A/N: OMG! I broke my own record of 5 reviews each chapter. I got 10 for the last one (: I am so excited! :D Thanks a bunch to all of you who take your precious time out for this. You guys RULE! :D
Enjoy this chapter! (:

"Heart of Stone or a Cover Shield?"

It was not like Cody Martin was a morning person to start with, but seeing her in his conference room just triggered his anger to the level that all of his employees feared. The moment he saw the same girl, the girl he had married in his dream, he didn't know what possessed him but he felt this urge to shout and scream. When he woke up that morning with a dream that he considered as a nightmare, a part of him felt happy but a part of him felt this fear inside of him that he couldn't quite understand. This girl was the last person he would want to see that day and yet there she was. The mere thought of her in his sight was more than enough to make him angry but right then, there were other reasons for him to blow up.

For one, she was in a room that was so private that not even his family could access without his permission. As far as Cody remembered, he only gave tow people the entry pass to his Conference room. His brother and London Tipton. It was pretty easy to put two and two together upon seeing a girl there that he knew was not London Tipton. Realising the fact that she was there impostoring as a rich heiress made him absolutely furious. For Cody, his mom and brother were the two most important people in the world. He was way too protective of them and he hated everything and everybody that tried to hurt either of them. His rage towards her increased upon learning that she was playing with his brother.

Cody wasn't realizing it, but his anger kept going up with each processed thought. He would've continued in his head but a sudden movement in his hand brought him to reality. He felt her moving her hand that was still tightly griped in his own. He looked down and saw her struggling to set free. Then he turned his attention to her face, it clearly radiated pain. An old tear was lying just above her lip while there were two fresh ones in the corner of her eyes waiting to roll down.

"You're hurting me" she winced with pain. He immediately got the idea and released her hand. Feeling bad for putting her through pain, he apologised. As soon as the words "I'm sorry" escaped from his mouth, Bailey Pickett felt a little better. She took it as her chance to finally clear things up...

"Look...Cody! Its not what it looks like. I know seeing me as London Tipton might give you the idea of me being all that...the way you described me. But I'm not. I was just helping Mr Tipton. He was the one who asked me to do this..."

"Wait! Hold right there..." Cody cut her off..."you expect me to believe that Mr Tipton put you off to pretend to be his daughter to go on a date with his "would be" business partner's brother?"

"After the way you reacted, I expect nothing out of you. But it is the truth." Bailey knew she was not in the position to shoot statements for the sake of argument like she always did with him. But she couldn't help it. He always made her so mad at him. And it seemed like she was doing a pretty good job of making him mad at her.

"You really think you should be talking to me like that right now?"

Just then she realized that he was not the one she was supposed to be giving explanations to. She lied to Zack and if anybody had the right to ask her questions, it was him and not the Riche Rich.

"You really shouldn't be talking to me like that either, Sir. Its between your brother and I."

Cody felt his anger rising up again. He was about to say something when he heard the door open. They both turned around and saw Zack coming in. He walked up straight to where Cody and Bailey were standing..."Sorry I'm late, guys. Good that you two have already met. Cody this is London Tip..." Just then Zack noticed the furious expression on his brother's face. He looked between him and Bailey before he turned his attention to her..."Please tell me you didn't ask him if he has a girlfriend? It always makes him mad."

Cody just couldn't stand it. His brother was too naive and he was scared that when he'd find out about it, he'd be shattered. This girl was the only one he ever got a bit more serious for. But this just had to be done. Cody had to tell him everything...

"Zack, I know this will come off as a shocker to you but...the thing is...this is not London Tipton."

"Huh?" That was all Zack could say. Cody knew his confusion was justified so he started again..."She's an imposter, Zack. She was just pretending to be London."

"But why?" Zack asked, still confused. Bailey waited as the two brother chatted. It seemed like the topic of their conversation was to insult her.

"Well, supposedly Mr Tipton put her off to this. Can you believe it? Even her reasoning doesn't make any sense. And she expects us to..."

"Uhhh! Would you just let me explain everything?" Bailey said cutting Cody off. "NO!" Cody exclaimed turning his attention to her..."I will not let you feed any more lies to my brother."

Bailey was not enjoying all of that. She knew if she'd be given a chance, she could clear things. But thanks to the Richie Rich, she was not getting any. She turned to him furiously..."Oh yeah? If I'm such a big liar and a gold digger like you said, then why didn't I take my chance on you, huh? You're rich too. Richer I suppose."

"Because I wouldn't give you the time of my day. You knew that..."

"You're really occupied in your own little world. Did it ever occur to you that I was just not interested?"

Zack was looking back and forth between his brother and the girl who he just found out was not London Tipton. They were arguing like cats and dogs. He was the one standing there clueless..."Guys, as much as I'm enjoying this, I have to break this lovely talk of yours. I am missing something HUGE here and I need answers. Right now."

They both turned to him and each attempted to explain him the story. Zack listened to both of them carefully. Many a times, they both lost their focus on Zack and started their own little chat. Somewhere in the middle of their heated conversation, Zack felt this hurt inside of him. He didn't think he liked that girl so much that finding out she was lying could've been hurtful for him. But it was...not because of his feelings for her but the fact that he was played and nobody cared how he'd feel. Zack accepted Bailey's explanations and somehow did agree that she didn't have any choice. But also thought that her agreeing to doing it in the first place was wrong. The worse was that she didn't even once try to tell him...

"I did, Zack." Bailey exclaimed between light sobs. During the argument, some of the comments thrown at her had brought tears in her eyes. Cody's harsh tone and Zack's painful voice...it was all too much for her to take..."I tried to tell you. I sent you a letter but it got mixed up and you never got the real one..."

"Wait! So it was you who sent me a letter saying something like..."What do you think of yourself, Mr Richie Rich?" And a bunch of other hatred filled lines?"

Bailey was about to respond when Cody started laughing. This was the first time anyone laughed in that room since they got there..."So you were writing about me in that elevator, huh?"

Bailey gave him a dead glare and then turned his attention to Zack..."You got the wrong one. The original one was this." She quickly dug through her purse and produced a piece of paper. She opened it and showed it to him..."I knew my job was at risk but I was willing to take a chance. I wanted to tell you the truth, Zack."

There were a few things that Zack agreed upon. It made sense and he couldn't deny that she was compiled and didn't have much of an option. But even accepting all of that wasn't making him any less hurt..."You know what's funny? How each of you in this whole situation has an argument to give. Mr Tipton had to do it, you had to do it, you couldn't tell me because of your job. But not even one of you thought about how I'd feel in the process? Just like everytime, I was played again."

"I'm sorry." Bailey said sincerely. There was nothing that seemed appropriate to her at that moment. Even though she didn't intend to do it, she had hurt him..."I forgive you." Zack exclaimed with the same amount of sincerity..."But its not easy to forget all of this right away..." He looked between his brother and her. It was still a mystery from where did Cody know this girl. But it didn't seem a proper time to solve it. He turned to Bailey once again and weakly smiled..."I'll see you around." With that Zack walked away.

The sound of the doors closing behind him made Bailey shiver. She realized that she was alone with the cold hearted brother once again. She felt his gaze on her. She looked up and wiped away the tear that was desperately finding its way out of her eyes.

"I will never forgive you for hurting my brother..." Cody harshly stated...she knew this was coming. She waited there patiently for more humiliation to come and sure enough he continued..."You know? I hated you before, just for being a girl. But now? I hate you even more for being the girl who broke my brother's heart."

"What do you know about a heart?" Bailey asked coldly..."Do you even have one?" She pushed him aside to get out of there. The same place that was fascinating her a while ago, was now suffocating her. She waled past the round table but before she could make it to the door, she felt a hand grabbing hers and with one fluid motion, she was turned around to face the same blue eyes, filled with anger, hate and rage...

"You can't just walk away like that, Miss 'Pumpkin'. You'll have to pay for what you did to my brother. I'll make sure that you don't see another happy day. I'll make your life a living hell..."

Bailey just shook her head..."You know what? I don't hate you. I'm not even mad at you for doing all of this to me. I pity you. Try all you want to make my life a living hell. While I don't have to do anything because you're already living in one."

Cody glared at her and was just about to throw a comeback but she wasn't finished..."I rather have a wish to make for you..." She smiled. "You hate girls right? I pray for that day to come when a girl will come into your life and will change everything. That girl will show you the error of your ways. She'll teach you how to behave. You'll fall in love, Mr Cody Martin. One day you will. And that day, you'll realize how wrong you were. And then, you will never be able to forgive yourself. Never."

That was all Bailey had to say. She turned around and left the room. Before Cody could even understand what she said, she was gone.

For both Cody and Bailey, rest of the day went in deep thoughts. For Bailey, she just couldn't get over the things Cody said about her. She knew she wasn't all that. But him saying it did sting. She was hurt by his words. More than she had ever been. It was then that she knew that she hated Cody Martin more than anything.

For Cody, he just kept recalling what Bailey had said and couldn't understand what she meant. Was that suppose to be a blackmail? Or was it really a prayer like she stated? Lost in his own world of endless thoughts, he reached his home. To find Zack still awake sitting in the living room all by himself hurt him. It was all because of that girl. He hated her so much that it was hard to not get angry at the thought of her. He got closer to Zack and sat down beside him...

"Hey, Buddy! How are you doing?" Cody asked, softly placing a hand on his shoulder...he turned around and smiled..."I'm alright." He said, it was more like a whisper. Cody knew that he was not alright. He wanted to ask him more but he continued himself..."Its not that I loved her or anything...But I was willing to give this serious relationship thing a try. I thought she was different." He sighed..."she was just the same. She agreed to play me for a fool for Mr Tipton's money? How easy are my feelings for everyone?"

Zack himself didn't know what was hurting him so much. Maybe it was just the fact that he was being fooled. Maybe it was just his ego and there was nothing bigger than that. But for Cody, it was a huge deal. Zack was not doing a good job at explaining his brother his feelings and Cody who was overly protective of him was getting all the wrong ideas. He felt that Bailey broke his brother's heart. Cody was determined to teach her a lesson. He had heard so many rumours about London and her ways of handling the situations. Mr Tipton and his daughter were feared by many of their employees for the same reason...

"That girl..." Cody continued..."She really wanted to be London Tipton. Now I'll show her how London Tipton would've reacted if somebody had fooled her like that..."

A/N: Don't you just feel SO MAD at Cody? : I'm the one writing him and I still feel like hitting him. Ugghhh! Hahaha! :D

Anyways, Read & Review, beautiful readers! (:
Love, Ash! xx