Trapped with a Doctor

Lulu's congratulatory tone when describing Rosa and Nita fell short of its aim. Angela didn't feel small at all. "Do I think I deserve his love?" Angela asked. "We can't all be department heads, but then again, not everybody likes to show off. I invented a eyedrop which has cured thousands of people's eye disease when I was thirteen years old."

"Well when I was fifteen, I invented a medicine that can cure blood disease. My brother has made millions selling it! You're not special." The backstory was, although Angela succeeded in creating the medicine, she had inadvertently destroyed Sven's laboratory.

Sven was mad at her, so he sold the medicine's formula, using the money to rebuild the laboratory. Angela cleverly omitted this damaging anecdote.

"When I was ninteen years old, I invented a medicine that can make people lose their mind. But it won't damage people's health. And my brother has earned millions of dollars by selling it at the black market."

'Well, ' thought Angela, 'everyone knows how to brag about themselves.' Though Chuck provided her with a comfortable upbringing, it didn't mean she was a waste of space.

So what if she had no success story to tell at dinner parties? She had her family. She was the daughter of Chuck and younger sister of Sven.

But Angela had destroyed Sven's laboratory. The successes gained from the medicine surely paled in comparison to the damages of her brother's lab? It was a Pyrrhic victory.

No one had been harmed in the blast; Angela, thankfully, had gone home for dinner while the chemicals were reacting unstably. When she returned, the ceiling had blown clear off. Everything, all her data, was destroyed.

To prove it was not a waste, Sven had kept logbooks of the experiment in his hospital, in a dinky little filing cabinet.

He simply opened up the logbooks, and they started again. When she had succeeded, she promised him all the earnings.

It was the least she could do. She never got to see Sven's new lab after that.

Wouldn't it be wonderful, she had thought, if I could build my own lab, in secret? But Chuck had shut it down before it had a chance to be conceptualized.

Several years passed. Angela stayed in uni, concentrated on getting a degree, and stayed away from inventing. The creative spark died out. She felt useless. But then, a light came on as if on cue. Arvin came into her life. She now had access to his research and development room.

modern than Sven's lab. There were machines and computers, the likes of which

Angela would have to fawn over Arvin

in Angela's background. She didn't think she would meet

telling the truth,

scanned her memories for the surname

Wait...

description. Angela confirmed her guess:

mouth would make an impression on the floor if it was open any wider. She

she showed Lulu photos in her phone. "You can

were, Angela and Sven as children, as teenagers, as adults, running like a slideshow before her

questions. But according to the photos, she had no choice but to

you got into Arvin's research and development room?" Lulu asked, intrigued. She had

her question honestly, "Yes, I have. And the reason why I stay with your brother is because of the research and development room. I happen to like

Arvin?" Lulu thought if she answered no, maybe they

her emotions could cause problems.

the end of the world!" This last line was delivered with over-the-top valor, so she hastened

say. She remembered why she was mad at Angela; it

again. "I don't care about who you are. Now you're just a

sneered, and took back her phone. Lulu and her siblings

But the moment she thought she could manage Arvin's brooding and pouting and bizarre proclivities, that's when Lulu

of Angela's sneer. "What's with the face?" said Lulu. "Hurry

the ward: "Ouch! Angela, what are you doing? You're such a fool! I'm telling you to give

was breathless, as