Chapter five

Sophia Hart made lots of plans. Granted, it was akin to castles in the air, still they were plans.

She had to be topper of the school and also find something she was best at to have to apply for Kingston University. She had started revising chapters. In next few days, she would do previous years' papers to get a hang of it.

Now, what to do for excellence in a field?

Music? She had given level 10 exams in piano already. If she remembered right, her father clinched few deals that day.

Painting? She was just a apprentice member of the painting association in the city. And on the day that few of her works were exhibited, whole of her family had spent hours there. Hart Industries got few orders and few people who had intention to mess with Harts had backed off when a rumour had spread that the recluse artist Mr Liam Glendora was thinking of accepting Sophia as a student.

Her dance was truly mediocre. She had performed in few stages but none noteworthy.

Sophia had new criteria to decide if her performance was noteworthy or not. If her father or anyone of the extended family clinched a deal, that performance was acceptable. More the deals, better her performance. In her previous life, she had not realised this truth even till the end.

Calligraphy? She had some foundation there. But did Kingston have any course related to that?

Languages? Dead ones. Forgotten ones. Foreign ones. So many options there. But she may have to search for more books to read. And audio records to get pronunciation and accent right.

What if we turn to science side instead of liberal studies?

While Sophia was planning her life, some one was just itching to gossip. Dr Segway. He had tried his best but he could not longer hold it. So he called the benefactor who had pulled him to the city to look after the girl. Of course he was not an idiot despite being gossip queen, so the call was to boss's assistant. His buddy.

"Hey, Liam! How are you doing buddy? Still having a fifteen hour a day workload?"

It was sort of running gag between them. Liam Hemsworth had mentioned that working for his boss was like working fifteen hours a day for a week and complete freedom the next one.

Liam answered back, "Yes. This week, it is indeed fifteen hours a week work week. So if you don't have anything to tell, I'm going to cut this call. I'm busy now."

"Hey, hey, hey! I'm not here to waste the time. I just wanted to pass the message that the girl is alright now, so she got discharged today."

"The girl?" Liam had forgotten about her. Even though he had carried that lady till the emergency vehicle. Too much workload but not enough sleep. Then, he remembered her. That pale face framed by blood. She had looked breakable that day. The MTs had estimated her chances of survival without any sequelae to be less than five percent.

"Thanks, man. We owe you one. If you want to use the favour, I can get you a batch of choco chip cookies, once a week for a month, beginning next month."

"Oh, cookies. Never mind. Wait! Are those cookies...?"

"Yeah. Handmade by master. Baked to perfection."

"Sold! But that does not absolve you both from damages. I am not a young man. You know how hard it was to take few hours flight and rush to look at the patient without any rest? On top of it, you said it was an emergency."

"The kid didn't wake up. Wasn't that an emergency?"

"Yeah, but not only did the kid wake up, thanks to me, now that kid has recovered enough to go home too. So, come on, spill the deets."

"Deets?"

"Why the heck was I called? Why did you people put her in the hospital? You caused the accident? Your boss fell in love with her? I can't beleive the last two, by the way." Dr Segway clarified. Liam's boss had lots of issues and he was famous for holding grudges.

"No such dramas. Master was calculating something important. You know how he is when he is in the zone."

"Out of the world." That was the understatement of the century. There was once a joke circulating that he had left a president of richest conglomerate in the city holding the hand for the shake and rushed off because he got inspired and had to finish the calculations. Of course, no one shares that joke now. The one spread that joke had suffered, a lot.

"And I had gone a bit away to arrange few things. Then, zup. This girl runs and pushes master away to save him from the accident and tries to run away too. Unfortunately, she got struck by the vehicle before she could move farther. She suffered so much as she tried to help master. Shouldn't we help her?"

"That's it?" Dr Segway asked angrily. He had spent weeks thinking of various scenarios but in the end it turned out to be good Samaritan and repaying the favor? He got so angry that he directly cut the call.

Liam smirked and cut the call. He had been PA for years to the master. He knew how much of truth to tell and how much to conceal. If not, his master would have been bombarded with requests and orders everyday.

He walked towards one of the rooms filled with boards filled with writings. Master was working in this room this week. If it was written in chalk, this scene would have looked straight out of a old mad scientist's lair. Thankfully, master like colour pens and white boards.

"Master!" He said, waiting at the door.

"Mmm!" The young master was calculating something and didn't have patience to turn towards his nanny cum personal assistant.

"Miss Hart is recovered and has been discharged."

"Good. Just monitor her to see if she needs anything. Thanks, Liam."

Looking at the way he was standing in front of incomplete board, Liam didn't disturb him longer and left, softly closing the door on his way.

Contrary to Liam's belief, the master was not pondering some equations but thinking something equally maddening. His link to that girl. The girl who had saved him, taking so much risk for an unknown person. But she didn't feel like a unknown person. He felt he knew her. But the chances of that... Solving problems. Solving problems are better. He shook himself and delved into language of mathematics. She had saved him. He had made sure she was safe. End of the matter. Let's continue with this problem, he thought as he started working again. That teenager was just a small disturbance in his life.