Page 72 of The Enemy

Perhaps if I wanted forgiveness, I had to forgive and forget as well.

When I got backto my condo, I shouldn’t have been surprised to see my mother waiting for me. I had never iced her out like I had these couple of days. Even when I was away, I called her often to ensure she was doing okay.

It wasn’t that I was a mama’s boy…it was that she was the only family I had.

“Mother,” I greeted her cooly.

“Where the hell have you been?” she spat at me as she paced my apartment. “Gerald has been calling you nonstop. As the new COO, you must be on top of this crisis! We need to come up with a game plan!”

I laughed.

“Oh, give it a rest, Mother. I don’t give a shit about being the COO or the CEO. I don’t fucking care right now.”

My mother stopped pacing. Her face looked like it was about to turn purple.

“You don’t fucking care?” She took a step closer to me. She was pissed. “All for that fucking little whore!”

I saw red.

All the rage I had kept inside for the last few years came rushing out. Maybe if I hadn’t seen the email Richard sent, I would have handled it better.

“The only whore here is you, Mother!”

For the second time in my life, she slapped me.

“How dare you,” she seethed. “You have no idea everything I’ve done to give you a better life!”

I snorted.

“Is that what we are calling marital rape? Or is it different because you were the one conceiving?” She was speechless for a second because this was the first time I had ever talked to her in such a manner. I kept going, my sarcastic tone making her flinch. “I can understand that I was a happy accident at seventy, but then for you to want to get pregnant again a few years later, I’m trying to understand it.”

Her eyes widened when she realized that the only reason I would know this was if I had talked to my siblings.

“Everything I did was for us,” she pleaded with me.

This time, when I spoke, my voice was cold.

“I should have known you were eavesdropping on my conversation with Richard. But to use that information, then go to the press and get Tatum involved... that's fucking despicable mother. If that's the kind of shit you do for us, then I don't want any part of it.”

“I couldn’t let you ruin everything you worked so hard for.”

“Get. Out,” I told her without bothering to look at her.

I used to believe my mother had my best intentions at heart. Ultimately, everything she did was for herself because she wasn’t content with what she had, and that sick need to always want more was her downfall.

Like hell if I would let her ambitions become mine.

I almost picked up my phone and called Lou. I wanted her. I needed her, and even though I didn’t trust myself in this state, she was all I could think about. I knew she was back at her apartment, and the only reason I stayed away was because I didn’t want her to run to that other asshole to avoid me. At least Richard was on top of the new leak that would be coming our way. It would hurt Lou the most, and I hated that my mother played a hand in that. There were some things I just couldn’t forgive anymore.

Alcohol wasn’t always needed to make you lose control. Rage, sadness, they fucked you up just the same. They made you destructive…they made you not think straight. When Wesley told me that Tatum was at the same party he was at, I didn’t think. I just got up and left.

The ruse was up. There was no reason for me to keep pretending like I gave two shits about him—especially after the shit he pulled with my mother.

Thirty minutes later, I was standing across from him. If I had been thinking rationally, I would have known everyone here would have questions. They would have known I was fucking Lou by now.

When Wesley saw me, he instantly got up and came my way, but I headed straight to Tate. He had a girl on each arm, and he was talking to some other guys.

“Neo, bro, where the hell have you been?” he asked as soon as he saw me. “Look, man, if I had known you were tapping Lou’s fine ass, I’d never have gone near her.”

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