

“Thank you, Rebecca, I appreciate it.” I grabbed the bag from her hands and placed it on my desk and continued working as if she wasn’t in the room hoping she would take the hint and leave. Instead, Rebecca began rummaging through the bag and took out two containers which had lasagne in. Then she took out two sets of knives and forks and sat down on the settee in my office and patted the space beside her. I looked away from her and breathed deeply trying to calm my anger. As I stood to move to the settee my phone rang. Seeing it was Mike, the guy I hired to track Emily I answered, “Yes Mike.” It was a generic greeting and there was no way Rebecca would be able to establish who he was from that name alone.

“Mr Kavanagh, I haven’t been able to locate Emily for nearly 3 hours now. She was supposed to finish her shift at 7pm but she hasn’t left yet. I checked the ward and her co-workers all have said she left hours ago. I’ve checked the security feed and it shows that she was taken from the main lobby of the hospital.” Mike sounded flustered. My heartbeat sped up. I knew something would happen which was why she was to work for my company where she would be secure given the buildings security. Schooling my facial features, I just said, “keep me informed” and ended the call. My phone beeped a moment later and I saw Mike had sent me the security footage. I forwarded this to Robert straight away and asked him to investigate it.

Anger and frustration. That was all I felt towards Rebecca. Time to continue my selfish bastard routine. I turned and faced Rebecca and went to sit with her on the settee. Rebecca had a slight smirk to her lips but when I turned to face her, she schooled her expression to one of worry.

“Sebastian, is everything OK?” This girl is unbelievable. I smirked at her and sat next to her silencing my phone.

“Yes Rebecca. Don’t worry. Emily is just causing trouble again.” And with that sentence my heart broke again.