“I really don’t want to do this. Can’t you both understand?” Karina’s voice rose to an agonizing shriek and it was so surprising her eyes began to swim in tears.

She shot to her heels and faced her parents squarely. She had flown into a fit of rage.

“I thought you both care about my happiness. I thought my happiness is as well your happiness. Have I been wrong all this while?”

“Answer me, Dad,” she pressed for but Isaac only lowered his head in anguish without saying a word.

She then shifted her gaze to Irene who was also having a tear-stained face as it hurt so much to see her daughter in such a miserable mood.

“I don’t want to do this again, Mom, so let this be the last time,”

Finishing her short warning words, she hurried toward the ample zigzag staircases and ascended them in twos to her room.

Several minutes later,

A soft knock came on Karina’s door and without being told, she knew who it was already.

“Okay if we come in, Karina?” Isaac’s voice drifted to where she was lying on the bed.

She heaved her head up to see her parents standing at the door with a sore expressions on their faces.

They have both changed to their night dresses.

“What are you doing here?” she asked them bluntly and returned to her previous position, setting her head on a pillow.

“You haven’t had dinner, Karina,” Irene notified in her usual motherly tone as she walked ahead of her husband to the bed.

“I’m not hungry,” she replied sharply.

Irene sighed in remorse before planting her ass at the foot of the bed.

She made an attempt to touch Karina but Isaac held her hand back and talked to her with his eyes.

Seeing the look on her husband’s face, she stood up gently and stepped back a bit, giving Isaac the chance to near their daughter.

The look in their eyes indicated that Karina was as precious as their lives and she being mad at them was only making their heart constricted in pain.

That was how much they cherish and adore her.

“Karina,” Isaac called out tentatively, reaching out a hand to touch Karina’s feet.

“You know, it’s our misfortune to have our first and only child at our old age,”

Bitterness and anguish were written all over his face while tears had begun to circle in Irene’s eyes.

“Yes, It’s not your fault, Karina, and that’s why we’re begging you to please consider our last wish,”

Karina swiftly sat up at her father’s last words, shaking her head vigorously.

“No, Dad. This shall not be your last wish, you’ll live longer than you could ever imagine,” she said coaxingly and then looked up at her mother’s face.

“I don’t know what you both are thinking but don’t you dare think of leaving me alone, do you understand?” her voice was soaked with despair and hostility.

Isaac smiled mildly and held one of her hands.

“Think about all this fortune, Karina. I would only be able to rest in peace after handing you over to a safe hand,” he voiced out his sincere words and earnest wishes.

A thin layer of mist flashed across Karina’s eyes and her heart plummeted into her stomach.

“What are you saying, Dad? You’re scaring me right now,” her face had turned deathly pale.

“Mom, talk to Dad,”

Irene then sat down on the bed too and also held her other hand.

“Your Dad is right, Karina. This is our last wish, dear. Get serious with a good man, that’s all we are asking for and Matthew is a good kid. You know him, don’t you? His father and yours have been friends for a long time,” she exhorted, caressing the back of Karina’s hand.

Karina felt a bitter taste in her mouth as the tears in her eyes finally fell and left wet tracks on her cheeks, adding a trace of desolation to her beautiful face.

“Yes, Mom. I’ll meet him,”

--------

“In my heart, I believe that biology is the beginning and the end of everything. It’s the biggest source of ideas, the biggest source of invention,” Derek Brandon says, while the few audiences listened attentively.

He was wandering at the podium and looking imperial in a white shirt and a navy-blue blazer.

Also, he was wearing a pair of black trousers that showed the length of his long legs.

Karina was seating on a single seat in the middle roll, her gaze resting on Derek’s movement intently.

She couldn’t understand why it was so hard to remove her eyes from his figure when he was not even sparing her a glance.

Derek adjusted the pair of glasses on the bridge of his nose then continues, “Nobody can invent better than nature and so if you like nature is my biggest source of inspiration,” he concluded and everyone clapped their hands, having a contented smile on their faces.

It was obvious they all enjoyed his lecture.

Derek had a warm smile on his face in return, his dimples making a brief appearance.

He looked so handsome. A rakishly handsome god.

Karina couldn’t help but swallow hard over the lump of whatever it was that was lodging in her throat when staring at him.

*

“Your lecture wasn’t that amazing. I don’t quite catch why everyone was praising you back there,” Karina said clearly as she walked behind Derek who was striding in the hallway with only a few students hanging around in the surrounding.

“You don’t need to understand my lesson, Miss. You’ll pass your exams anyway. After all your father is the owner of the college,”

Derek said easily without wasting a glance on her. He seemed to be aware of her presence behind him since she had started following him but he purposely didn’t turn around to look.

There was a pregnant silence as Karina’s brain scrambled for her next words.

“I want to understand your lesson, Derek,” the words flew out of her mouth before she could hold herself back.

“I don’t like biology but I want to believe you could make me like it by becoming my private tutor,”

Derek stopped walking and shot her a sideways glance.

A smug smile slowly emerged on Karina’s lips, “Don’t worry, I’ll double your payment. What do you say?”

“Your appearance makes me sick to the stomach, Miss Donovan,” Derek enunciated as he turned around properly to look at her, looking quite horrible.

“Looking at you right now makes me feel nauseous and I might even puke if I stay closer to you,” he blurted out the words in his heart, glaring at her coldly.

“Hence, don’t come across with me again, Miss fortunate,” Derek concluded, his voice was quite distant as if his words were floating in the air, vanishing in the wind.

Right after his words, he spun around and soon disappeared around the bend of the corridor.

Karina was speechless with anger.

Derek’s words had just stabbed her right where it hurt the most and for the first time in her whole life, she felt like invisible knives were wrenching her heart again and again from just a random guy's words to her.

Her hands clenched into fists and her nails were almost embedded into her palm but she didn’t realize it as she continued to watch Derek’s back view that had left.

In Donovan’s mansion. At the dining table.

“It’s really good to see you again, Mr. President,”

Mr. Wright Nelson quipped with a chivalrous bow and a peal of hysterical laughter erupted in the room.

“Come on now, Nelson. Seeing you again makes me feel like ruling USA again. I really missed those times,” Isaac asserted, a soft smile touching his lips.

“Me too, Isaac but I missed when were younger the most. You know,” Nelson said with a cheeky smile and after his statement, a maid approached the table with a jug and lowered it on the table.

“What exactly did you miss at your younger age, Nelson?” Irene asked, looking between the old men as they sat side by side across her.

Isaac twitched his mouth and nudged Nelson’s stomach.

“Ah! That hurts, Isaac,” Nelson frowned and held his rib.

“Watch what you say, you idiot,” Isaac whispered only to his hearing, “I’m too old to be divorced”

Nelson then put on a bright smile, looking at Irene.

“When is Karina coming back? I can’t wait to meet my soon-to-be-in-law,” he grinned.

Irene knew his trick; he was only trying to cover up for their undisclosed chat.

Nonetheless, she loved Nelson’s good-spirited nature. Such a man would take very good care of her daughter.

Right then, Karina padded into the dining room after learning that her parents were there from a servant.

“What happened, Karina? You look so dejected. Did anyone hurt you?” Irene rushed her words as she swung to her feet and walked over to her.

“Mom, I want the new biology teacher to be my private tutor,” she said solemnly, her usual cold voice almost shaking.