Zoe. | Recharged. | Book One.

Devin Bryan. | The Origin of the Extract Code.

September 5th, 2011

It's half past midnight and I feel content with the uneventful nature of my day for once. My husband, Sam, and I clink our glasses of red wine as we sit on the couch watching a movie. Sam has his right arm on my shoulder as we face the TV. I scoot forward to put my wineglass down on the coffee table in front of us and sit back before cuddling into my husband's chest.

"This is nice," I tell my husband, lifting my head to smile at him.

"It is nice." Sam concurs. I release a small giggle and lean over a tad to kiss his cheek. I look towards the TV as I place my had into his chest again, exhaling in contentment. Furthermore, after a few more moments go by, I beginning to think about my kids, specifically my daughters. I lift my head and remove my husband's arm from around my shoulder to scoot away from him. Sam's forehead creased in confusion; he looks over at me the second that I leave his arms.

"Why did you move away? I was enjoying our cuddling session. What happened?" He asks, attempting to gently pull me back into his arms by gently placing his right arm back around my shoulder.

I move away from him again. "I'm worried." I run a hand through my long, raven- eques hair; my hair tends to have small specs of gray in specific sections. However, that is neither here nor there.

"About what, honey?" Sam asks in concern as he takes his arm from around my shoulder and grits onto my hand with his.

"I am severely worried about our daughters," I confess, looking at him with eyes could spill over with tears at any given moment. I grip onto my husband's hand, and gently squeeze it, searching for reassurance in his eyes and touch.

"Why? Did something happen?" Sam asks. My husband turns his upper body more to face me.

I clasp my hands together in front of me as I try to contain my unfinished emotions. "No, not particularly, but Marissa is being kind to Zoe, and it's scaring me."

Sam blinks rapidly as the vein in his forehead remains present due to his confusion."You're worried because our twin daughters are nice to each other? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that a good thing?" Sam takes a sip of red wine from his glass as he awaits my response.

I quickly rise into a standing position, after placing my wineglass on the coffee table in front of us. "You're kidding me, right? They're currently having a sleepover at Ben's house." My arms begin to flail in the air. "If Marissa is continuously nice to Zoe, then our entire plan falls apart, along with all of our contingencies, and you know that," I tell him as I feel my face become flush, and my palms start to sweat.

Sam puts his wineglass down and stands up from the couch to be directly in front of me. "Dev, Marissa changing her identity, and becoming Zoe's antagonist was all you and Marissa's idea. I suggested that we go another route, but since Rodney and Ben agreed to this plan, there wasn't anything that I could do. I was outvoted, so don't act like I'm okay with what's been happening for the past few years because I'm not." Sam turns on his heels to walk away from me. He heads for the staircase.

I scoff. "Where are you going?"

Sam turns to look at me as his left foot is firmly planted on the bottom step, while the other foot is halted from joining in on the journey. "I'm going upstairs, Devin. I need to go be by myself for a bit."