THIRTY-THREE

It had been bright when Yalda woke up; the city outside was abuzz with the day's activties. She realized at once that she had overslept, but then, she could only consider it oversleeping if she had to go to the office or get something done.

Nonetheless, pulled herself together and got out of bed, the longer she lay there idly, the more likely it was for her to think of last night. She didn't want to think of all that had happened, didn't want to think of how Alexander had joined her in bed after she had fallen asleep, she had woken up in the middle of the night and had cried quietly in the security of his arms.

Knowing he wouldn't be around at the moment, she didn't bother looking around for him. That wasn't the only thing she didn't do, she didn't bother having breakfast or showering either before getting dressed quickly snd heading back to her apartment.

She didn't want to be here when he returned; facing him just yet wasn't something she was looking forward to, it would take too much energy from her and in every honesty, she had no energy at all.

There was something about him that just broke her down and kept her on her knees, not that it had ever been a problem in the past; she had loved been broken down, she had loved being on her knees at his beck and call, perhaps she still did, but lately, she just didn't like being broken anymore.

After hanging out with Jaxon a couple of times, she realized that she liked being lively, she liked feeling alive, she liked being treated like a person with a freewill.

On returning to her apartment, she had showered and had breakfast before deciding to head to the salon; the soiree was tomorrow and she needed to look flawless regardless of all the shit she was going through. The salon wasn't so far away and she decided to walk instead of having to call Carl again.

However, halfway to the salon and she regretted having chosen to walk; it was a sunny day and she found herself having to squint her eyes because she foolishly hadn't brought a pair of sunshades with her.

To worsen the situation, her phone began ringing softly in her purse and she had to dig in and rummage through it to find it. The fact that Alexander was the one calling made the situation even worse, nonetheless, she answered the call and held the phone against her ear.

"Hi." She said quietly.

"Good afternoon, Yalda." He responded.

Oh, it was afternoon already? That explained why it was sunny. Perhaps she truly had overslept.

"Good afternoon". She replied.

“How are you feeling today?” He asked her.

How was she feeling today? She wasn’t quite sure; she hadn’t let herself feel a thing all day, nonetheless, she replied:

“I’m good, thank you.”

“That’s good to know. Are you still at the penthouse?”

Why was he asking if she was in still at the penthouse? He probably wanted to bring some random ‘company’ over and he wanted her gone. She shook her head though he couldn’t see her.

“No, I left already.” She replied.

“Yes, now that you said it, it is noisy over there. Where are you?” He asked her.

She rolled her eyes subtly.

“I’m on my way to Jenner’s.” She replied. “I need to get my hair and nails done for tomorrow.”

“Alright. But why does it sound like you’re walking?” He asked.
She had asked herself the exact same question; why on earth had she hosen to walk?!

“I wanted to do a bit of exercise.” She replied. What else could she say?

“You don’t think you’ve exercised enough?”

She knew he was referring to last night, and though her temple creased in a slight frown, her body shuddered sweetly. She was about to respond when she heard her name being called from behind, her head whipped around immediately on hearing the familiar voice. Her gaze scanned around quickly and her eyes narrowed to slits on sighting the person who had called her name; a tall and relatively handsome young man with dark curly hair and olive skin which gave off his Middle eastern heritage.

It was none other than Zayn, her Defne’s son whom she disliked so very much. Her face hardened as he advanced towards her determinedly, he seemed just as shocked to see her as she was to see him. He looked just as annoying as she remembered, just as arrogant, just as pathetic.

“Yalda, you still there?” Alexander’s voice on the phone snapped her out of her bitter thoughts.

She cleared her throat quiet before responding:

“Yes.”

Her tone gave her away; anyone that might have heard her speak would have guessed that something wasn’t right.

“IS there a problem?” He asked her.

She didn’t have time to contemplate her options because Zayn had gotten to where she was standing, and he spoke loud enough for Alexander to hear.

“It is you.” He said, his tone demeaning and spiteful. His gaze raked over her assessingly before a smirk curved his lips. “Who would have thought, huh?”

She hadn’t been wrong for still retaining her dislike for him and his family, she hadn’t been wrong for concluding that he was still as arrogant and nasty.

“Who’s that?” She heard Alexander say.

She cleared her throat once more before responding:

“My cousin.”

She had once told him about Defne and her cousins, she wasn’t sure if he remembered though, but she remembered all too well that she had made her dislike for them crystal clear.

“Is he bothering you?” He asked to her surprise.

“Come on kiddo, you haven’t seen me in so long; the least you can do is drop the fucking call.” Zayn said. His gaze continued to rake over her in a manner she hated so very much but she tried to remain calm.

Why was he even here? How coincidental it was that she had dreamt of Defne just a few days ago and now she had bumped into Zayn.

“Tell him to walk away or you’ll call the cops.” Alexander said. It wasn’t a suggestion but a clear order.

She dragged in a shuddering breath to calm herself.

“What do you want?” She asked Zayn.

It would have been too abrupt to ask him to walk away.

He snickered.

“Still haven’t learn any respect, huh?”. He asked her as he looped in thumbs into the front pockets of his jeans.

“Yalda…” Alexander said her name, the warning was clear.

She was glad he was with her in a way; she wasn’t sure how she could have reacted to having to deal with Zayn on her own. Seeing him had suddenly conjured memories that hurt too much, seeing him took her back to the dark days she hated so very much, and having look at her like that made want to punch his tooth out.

“I don’t have time for this, Zayn. What do you want?” She asked him.

He took a step closer to her, probably hoping to intimidate her.

“So you think you’re a big deal now that you work for Alexander Monroe?” He asked her.

She wasn’t surprised that he knew she worked for Alexander; he was always on the news and she was always right there beside him being the dutiful secretary.

“Leave me alone”. She said as she turned around in an attempt to leave.

However, he reached out quickly and grabbed her arm to stop her.

“Don’t turn your fucking back on me.” He warned.

She shook her head angrily.

“I swear I’ll call the fucking cops if you don’t get your hand off me.” She warned.

He chuckled humorlessly.

“You’ll call the cops? Yalda we fucking fed you, we took you in when you had nothing.” He said, “Perhaps you shouldn’t forget your roots so easily”.

She felt her throat clench painfully from the bluntness of his words but she forced herself to remain calm.

“What is this about? Money? You want me to pay back all you guy did for me? Fine”. She said. “I’ll fucking pay you, just leave me alone and don’t show up in my life again.”

“Fuck that.” She heard Alexander say right before the line went dead.

She knew him well enough to know that nothing good would come from that. Her guts told her he was up to something and I didn’t quite seat well with her.

“Money? You want to pay me off? Wow.” Zayn said as he shook his head. “You must be really rich now. Tell me, how’d you get so rich? You’ve been spreading your legs for Monroe, Haven’t you? Or do you just get on your knees for him?”

Her blood boiled as an intense rage overtook her, and at that moment all rational thoughts evaded her; she raised her hand and landed the most solid punch she could to his cheek. She had wanted to do that for so long, and the fact that she finally did it in public and cause a scene made her feel better in a twisted way.

His eyes widened in disbelief as he staggered back a bit.

“Don’t you fucking talk to me like that.” She warned, her voice had dropped an octave due to the anger and hate burning in her soul. The fact that she indeed spread her legs for Alexander was what made the whole thing entirely painful; after everything, she had only come this far because she whored for her boss. Tears stung her eyes at the thought but she blinked them back angrily, she couldn’t cry now, she couldn’t be weak.

People had began gathering around and they all seemed to be murmuring at the same time, it upset her even more. Zayn looked around before his gaze flickered to hers, the look in his eyes told her that he would have hit her back if there weren’t people watching them.

“What’s going on here?”

Their gaze snapped to the bald cop who had just stepped through the gathering crowd. Zayn raised his hands in surrender at once as he shook his head.

“She’s my cousin. We were just talking.” He told him.

The cop’s gaze flickered to Yalda’s for confirmation.

“Is this true, Miss?” He asked her.

Her fist clenched tightly as she tried her possible best to calm herself. She didn’t want to escalate this; she didn’t want things to get out of hand. Dragging in a deep breath, she nodded.

“Yes, it is.” She replied.

The cop was about to say something when his radio beeped quietly, he tapped on the bud in his ear to listen attentively, and his gaze flickered between the both of them before he nodded once.

“Alright.” He said before tapping on the bud once more.

“I’m afraid I’ll need you both to come with me.” He said.

She knew at once that Alexander was behind this and her heart fell to the pit of her stomach.