Darryl balled his hands into a tight grip as he stepped out of his father's office.

"It's either you choose your dream, or you choose her" He halted a bit and closed his eyes as he remembered those words that his father just recent uttered.

​​

His veins were bursting in anger, but he chose to control himself. He cannot think clearly if emotions will fill him. Never did he ever imagined that things would go this complicated.

He did not plan to meet her, but it happened. For the first time in his life, he let loose. However, it seemed that losing himself too much was not good at all. He let himself get intoxicated with those unfamiliar emotions that were hard to control. That made him vulnerable.

He cursed himself, but can he blame his own heart? Nobody told him love could be a weakness. Or maybe his grandmother did, but he didn't believe her.

He felt stupid for allowing her enigma to consume him. But such kind of stupidity was very enchanting and addicting that he wanted to commit such stupidity again and again.

Love indeed is dangerous. It can shudder one's propriety, his propriety in particular, that had always been intact ever since he could remember.

However, he did really believe that his father gave him total freedom to do whatever he wanted before he turned twenty-five. This could be his mistake, he trusted his father's words too much, never did he thought that his father would use his own cunningness against him. But then today, he just confirmed that his father would only let him do things that was good for their business. So, his father had been watching all his actions all a long? How far did his father knew about his plans?

He cupped his head with his hands as he continued to walk, he planned on leaving the mansion immediately but for some reasons he went to the young master's bedroom. His bedroom in this mansion.

The room was still the same, clean and neat the way it was two years ago when he left this house to pursue his dream. The stone wall panels and dim lightning in the room created a mysterious impression that enhanced the bedroom's appeal. However, the bike artwork just above the luxurious bed suggested an adventurous spirit of the one that owns such.

The grey curtains that hang in the beautiful architected windows danced in the wind as Darryl went deeper in his bedroom's study area.

His things were still the way they were, it was untouched, yet there was no single dust on every furniture that suggested that it had been constantly cleaned up.

He stopped on one of the bookshelf and pulled something in there. It was an old leather notebook. He opened it and scanned through the pages. It was filled with shapes and calculations. He stopped at the page where a blue print was drawn.

He smiled a bit when he remembered how he burned midnight candles to create this blueprint, way back then when his grandmother was still alive.

She was the most brilliant woman he adored. His grandmother loved him dearly, but she left him early too.

"Dee?" A young woman's voice woke him up from his deep thoughts.

"Hey...I'm here" He replied to her call. He recognized her voice instantly – it belonged to his sister, Dian.

He heard her footsteps as she walked toward his study room, a minute after he saw her cheerful face. She was so happy to see him.

"You should come here more often, I'm starting to miss you" She said while giving him a kiss on his cheeks. Darryl returned her kiss with a tight hug.

"Where's Dannah?" He asked when he remembered their youngest.

The smile in Dian's face was gone in an instant. She halted her movement in a minute to construct the right words to say before opening her mouth to talk.

"Well that sister of ours is exactly like you…as father says…. you both are hard headed. She left for a week now and haven't been back ever since," She replied.

Darryl frowned but he was not surprised at all. He completely trusted his youngest sister's capacity to care for herself yet, he didn't expect his sister will just leave home without giving him a call. She usually informed him her whereabouts.

"Did she call?" He asked.

"Well she did, and she told me to relay the message to you that she is in the south right now doing something relevant. And that she called you, but your phone is off and that she can no longer call because she will be going to a remote area where there is connection at all…and I'm sorry I forget to tell you..." She said apologetically.

"Well that's fine" His youngest sister had always been like this. So their family had been accustomed to her constant disappearance. There was nothing to worry anyway, she had already proven her survival skills a long time ago.

His father's stand to this behavior of course was not welcoming but he had already become apathetic to it through time. Probably because of the reason that their youngest was not a male- and her demeanor as a woman was not something useful to the L Empire. It's the other way around actually.

"Is that the amusement park you used to draft for grandma?" She asked suddenly glancing trough the notebook he was holding.

"Yeah"

"Are you going to construct it?"

"Uhmm"

"For real?"

"For real"

Dian's smiled widened. The three of them were so close to their grandma, and she left them so many beautiful memories in their childhood they hold dearly deep inside them.

"Will this be your legendary masterpiece?" Her face was full of amusement as she scanned the pages. Growing up, the three siblings were close too, so they knew about Darryl's ultimate dream of creating a legendary masterpiece.

" No, it's grandma's legendary masterpiece"

"Oh, of course....I remember grandma also wants to be an engineer and she wants to build this amusement park"

"I know"

"But then she married to grandpa and she was forced to give up her dream. Lagdameo's do not allow girl's like me to be a part of the industry" She narrated trying to remember the details of this old story. Her reactions to such story was neutral, as if she was not affected at all.

Darryl didn't say a word. In this family, the only dream a girl can attain was to marry a well-off husband. Nothing else. But it seemed that this sister of his was good with it so he was relieved that she wouldn't go through the same dilemma their grandma had experienced.

"So, what will be your legendary masterpiece?"

"Haven't made up my mind yet"

"Well, you are graduating in the college this year and sooner you'll have your license…so I bet you should hurry in making up your mind"

"I will" he replied as he tapped her head.

"Did you enjoy the conference?" She asked him, without noticing that she was already flooding him so many questions, yet he let her because for him, he owed her some time for not being home always.

"I did"

"I heard they are still planning to hire you as a coach even if you graduate…"

"That's good, so I can still be there for the next conferences to look after you" He smiled teasingly. Her sister's face grimaced in an instant. She was clearly annoyed by his conclusion.

"Did father called you to congratulate you for your incoming graduation?" She shifted the topic after a while.

"Nope" His face turned pale when he remembered his father's words earlier. He let go of a deep sigh which didn't escape Dian's scrutiny.

"Was it because of her?" She continued trying to be sensitive on his brother's sudden uneasiness. Her words made Darryl level his gaze to her probingly as if there was something he wanted to confirm.

"Do you know her?" He started comfortably, knowing that it was his sister he was conversing.

"She was the friend I used to tell you, the one I met at the cartooning event"

"I see"

"How did you two met?"

"I saw you on the first day of the conference, so I chase you in the hallway. She was there, and the rest was history. You probably knew about it by now"

"Well." She nodded her head confirming his brother's statement. "I'm sorry I didn't warn you about father" She suddenly become serious remembering his brother's dilemma. "I already knew by the time the pictures were taken down one by one in the web… he must have been guarding all your actions ever since you left"

"It's okay...don't worry about it. I can handle father's outburst" He said trying to appease his sister's guilt. She must have felt bad about what happened, but these kinds of things were something she shouldn't worry about - he thought.

"Do you think father will harm her?" She asked, worry filled her eyes.

He was stunned by his sister's words. He hadn't thought about it. He still trusted his father's sense of humanity until now. But why did his sister came up with that idea?

"Father is not like that…" He comforted his sister as he caressed her midnight black hair.

"Of course!" She answered in an instant – it was like she regretted saying the words she uttered earlier.

"Shall I get you something to wear for tomorrow's event?" She shifted their conversation as soon as she remembered the reason why she came looking for him.

"Tomorrow's event?" He asked trying to remember if he missed something.

"Well… don't you remember? Tomorrow is CGC's Memorial Day. Father wants you to come."

Chan Group of Companies Memorial Day? It was clearly not in his calendar.

That memorial is one of the highlights each year in the elite's social event. Even though it was just a Memorial Day, businessmen will not waste such opportunity to attend knowing that it will be attended by significant personalities of the business industry. It's a perfect opportunity to widen someone's connections.

So, his father wanted him to come. For what reason?