Zoe's POV

This morning I woke up grinning, I still can't believe I managed to pull it off. Had I  known that revenge would feel this good, I would have done it a long time ago.

Still in my pyjamas, I leapt to the kitchen downstairs, holding onto anything in my path.

This morning the kitchen seemed busier than ever with JoJo and a few other maids making breakfast and Alex at the blender, fully concentrated.

"Morning everyone," I greeted cheerfully.

I took a seat at the small kitchen table as everyone continued with their work.

JoJo replied with a smile while Alex ignored me, maintaining his focus on the blender.

"Don't tell me you're still mad about yesterday," I said innocently to Alex. I pushed my chair closer to him just to annoy him.
 
He looked at me with a pout. "Why would I be mad at you?" He asked sarcastically. "It's not like you used up all the ink and I couldn't even print a single page for a work document." He answered.

He rolled his eyes and took a glass from the cupboard.

"As they say, revenge is best served cold," I muttered to him.

He folded his arms smirking at me. "I honestly don't know if I should be angry or proud," He answered nonchalantly.

Alex smirking to himself returned his attention to the blender.

Minutes later, he was done and pouring the green juice into the glass.

"You have to drink up," He said bringing the glass over to me.

My smile immediately dropped.

He pushed the glass over to me. I stared at it for a moment rethinking all the bad decisions I've made lately.

"I know that this is probably a stupid question but have I done anything for you to hate me this much," I asked.

"It's for the baby. I researched that it's good for you, you should try it." He insisted. "You wouldn't want our baby born underweight or something serious just because you couldn't suck it up and drink a glass of juice, would you?" he said innocently.

Just not that juice, I thought. I'd drink anything else.

I should have known never to have used the baby to manipulate him, he was a master in the art of manipulation.

I turned to look at JoJo for help who shook her head at me.

"I can't help you on this one," She answered reading my mind.

I sighed downheartedly and looked down at the glass again.

"I'll have breakfast served in the dining room," JoJo announced.

Alexander nodded.

JoJo and the maids took the trays of food to the dining, leaving Alex and me alone.

Ever since I dreamt of him, I've been trying to spend the least amount of time alone with him. I figured the more time I spent alone with him the more likely I was to dream of him, I just don't trust myself around him anymore (nor do I trust him).

He walked behind my chair and started rubbing my back. "You have to drink up, the longer you wait the harder it's going to get." I could hear the mockery in his tone.

"I hate you," I muttered taking a final look at the juice and then at him.

I held the glass with my one hand, the other pinching my nose as I swallowed the juice.

Every gulp felt like torture. The aftertaste of spinach stayed in my mouth. It's like he chose the worst recipe just to prove a point.

I felt his face near as his breath fanned my shoulder. "I guess revenge is best served in green juice." He whispered.

He quickly moved away.

"Have I mentioned how much I hated you," I said over my shoulder.

"Two bad. You have to drink about three glasses per day." He said in a sardonic tone.

"Is this going to be your way of paying me back?"

"I told you before, I just want what's best for the baby." He said innocently.

"You should be careful, you might just find your clothes painted red," I warned.

He spun my chair around to face him. He then placed both his hands on either side of me trapping me in my seat.

"If you are in control of anything around here that's only because I let you," He whispered in a warning tone.

The tone in his voice told me to take him seriously, that I should be very afraid. But I somehow couldn't help but laugh at the seriousness of his face.

He just stared at me confused as he pulled away.

"You are quite odd," He muttered as I continued laughing.

From there, we had a quiet breakfast.  After that, we went our separate ways, I headed upstairs to shower and Alex to his study (just another one of his rooms with lots of books).

Seeing that the weather today was great, I headed to the pool (which unfortunately was directly opposite Alexander's study). I just had some bad Karma, I wasn't even trying to get close to him.

Like most rooms in the house, his study was made up of glass walls which gave a direct view of the pool. To avoid any contact with him I sat behind a brick wall, a few meters away from the pool which was just at the end of the study.

Although I was trying to avoid Alex, ironically I couldn't help but snoop. He seemed busy, reading through some folders. I suddenly started wondering what Alex must have been like at school. Was he geeky?  Was he always good-looking? He must have had a lot of girls after him or was he one of those people who got the good side of puberty in the last minutes?

A few minutes later after sunbathing in the shade (and spying on Alex), the front doorbell rang.

It was really strange considering I had never seen anyone come to visit.

I peeked at Alex and noticed him roll his eyes as he looked at his phone screen, he probably wasn't very happy about the visit.

Faint footsteps echoed through the house that got louder as they approached.

Soon a dark-haired man appeared in his study. It took me a few seconds of staring before I finally realized it was the same guy who saved me from Alexander the first time we met.

"Justin, you again," Alexander said in a low sarcastic voice.

"That's how you welcome your only friend after an entire week," Justin answered.

"I've been busy," Alexander answered wearily.

"You didn't show up to the club like we planned and you pretty much ignored all of my phone calls,"

"You sound just like your needy ex-girlfriends," Alex mocked with a laugh. "The day you have to worry about a billion-dollar business deal plus a pregnant woman, you'll understand."

"That bad?" Justin asked.

"Get a vasectomy while you still can," Alex retorted.

I chuckled. I normally am not a difficult person. He is just using me as an excuse to avoid some form of responsibility.

My water bottle dropped, converting their attention towards me. I hid behind the brick wall as they looked towards me.

"That's weird," I heard a mutter.

They stayed silent for a while before speaking.

"How did the business deal with Mr Price go?" Justin asked.

"That's another one of my headaches, the guy is even a bigger asshole than I am," Alex whined.

"I thought the beauty of being the owner was never to take shit of jackasses like him," Justin said.

I cringed at his choice of words. I've always been against swearing, I never understood why people did it. There were just too many words in the English dictionary to express how you are feeling.

"That's the thing. My father was planning on this partnership before he died. We didn't go through with the business deal for so many years because no one thought a 'kid' with no experience would be able to handle such a big company. I feel like I'd be letting my father down. The pressure from Sebastian is not helping either." Alexander sighed.

It was the first time I was getting a real glimpse of Alexander, that he was a real person with real emotions.

I heard the sound of liquid pouring into a glass.

"Where is Zoe anyways? I feel like I need to congratulate her, I've never seen you this miserable?" Justin said.

"Probably upstairs," Alex answered. "You do not want to put her in a bad mood, she can be more unreasonable than me. I don't feel like dealing with a tantrum later."

"I take it was in you don't want me to meet her?"

"She's currently in her 'I don't know what I want phase' She probably won't want to see you anyways," Alexander said.

It was a bit true, but the fact that he said it out loud might have hurt.

"Women love me, she'd be glad to see me."

"The only reason women 'love' you is because I'm always with you." Alex retorted.

Their friendship just seemed so one-sided. I wonder why they were even friends.

"You didn't tell me why she's staying here anyways. How did this happen?" Justin asked.

"Her apartment got flooded," Alex answered.

There was a long pause.

"What?" Alex exclaimed. "I didn't have anything to do with it this time." He said defensively.

"Just checking," Justin said. "You and the crazy women in your life, how did you get rid of crazy chick?"

"I meant it when I said it took a long time to get rid of her. Have you any idea how annoying she was? She practically harassed me. She wouldn't let go of my shirt, I had to wait until she fell asleep."

Justin let out a laugh.

"She's the daughter of the Meyer, that contract needed to be sighed," Justin said in between laughs.

"Well, I'm never doing you a favour like that again."

"I was in Italy, my narcissist of a grandfather would have killed me if I didn't have that deal sighed. One of us had to be the scapegoat. I didn't trust anyone else to get it done."

"You owe me, I'm pretty sure that woman traumatised me,"

"You're just mad because your pride got hurt," Justin said with a laugh.

"It was more than my pride. JoJo picked up on her perfume. JoJo practically slut shamed me, the judgemental look on Zoe's face didn't help things either.

Justin laughed.

All the events of that day came flooding back right till the moment I slipped and fell.

Could it have been possible that he was referring to someone else that night I overheard his conversion? Was it her he was referring to and not me? A part of me still didn't trust him.

"Speaking of women, did you hear that Cindy was back in town."

"I know," Alexander said. "She texted me to join her for breakfast tomorrow."

I listened to Justin and Alex go on about a party they were planning. Justin didn't spend much time around after their conversion. He received a phone call and left in a hurry.

Their conversion was still nagging me. Was there a chance that I judged him too quickly? All my past experience makes it difficult for me to trust him, especially after he lied right to my face.

Maybe I should just ask him about it, if you lied to me again I'd have something to use against him later. I needed to learn to trust him, unlike my ex-boyfriends, he was likely to stay for the rest of my life.

The rest of the day went on like a blare, Alex pretty much locked himself in his office while I took a nap outside. By the time dinner time came Alex insisted he wasn't hungry and stayed in his office.

JoJo and I played some board games until ten p.m. when she insisted she was tried.

Because I had slept the entire afternoon, I was energized in the evening.

It took me half an hour to realize I had watched pretty much everything on Netflix. Another ten minutes of doing some leg exercises because my physiotherapist wants to see some big improvements. I looked out the window, apart from the whistling winds, it seemed like a really good night to be out.

To my surprise, Alex was already outside. He laid on a blanket, jotting down notes in a notebook. A few meters from him, a fire was burning in the fireplace and a bow of marshmallows was next to him.

At first, he hadn't noticed I was there. I didn't care that he was there too, I just didn't want to be copped up in a room all day.

I slowly walked towards him. He looked up, smirking at me.

"Hi," I managed to say. I felt like I was choking on words, for the first time I had run out of things to say.

He smiled at me in return. Then turned his attention back to his notebook.

While I felt like my legs were going all jelly-like and could hardly get a full sentence out, he barely noticed I was there.

I walked towards him and to the blanket. I sat closer to the fire, warming my hands up.

Alex was still busy with his notebook, with both his eyebrows stuck together.

"What are you writing?" I asked turning to him.

He hesitated. "Nothing," He answered with a smirk.

I didn't trust the look on his face. Especially when he looked at me and jotted something in his book then back at me again. I was getting curious. For Alex 'nothing'  meant something.

I quickly grabbed the book from his hands and turned to the first page.

He looked at me horrified, like he had just been caught in the act.

"The Zoe guide," I read out loud.

What was this? Just when I was thinking of trusting him he was thinking of a way to screw me over. Was it one of those stupid things guys wrote about how they could control them? Either way, I don't think I was going to like his answer.

"Before you freak out, it's not what you think." He said.