All Chapters of My Enemy Is My Lover : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Rosa’s povI saw James slam the door on his way out and guilt trembled inside my chest as I heard the rage trickling down in waves through the entire house. My heart sank. Alex had been fired, and I felt a twinge of guilt that I found impossible to suppress.Alex, who I had shared everything with when I felt like I had no one. His thoughtfulness and kindness had been a support through the long, dark days of my marriage. But I had crossed lines that I should not have. I had relied on him too heavily, opened up places in my heart for him that should have been given to James. Alex had now lost everything — because of me.James had hissed at him, venom pouring from every word of his mouth.Those words wouldn't leave me alone, though I told myself Alex had it coming. He’d crossed boundaries too. However, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was just as much to blame as him.I plopped on the living room couch, looking out the window vacantly. The world outside was none the wiser to the chaos

James povThe financials were strewn across my desk like wounded soldiers on a battlefield, each last thing an injury inflicted by the carnage of Alex leaving the office. All those thoughts whirled in my mind like a tornado while thousands of blood-red numbers turned my thinking into pure hell. The bleeding of cash was happening at an astonishing rate. Customers were going away, investors were withdrawing money and day by day, pulling their reputation down in the abyss.I reclined against the back of my chair, and rubbed my temples as if the simple motion would banish the building stress. I really tried but couldn’t find a way forward. The calls, the meetings, the heart-wrenching attempts at being granted a second chance—none of it made a difference. The walls were closing in, and my time was running out.In the doorway, Rosa stood watching with subdued scrutiny. She had been there these last few weeks, really making an effort to be good company despite my distance. While all of this

James povAs I had looked further into Alex's finances, the picture became increasingly bleak. These were no longer vague worries; these felt like concrete, irrefutable truths. It told a much uglier tale of insider trading and frauds, embezzling with clear evidence. Alex had turned the company into his private ATM and was diverting money to clandestine projects while hamstringing us from within.One night Rosa and I were in the study, just her and me, on a laptop with the screen low enough to light our faces but not much else. The files that Samuel had compiled one by one were becoming incriminating and she observed me intently choosing through them.What, exactly, is this thing we're looking at, James? Rosa asked incredulously.I slid the laptop in front of her so she could see how detailed it got. Alex had set up a number of these shell corporations – He took funds from our accounts and funneled them into these companies and used it to pay for his own startups. As it appears on the

Brain’s povThe amber glow of whiskey in my glass matched the storm within me. I stirred the drink absent-mindedly, my head stuck in an endless racetrack of insecurity and desire. Only the ticking from the clock on the wall was breaking silence, sending warm arms of anticipation creeping over each second pulling for the next moment.James and I went way back, we were practically joined at the hip as children. He was more than a friend — he was my brother in every way that counted. We gagged it together through every difficulty, cheered collectively by each triumph, and rode out every storm. But here I was; now struggling and wrestling with this feeling that seemed like the biggest betrayal of all.Looking back, eyes shut and slumped backward in my chair with the history of time strangling me.The first time James had mentioned Rosa to me, it came flooding back to mind. It was at a gala, years ago. She had walked in on the arm of it, smiling, glowing, pouring energy through laughter in

Brain’s povI could hear Rosa's rejection in my head over and over: "Brian, stop. Please.”Her own voice—despite being firm, resolute, yet with a layer of compassion in it piercing through the thick flesh of the statement like a hot iron needle scorching a sheet of paper. Each syllable rang out like a challenge, a reminder she thought she'd be rid of me. Me. Like I was just an unnecessary annoyance;I stood there in the center of my study, almost feeling as if the walls were closing in upon me. The silence was deafening save for the soft crackle of the fireplace. The amber light devoured the edges of darkness, but what did that matter to the storm swirling within?I paced the room, muttering, "She's blind." My fists balled and unballed in time with my heart. "Blind to what could be blind to what she needs."The images of Rosa flooded my mind. The gleeful twinkle of her smile, the light in her eyes when she talked bullshit about her dreams, the few times she lowered those walls. What s