Chapter Twenty-one

Athena's POV

Our eyes widen before I try to stand up and hit my head once more. I close my eyes in an instant as I rub at the spot, cursing mentally. Alex's grip on my waist tightens which causes me to open my eyes and look straight into his.

I look away immediately, ''Um—'' Furrowing my eyebrows in process as I hold onto his hand, slowly removing them away from my waist, ''I should go.'' My voice came out as a faint whisper.

He let go of my waist, hesitating at first but his hands fall beside him, ''Go?''

''I mean, go inside.'' The quietness surrounding us make it even more awkward than it already is. I try to stand up and Alex pulls me down before I could hit my head for the third time. My cheeks heat up in embarrassment, ''Thanks.''

I feel his hand on the top of my head but before I could ask why, he slowly pick me up by my waist—using his other hand—until my feet touches the ground. My breathing stops when I feel him running his hand on my hair and a small smile appears on his face.

Shaking my head mentally, I need to get out of this trance. I quickly turn around and walk straight ahead to the front door. Almost tripping when I step on the rock, I immediately regain my balance by grabbing onto the wall beside me. I let out a breath of relief.

When I turn around, I see Alex picking up his phone and locking the car which somehow makes no sense because the window is already broken—how many differences does it make? Without me noticing, my lips curve up into a smile and in an instant, Alex looks at me.

My smile drops and when I turn around, my forehead bumps into the front door. I let out a frustrated groan, ''Shit.'' I say as I keep on rubbing my forehead. I don't even know if I end up bruising my whole face.

When I hear a light chuckle beside me, I turn to see Alex shaking his head as he enter the code. The light turns green and I hear as the sound of the door unlocking. He holds onto the doorknob before pulling the door open.

I step inside and I could hear him closing the door afterwards.

Walking straight into the kitchen, I grab a kitchen towel before quickly taking a few ice cubes inside the freezer. I wrap the kitchen towel and put it onto my forehead—closing my eyes as I feel the coldness—and I let out a deep sigh.

''You should've really watch where you were going.'' Alex says in front of me.

I open my eyes, seeing that he is resting his elbows on the kitchen counter as he lean forward. His eyes examine my features, ''Well I'll blame your door.'' I roll my eyes and keep on pressing the kitchen towel onto my forehead.

He lightly hold my chin, his thumb slowly tracing on my lower lip. My lips parts a little, causing him to tilt his head and smirk, ''Blame yourself.'' Then he stands up, leaving me alone in the kitchen as he starts to walk upstairs.

The throbbing pain on my head suddenly disappears but replaced with a sudden curiosity. I put down the kitchen towel—feeling my hand growing weak—so I just put it the sink, walking out the kitchen. I walk up the stairs, heading toward his room.

My feet stops moving when I open the door and hear the shower running in the bathroom. I quickly run toward the walk-in closet and take out my black half sleeved shirt and a striped shorts. Turning around, checking if Alex is anywhere to be found. When I see the room empty, I change into my sleep attire.

Right on time, I hear that the shower stops running. I pull my shirt down and I throw my dirty clothes in the laundry bag before walking out of the walk-in closet. As soon as I did, Alex steps out of the shower too. I eye his body quickly before meeting his eyes once more.

''I was just changing clothes.'' I say, quite fast.

He looks down at my outfit before nodding his head, ''Yeah okay.'' Then he walks inside the walk-in closet, closing the door afterwards. I let out a breath before hurrying myself downstairs.

I pull the pillow and my comforter, snuggling on the sofa. The comforter covers up till my neck—which makes me feel extra comfortable—especially right now. I hear sounds upstairs but I ignore it as I close my eyes. The sounds of someone walking and turning off the lights. After a few minutes, the sound disappears and silence became the only company.

My eyes closes and just like that, darkness consumes me.

I furrow my eyebrows as I hear the vacuum machine blaring into my eardrums. Pulling the comforter closer to cover my face, I let out a groan after finding out that the sound isn't disappearing. My eyes shot open as I sit up straight, looking around me.

My eyes widen when I see a woman with dark brown hair and pale skin vacuuming near the stairs. I look at her, eyeing her outfit—a white long sleeved shirt with black pants—she is busy vacuuming that she didn't even notice me here.

When she turns around, her body facing me and her eyes immediately meet mine. Her eyes widen as she quickly turn the vacuum cleaner off. We end up staring at each other until I find her clearing her throat, ''I'm sorry Mrs. Herrera, I didn't see you there.'' Her voice was soft and light.

I take a better look at her face. She has light brown eyes which enhances the softness that she has and her hair is neatly tie up into a bun. She looks down at her feet, as if she's scared.

''It's fine.'' I let out a small smile, ''Why haven't I see you before?''

Ever since the first day I came here, I never see her. Not anywhere. Not until now. She looks up at my face, her brown eyes wide as she blink a few times, ''Mr. Herrera gave me a few days off.'' She replies quickly.

Standing up, I walk toward her. She keeps on staring at her feet—until she finds me standing in front of her—she looks up. She is around two feet shorter than me. ''You can just call me Athena,'' I smile at her, giving my hand out for a handshake.

She looks down before shaking my head. Then she drops her hand on her sides, ''I'm Adelaide.'' I notice that she has a few freckles on both of her cheeks but other than that, she has a perfectly clear skin.

''Nice meeting you, Adelaide.'' I look up the stairs, questioning whether Alex is still upstairs or is he out.

''Nice meeting you too, Mrs.Herr—Athena.'' She smiles at me and I gladly return her smile, ''Mr. Herrera is out for work. He said he needs to deal with his company and meet up with one of his shareholder.''

''Did he leave any message?'' Alex never told me about him owning a company. Well, I never really investigate anything about him. All I know is that he's a footballer, not a businessman.

''No.'' She shakes her head, ''May I continue?'' Adelaide points at the vacuum cleaner.

I nod in respond and she quickly turn it back on, vacuuming the dining room. She walks away until she is out of my sight and the sound of the vacuum cleaner starts becoming faint. I walk up the stairs, planning to take a shower.

Shampooing my hair with my favourite herbal shampoo then I wash it out. The smell of fruits soon starts to appear—it happens all the time after I've washed out my hair—it contains in the shampoo. Soak myself in a vanilla body shampoo and I rinse afterwards.

When I walk downstairs, Adelaide is nowhere to be found so I just remove the thought and walk straight toward the sofa. I pick up a pillow and put it on my lap before turning on the TV. Right on time, a picture of Forbes front cover magazine starts to show. My eyes widen when I find Alex's picture on the front cover.

He is facing the camera but slightly moving his head to the side, showing off his profile—showing off his perfectly shaped jawline and nose—the way his hair is messily combed. My eyes wander down to the suit he is wearing. He really does look attractive—hell he looks damn good.

I look at the title;

Top 10 richest people on earth: The youngest billionaire, Alexander Herrera rank number three!

My eyes widen once more as I read. I quickly change the channel but only to find that BuzzTV is on air. Rolling my eyes but before I could change the channel, something caught my attention. More like someone.

''This morning was filled with chaos as footballer Alexander Herrera being chased with the press! Unfortunately for him, three reporters manage to run after him as soon as he made his escape. Let's look at the video, shall we.''

The video starts to play, showing Alex looking surprised as soon as he spotted a group of reporters. He quickly made his way and run—his bodyguards manage to block the reporters but like it was said—three reporters manage to run after him.

Alex turns around but he keeps on running until he is finally out of sight. Soon after, the reporters return back with fatigue written over their faces.

''Alexander Herrera is now nowhere to be found. Where could he go? Stay tuned on BuzzTV to find out!'' Then the commercials start to play.

I immediately close the TV, not really wanting to know what's going on. The world is crazy, the whole press is insane! Why would they make a big deal out of my disappearance in Rome? All of a sudden, Alexander is having the press's attention—which is something that he manage to break free three years ago but it all ended as soon as they find out about the mystery girl.

''Well shit.'' I mutter under my breath.

Suddenly my phone starts to ring and I look down to see the caller ID. I furrow my eyebrows as soon as I see my cousin calling. I pick up the phone and waited to hear her voice.

''Athena, hey how are you?'' She says from the other line.

''Hi, Clara. I'm great, how are you?''

Clara let out a light chuckle, ''I'm fine.'' Then the line went silent for awhile, ''Well, I need to ask you a favour.''

I roll my eyes, of course she wanted to ask me a favour. She would never call me unless there's something important. Well, we use to be close when we were kids but things changed once we grew older. She's married and yes, she has a son. Aged six if I'm not wrong. Clara knows I got married but she didn't attend my wedding due to some personal matter.

''Oh don't you always,'' I reply.

She laughs, ''Oh silly. So, would you help your cousin?''

''It depends.'' I shrug even though she couldn't see me, ''Come on, Clara. Be straight forward.''

I hear her breathing for a moment. I just wait for her to say something—to say what she needed to say, ''I want you to babysit Colton.'' She says.

My jaw drops to the ground—not really, but well—I quickly lean my back against the sofa, ''What do you mean babysit Colton?'' I completely understand what she meant by babysitting Colton but she has her own babysitter, why would she need me?

''Well, you see...'' She breathes out, ''Colton's babysitter is having a week off because she has a school trip so I just hope that you could help me, you know,'' I can imagine her biting her lower lip as she say so, ''Babysit Colton.''

''Are you kidding me?''

''No, Athena. Please?''

''Where's Clark? Why can't he take care of Colton?'' I raise an eyebrow as I rub my temples. I don't want to babysit Colton or any other kid. Colton is like the devil's son. More like Clara and Clark's little devil. I don't want to babysit him because Colton for one—he hates me. He hates me that he cut my hair without me knowing during our family gathering last year. That sneaky little devil.

''He's in Dubai.'' Clara sighs, ''If you can't help me then... it's okay, I understand. You're a newly-wed and I understand what you're going through. I'm sorry—''

I cut her off, ''Fine.''

''W—what?''

''I'll babysit your little devil.'' I mutter my breath but I know she can hear it.

''Oh my god! Thank you, thank you!'' She starts to squeal which cause me to remove the phone away from my ear, ''Thank you, Athena!''

''Yeah yeah, why do you need me to babysit him anyway?'' I change the topic quickly.

''Well I'm going out to have a girls' night tonight and I won't be back. Not until tomorrow afternoon. Well I will be back but I might end up having a major hangover.'' She laughs.

''So, when are you dropping Colton?'' I let out a deep sigh.

''Now! Okay? Text me the address.''

Before I could say anything, she has already hung up on me. I stare at the phone for awhile then I start messaging her the address before putting the phone beside me. I let out a deep sigh, now I have to take care of the devil?! I have enough devil at a time! I don't need another devil.

Come on, Athena, chill, it's only for a day.

When I turn around, I see Adelaide standing. My heartbeat stops for awhile at the sudden surprise. She looks down, ''I'm sorry for scaring you.'' She mutters under her breath, ''I'm done. I'll be back next week.'' Then she smiles at me.

''Next week?'' I raise an eyebrow at her.

''Yes, I come once a week every Wednesday.'' Then she starts to make her way toward the front door. I hear the front door unlock and she starts to step out. When I turn around, I already see her pulling the door before it starts to lock by itself.

Well now I'm alone. For like—never!

When I was about to lay on the sofa, the doorbell starts to ring which causes me to stand up immediately. I groan in frustration—wow she's quick.

I open the door and starts to smile at Clara. She smiles back and when she looks down at her son, I follow her gaze. My smile drops as soon as I see Colton. He is looking up at me with hatred all over in his eyes. Both of his hands on his side. He is wearing a suit which makes me wonder why?

Sometimes I wonder too if he keeps knives in his suit.

''I hope you have a great time with Colton while I'm not around.'' Clara says, patting Colton on his back.

Of course because you will find me dead on the ground before you knew it.