The Billionaire's Unauthentic Daughter ✔

C H A P T E R 0 1

❝Every damn brick they throw at you, use it to stand on.❞

"Miss James." My Bio cluster/Genetics professor, Mrs. Brown said calmly in surprise. I looked at her with apologetic eyes.

"I'm sorry, professor." I said, clutching the strap of my bag on my shoulder nervously as I became aware of several eyes on me.

She gave me a look through her thick red rimmed glasses, pushing them further up her nose. "Do you realize that you are almost twenty five minutes late to the class?"

"I know, but someone-"

"I don't want excuses. You must not be late to class. Either be on time or don't come at all."

I dropped my gaze from her to the floor. Mrs. Brown was a bit hot headed lady. She was kind and good but she could be scary if she wanted to. And no one dared to be late to her class. But I was. It just so happened that a girl accidentally spilled her drink all over me before class and I had gone to clean up. And I didn't even hear the bell signaling that Mrs. Brown's class had started.

"If you were a mere five minutes late, it would have been okay, Ms. James but do you realize that you are twenty five minutes late? Twenty five is a lot."

"I-I'm sorry," I stammered, a result of being the center of attention of so many people.

"Well I'm sorry too for I'll have to take one point from your academic performance."

"No!" I burst out. "I mean, Mrs. Brown please no, don't do this. It won't happen again. Please."

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't, Ms. James. Do you realize how bad you performed in the last test?" She asked.

I remained silent. I had done pretty bad on that test. The concepts weren't easy and I rarely had time to study because of my part-time job.

"Do you even remember what is Centimorgan, Aneuploidy, Monosomy and Trisomy? I'm pretty sure you learned it in your AP Biology class in your high school."

I looked at her with a sheepish smile plastered on my face. "Uh, Centimorgan is a...genetic disorder in which a person has four-no, um three copies of a chromosome instead of two," I said unsurely, looking at her hopefully.

"That is Trisomy. Not Centimorgan."

"Oh, um...sorry." I said quickly. Her stare intimidated me and I looked down again at the suddenly interesting patterns on the tiles, hoping she would disappear into thin air.

"You don't know what that is? Two points will be taken away." She said calmly. "I don't want you in my class today."

I didn't budge. "Please."

"No," she almost raised her voice. I sighed quietly. I had no wish to further embarrass myself.

I left before she told me to one more time. I spent the rest of the time in the library studying.

For the next class, I made sure I was early. The professor was not there yet when I entered the class. I walked up to my seat which was at a far corner, away from the lecturer's sight.

There were a lot of students in the class. They were all chatting with their friends. I looked away from their happy faces and took out my book. I was not exactly smart but I got fairly good marks in all the subjects except for Bio cluster/Genetics.

I opened my book and stared at the pages. I was not reading but I didn't want to look at the people around me who were with their friends.

I had a best friend, Olivia who worked at a café with me. She was like family to me. And then there was Mrs. Odin. She was a kind lady who owned the café I worked at. She treated me like her own daughter and I really loved her. She lost her daughter in a car accident a few years ago. It was something horrible that she recounted to me when I started working at her café a little less than a year ago. She was understanding and I was sure she wouldn't be mad at me for being late today. I considered Olivia and Mrs. Odin my family.