The professor announced that the guy was Rohan, an agent from the biggest
biopharmaceutical company, MediCorp.
He was there to buy their lab.
Sarah looked him up and down, wondering why
they would have such a young agent. Then,
Rohan looked at her.
“I heard that Ms. Smith has achieved a
breakthrough with her molecular splitting
experiment. That’s a huge accomplishment,
internationally. So, Ms. Smith, could you please repeat the experiment?”
- 13.
Rohan’s English wasn’t totally perfect, but it
was easy to understand.
Sarah didn’t know how he knew her name.
Rohan stood up, and asked her to come up front to show them her work.
The professor tried to help Sarah, but Rohan
glared at him.
He was young, but he was terrifying, “If you
want the work to be recognized, then the
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results have to be verified. Or do you want to
be called a fraud?”
The professor backed off. He had no choice but
to watch Sarah walk up to the table.
Sarah knew she couldn’t reproduce the
experiment. She didn’t want to do it, but Rohan
glared.
“If you can’t repeat it, that means you lied. The
media is waiting outside, and everything you did
to someone else, will be done to you.”
Sarah did as she was told. She shook as she
put on the gloves, picked up the test tubes, and
started mixing things randomly.
She was so slow, the process dragged on.
The other students had spread word about the
situation.
Jake burst into the lab to see a guy in black
grabbing Sarah’s hands. He yelled, “You don’t
know how to put the chemicals in order. How
can you say this research is yours?”
“You, Sarah!” Rohan turned, with a cold glare
at the professor. “And you, you all stole from
Ashley! You’re all helping her cheat!”
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Everyone was silenced. The professor was
shaking, before finally collapsing in his chair. He
knew that he was done for.
Jake, who was usually calm, pushed his way
into the lab, grabbed Rohan’s arm, and asked, “You know Ashley? Did she send you? Where did she go?”
Rohan pushed Jake’s arm away. “What she’s doing is none of your business.”
“All you need to know is that, she’s not coming
back.”
Jake felt like he’d been punched in the gut. His
face turned white.
He shook his head. “No way! How do you know
Ashley? Who are you?”
Rohan looked at Jake with contempt.
When his sister was here, he treated her like
dirt. Now that she’s gone, he wanted to act like
he cared?
This guy was not good enough for his sister!
Rohan smirked. “It doesn’t matter who I am.
What matters is that, everything you did to
Ashley, I’m going to return it to you ten–fold!”
<
Rohan turned to leave. Jake tried to follow, but
Sarah clung to him.
Sarah looked at him, trembling. “Jake, what’s
going on? He said the media is waiting, and he
will do to me what he did to Ashley!”
“He’s coming for me. I’m so scared! I don’t
want to go out there!”
Jake didn’t bother answering. He just pushed
her away.
And just like that, reporters with their cameras
stormed the lab.
Rohan had bought the lab and had become the
biggest investor of the school.
The reporters followed Rohan’s orders, and
started questioning Sarah about the details of
the research.
Sarah was hiding in a corner, trembling, not
able to answer any of the questions.
The next day, the headlines read: “Smith
family’s daughter a fraud, claims research from
foster daughter.”
The reporters dug up all the hidden details
about the Smiths. They painted the parents as
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<
mean, selfish, and manipulative.
People were yelling at Sarah everywhere she
went. She was a mess.
In the end, she hid in the bathroom, and waited
for her family to get her.
The driver dropped her off at home, and she
started crying the second she walked through
the door.
Mr. Smith, meanwhile, was looking at the
headlines online. He nearly had a heart attack.
Mrs. Smith screamed as she ran for her heart
medicine. The house was full of crying and
yelling, it was total chaos.
The door flew open, and Mark walked in with a
stack of papers. His face was grim.
“I found out. Rohan’s the son of the CEO at
MediCorp. The CEO and his wife are both
Chinese. And they are rumored to have found
their lost daughter. The daughter is Ashley.”
“What?” Sarah yelled, and grabbed the photos
from Mark.
The photo showed a happy family of four.
Ashley was standing in the middle. Rohan was
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right next to her. The other two looked rich.
They had to be the parents.
Sarah started to sob. Mark didn’t have time to
comfort her. He had more information.
“And…Rohan is buying our stocks.”
“Because of today’s news, our company’s
stock has plummeted. MediCorp has so much money. If they keep this up, we’ll lose
everything!”
Mrs. Smith was pacing back and forth. She
regretted everything.
“This is insane! How did Ashley become the
daughter of the MediCorp CEOs? The way we treated her… she got her brother to come back and get revenge!”
Mr. Smith felt his chest tighten. He closed his
eyes and made a hard decision.
“Mark, find out where Rohan lives. We have to
apologize in person.”
14
Outside the door to the penthouse suite, the
Smiths were standing stiffly, eyes red, faces
pale.
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<
They waited for half an hour. Then, the door opened, and they forced smiles on their faces. “Mr. Rohan, we’re here to explain something about your sister, Ashley.”
Rohan raised an eyebrow. “I think, Mr. Smith
declared that he was cutting ties with my sister, in front of all the media. So, now, she’s called Ashley Lo and she’s not related to you.”
Mr. Smith was stunned. The others were worried too.
But he managed a smile, and bowed deeply. “Sorry, Mr. Rohan. We didn’t know she was
part of the Lo family. We treated her poorly, we are sorry!”
Rohan shot a sharp glare. Everyone trembled. “Oh, so because you didn’t know she was a Lo, you were allowed to treat her so poorly?”
“I really can’t understand why you wanted to adopt her?”
“Was she just a toy you could use to release
your stress? Or was she a real person to you?”
Rohan’s tone was sharp, like he wanted to yell
at them.
