I Do To My Enemy

After getting married to-and pregnant by-my sworn enemy, a freak accident sent me hurtling back in time.

Back to the year our hatred for each other was at its absolute peak.

He handed me a tissue as a sudden wave of nausea hit me, his voice laced with ice.

Whose is it?

Not telling me? Fine, he scoffed.

"Doesn't matter."

He lowered his gaze, his long lashes concealing the dark, turbulent emotions in his eyes.

"If you won't tell me, I'll find out myself."

"And when I find him," he promised, his voice a low, dangerous growl, "I'm going to kill him."

I poked his grim, stormy face. "But Jacob," I said, "the baby is yours."

Jacob: "?"

The moment I saw Jacob, I knew something was off.

His shoulders were slightly hunched, the corners of his eyes tilted upwards, and a ghost of a smirk played on his lips.

Every word out of his mouth was dripping with sarcasm.

"Well, well, Emma. Fancy seeing you here. But-" He snatched the wine glass from my hand.

"Do your parents know?"

He continued his one-man show.

"I seem to recall they explicitly forbade you from drinking ever again. Should I give them a little reminder? Maybe get them to cancel this credit card, too?"

I stared at him, suspicion creeping in.

I held his gaze until the tips of his ears turned a faint red.

He cleared his throat.

"Don't even try the puppy-dog eyes. It won't work on me."

A theory started to form in my mind.

"Jacob, what year is it?"

His face darkened, his voice edged with annoyance.

"Emma, I take my eyes off you for five minutes, and you're already drunk off your ass?"

The back of his hand was cool against my cheek.

He leaned in, his nose almost touching mine, and I caught the familiar, pleasant scent of cedarwood.

"You don't even smell like alcohol," he murmured, confused.

"How are you..."

Jacob hadn't worn cologne since I got pregnant.

The scent hit me like a ton of bricks.

I clapped a hand over my mouth and bolted for the restroom, heaving until my head spun.

As I was rinsing my mouth at the sink, Jacob appeared beside me, offering a paper towel.

The warm, orange light of the bathroom blurred his features, but his voice was thick with resentment.

"Is the sight of me really that repulsive to you? Did you have to throw up?"

I wiped my mouth.

"Sorry. Can't help it."

His eyes darkened.

He clenched his jaw, forcing the words through his teeth.

"...Emma, do you hate me that much?"

Looking at him, it all clicked.

The post-marriage Jacob would never dare speak to me like this, would never look at me with such open hostility.

This dynamic-this was us, years ago.

This was back when we couldn't stand the sight of each other.

No love.

Pure, unadulterated hate.

Seeing his reaction, a mischievous urge took over.

"Can't you tell, Jacob?"

I said sweetly.

"This isn't disgust. It's morning sickness."

Jacob and I were inseparable as kids.

We shared popsicles in the summer and huddled under the same blanket in the winter.

Our parents' favorite joke was that they should just arrange our marriage then and there.

But then puberty hit, and Jacob turned cold.

He walked around with a permanent scowl, acting like he was God's gift to the world.

At that age, the lines between boys and girls were already a minefield.

Sensing his hostility, I started to pull away, too.

But Jacob wouldn't let me go.

He went out of his way to antagonize me, using our childhood friendship as an excuse to control my life.

If I so much as went to the library with a male classmate, he'd run to my parents and accuse me of having a secret boyfriend.

I once grabbed him by the collar, furious.

"Jacob, what the hell is your problem? You can't stand to see me happy, can you? Just because your love life is a train wreck, you have to drag me down with you?"

His hair was a mess from my grip, and he bit his lip, his eyes glistening with unshed tears, looking for all the world like a kicked puppy.

I froze, the heat from his skin burning my palm.

I dropped my hands as if I'd been scalded.

"Ugh, stop faking it, you manipulative jerk," I spat, before turning and running away.

After that day, we became mortal enemies.

We fought, we schemed, we were constantly at each other's throats, locked in a battle to the death.

But the outcome was something no one ever saw coming.

In the end, after all the fighting, Jacob and I got married.

Jacob snapped out of his shock.

"I don't believe you," he said immediately.

Classic Jacob.

I didn't waste time arguing.

I dragged him to the hospital and let him watch as I went through a full prenatal check-up.

He stared at the damning numbers on the report, unable to deny it any longer.

His fingers trembled, his voice like shattered glass.

"Whose is it? Does he know?"

I tilted my head.

"Well, he probably does now."

His face was a thundercloud.

He slammed his fist into the hospital wall, muttering a curse under his breath.

He took a deep, shuddering breath, then softened his tone.

"I won't tell your parents. You need to rest for the next couple of days. I'll arrange for a doctor to perform the procedure."

"What procedure?"

I asked, feigning innocence.

"An abortion."

He forced a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"I already spoke with the doctor. It's still early, so the risk to you is minimal... You're not going to tell me you want to keep it, are you?"

I nodded firmly.

He ran a hand through his hair, pacing back and forth in front of me.

"Emma, are you out of your mind?! You're still so young! Do you think this is as simple as getting a puppy? You're still in college! How are you going to be responsible for another human being?"

"You're overthinking it, Jacob," I said vaguely.

"If I can't handle it, the baby's father will help out."

Jacob just laughed, a cold, bitter sound.

The corners of his eyes were unnaturally red.

"If that bastard had any sense of responsibility, he wouldn't have let you get pregnant in the first place. He's just trying to trap you, tie you down with a baby!"

I tried to defend my "baby daddy."

"Don't talk about him like that. He's actually a pretty good guy."

Jacob's hands fell to his sides.

His gaze was like a snake, coiling around me.

Then, he smiled.

"You know, Emma, I never took you for the type to be blinded by love. You like him that much? Enough to throw away your entire future? I'm dying to know who this guy is. Who could possibly make you stoop so low?"

I was about to tell him the truth before he completely lost it, but then he started spilling his own secrets like a broken dam.

"That senior you had a crush on? I had him sent abroad. That aspiring actor who was hitting on you? His career is over. And that pretty boy who lives next door to you? He's playing for the other team now. Emma, I've always been watching you. Besides me, who else do you have?"

I froze.

I remembered all those guys.

We'd had brief, flirtatious moments, but then, one by one, they had all disappeared from my life for one reason or another.

I had always just chalked it up to my terrible luck with men.

"...That was all you?"

My feelings were a complicated mess.

After we got married, I'd told him about my past relationships, and he had pretended to know nothing.

"Jacob, you are one seriously messed up individual."

He just smirked.

"It's fine if you don't tell me. I'll find out myself."

His expression turned vicious, a vein popping on his forehead.

"And Emma, when I find him, I swear I'm going to kill him."

I sighed.

"You really want to know who it is?"

Under his intense, scrutinizing gaze, I reached out and poked his stormy face.

"It's you."

The darkness on his face only deepened.

"Emma, you'd really go this far to protect him? You'd even lie to me?"

Ugh, this was getting nowhere.

I looked at his tightly pressed lips.

I remembered his younger brother once telling me that Jacob had a secret crush, a "white moonlight," that he'd been pining over for years.

I never said anything, but it had always bothered me.

Had he held her?

Had he kissed her?

The thought always left a bitter taste in my mouth, a frustration I could only relieve by kissing him senseless.

But no matter how many times I kissed him, I would never be his first.

If my timeline was correct, his "white moonlight" wasn't even back in the country yet.

A wicked idea sparked in my mind.

I stood on my toes, hooked my arms around his neck, and pressed my lips against his.

His lips were cool, but his mouth was like molten lava.

The Jacob in front of me was just an inexperienced kid; he was no match for the seasoned woman I had become.

When the kiss ended, I winked at him.

"So? Do you believe me now?"

He looked like a malfunctioning robot, a deep blush spreading from his cheeks all the way down his neck.

He opened his mouth a few times, but no words came out.

After a long, awkward silence, a look of grim determination settled on his face.

"Have the baby," he said.

"I'll be the father."

I slapped him across the face.

"Get lost."

"Emma? Nah, my brother's not here."

I pushed his younger brother, Noah, into the apartment.

"I'm not looking for your brother. I'm looking for you."

The moment I stepped inside, I wrinkled my nose.

"Noah, when was the last time you left this apartment?"

I pulled open the curtains, and he shrieked like a goblin exposed to sunlight, scurrying into the shadows.

Noah was Jacob's polar opposite.

Jacob was the life of the party; Noah was a hardcore recluse.

He wore the same black jacket every day and glasses as thick as Coke bottles.

He spent all his time hunched over his computer, doing God knows what.

"Emma, what's up? Does my brother know you're here? Maybe I should let him know."

"Tell your brother what?"

I glared at him.

"You're not to say a word."

"...It's nothing, really," I continued.

"Remember how you told me your brother has been hung up on his first love for years?"

Noah was quiet for a moment, thinking.

Then he let out a slow, "Ohhh."

"What about her?"