Kora

I rushed into the huge, really quiet library as fast as I could, breathing really fast too. I was so sure I had caused a scene with my entrance.

"I'm sorry." I mouthed to as many people as I could as I walked farther in. I scanned the room, holding on tightly to the shoulder straps of my back pack, covering as much I could with my eyes, searching for him.

How was I supposed to find him with all the huge shelves and many tables? I wished he had been more specific with his location. I wasn't even sure I was at the right library. What if he was at Old money's library? He wouldn't be. He knew regular students like me could not just walk into the old money building without a pass. There was no way he'd put me through that, it definitely had to be this library. I narrowed my gaze towards the table section near the window. The library was almost empty anyway so it was easy to find him.

Found him.

I exhaled when I did. I had guessed right. He was sitting right beside the window with his attention in the book in front of him. He had his big circular reading glasses on too. I let out a weak scoff, I didn't even know he used one of those. I had never seen him read before. He looked so beautiful and really hot. I shook my head, I needed to snap out of it. I let a frown cover the smile that tried to carve itself on my lips and then I started to storm towards him, letting my eyes focus on him till I got to his table. I threw my bag on it loudly.

"What the hell Jeremih!" I glared at him. I was so upset, really upset. The thought that I had tried to reach him for the past forty eight hours without any success started to crawl back into my head. I watched him lower his book from his face and then smile, a little bit. I sneered.

Was that funny? What was he smiling for?

"I thought we agreed to read together everyday after school?"

Like I cared about that?

"Where have you been?" I had to ask. I was truly upset. He raised his head to me.

"Hey baby." His smile grew wider and that made me frown even harder. He pursed his lips immediately. I picked up a book and hit his arm with it.

"Ouch?" He rubbed his arm pretending like he was hurt.

"What's wrong with you?" I had totally forgotten how relieved I was when I got his text. Now that I saw him, I just wanted to hit him so hard for making me worry so much. "How could you just go off like that and not take your calls or call me back?!"

"Shhhh." The girls reading behind us reprimanded me.

I turned to them quickly.

"I'm sorry." I apologized and then bit my lip as I turned back to him. He leaned closer to the table while I sat beside him, making myself comfortable. He was staring at me with a wry smile on his face. I could see him from the corner of my eyes. It made me really embarrassed.

"Why?" He asked me. "Were you worried about me?" He made it so obvious that he had noticed I had worn the bracelet. Not like I didn't want him to see, I was making it glitter with the sun rays on purpose. He narrowed his gaze to the bracelet on my wrist, placing his wrist on the table so I could see his too. Why was he being goofy now?

"As if." I quickly reached for my maths textbook from my bag just so he didn't try to get all corny with me again. I had an assignment that was due the next day. He didn't believe me, with the way I just acted, I doubted if anyone could ever believe me.

I opened my textbook immediately, flipping the pages angrily. Doing my homework was the only way I could subdue my anger and hold it in. It was the only way I could avoid looking at him.

"If you wanted to see me so badly, you should have just called my Mum, she'd have sent you an address." I ignored him. "I moved my Dad out of the hospital, my mum and I have to take care of him now. I always forget to take my phone off silent or out of my pockets."

"Why?" I didn't bother to look at him. "Why did you take your Dad out of the hospital?"

When Nanny had told us that she was moving out of our house, neither my mum nor me knew why she wanted to. I guess it had something to do with what he just said about his father. He shrugged his shoulders.

"Nothing really."

I exhaled. Of course he wasn't going to tell me. I shook my head and then buried my eyes into my textbook. It had been three days since we were given the assignment and I was still stuck on number three. It wasn't just me, everyone in our class was. It was a "simple" equation according to our professor, but no one could answer it yet. I remembered how all the so called math gurus had come together to try and solve it but I heard they always got hooked towards the end. I on the other hand, I had no idea what was in front of me. I had a hard time answering the first two questions and I wasn't trying to give myself a shot at the third, it never worked anyway. I planned to copy answers from whoever that got it first in class tomorrow, every single thing. Looking at the letters already gave me a headache, i exhaled weakly.

"Twenty-two." I slowly turned to Jeremiah who had his eyes buried in his book still. What did he just say? I watched him turn to me slowly, looking at me through his square shaped reading glasses. "X is twenty-two." He pointed into my textbook with his eyes. Did he just tell me the answer to my assignment? I blinked.

"It's a simple equation." He continued as he pulled my textbook closer to him so we could both share it. "Start off with finding its probability, use the quadratic formula to find Z, round it up with a quadratic equation to find X and Y. X is equals to twenty-two."

I scoffed. .

He scoffed right back.
"I could tell just by looking at it, how come none of you could get it right?" He whispered loud enough for me to hear.

How on earth did he look so cool and sexy at the same time talking about the values of X and Y? I gulped hard and the moment I realized I was staring too hard.

"Anyone that sees you would think you actually know what you're saying." I told him. It wasn't just possible that he could get the answer right.  He was Jeremiah Ozor, everyone knew he wasn't close to the brightest when it came to actual learning. I was way better than him and I was horrible. I'd always pick the fifty something-th position over being the last in the entire math class, old money combined. I rolled my eyes, so much for an attempt to show off.

Churn!
My phone beeped.

Churn! Churn!
There were texts from my class' group chat. I exhaled and then slowly reached for it, praying really hard that we didn't have any emergency classes.

"Guys!"

"Major and Frank found the answer to number three."

My eyes widened. Really? The maths gurus found an answer to number three?

"Really?"

"What is it? I keep getting stuck at Z."

"Did they really find the answer?"

"Omg what is it please? Can someone send it to my mail?"

"It's twenty-two. X is twenty two."

I gasped loudly, covering my mouth with my hands immediately. I turned to Jeremiah who had his eyes in my phone too. I couldn't believe it, he got it, he really got it.

"It's not like I didn't tell you." His grin got worse. "You might want to check your number one and two again. They are totally out of pocket."

I went numb with embarrassment as I watched him turn back to his book.

"Woah." I couldn't help but chuckle. "Have you really been pretending not to know anything all this while, on purpose?"

I teased him. It wasn't the first time something like that was happening anyway, I suddenly remembered the time he wrote that test for me. Had he always been this smart? What had happened? What had changed.

"Woah." I clapped my hands silently when I watched how he blushed every time I complemented him. "I'm proud of you."

He scoffed and then cleared his throat. It was starting to get to his head.

"What? You make it sound like it's a big deal. I did tell you didn't I?" He looked at me. "You owe me lunch for ever doubting me." He chuckled. My smile was slowly fading. He was trying so hard to be cheerful but I could see it. I could see the hurt in his eyes, the sadness laced in his smile. Something was wrong, I could feel it. I slowly let go of my hands and dropped them on the table. I frowned.

"What happened Jeremih?" I had to ask him again. "Why were you gone for two days? Why couldn't I reach you? Why did you have to move your Dad from the hospital-"

"I didn't move him." He cut me off, keeping his eyes on me. "Christian did."

"Your brother?" How on earth was that possible? The last time I remembered, Benjamin Orji was still in a coma and on life support. How could he get discharged from the hospital so soon? "I don't - I don't understand."

He slowly took off his glasses and placed it on the table. I watched him rub his nose bridge too.

"Neither can I." He told me. "Let's just say my brother isn't exactly the kind to not seize opportunities when he sees one. My father Uh-" he cleared his throat. "Recently, my father tried to give me the same number of shares in his company with my older brother. Christian, he hates the thought of owning equal shares with any of us, especially me. That's understandable especially since he sacrificed a lot to make Benoil what it is today, his mum too. Having equal shares with Christian means I'd be having equal rights to the company as he does and if we ever had to compete for CEO someday, I could stand a chance too. You see, unlike the rest of us, Benoil is Christian's life, his home. He started to learn everything there was about the company right from when he knew how to walk. He dedicated all his life to grow it with Dad. If there's anyone that is more eligible to be CEO, it's him."

I listened carefully, waiting for the part that bridged the reason why Benjamin had to be discharged form the hospital.

"Christian thinks I'm after the company. He thinks Dad is trying to make me CEO instead of him and so he sees Dad's current predicament as an opportunity to get into power. There's going to be a shareholders meeting in three days. He is going to propose the selection of a new CEO,  to get the board to appoint him as Dad's replacement . I have three days to get the majority of the board on my side or at least half of them, just so I can buy Dad more time. It's the only way I can stop my brother from doing something that could destroy his life. I have to be CEO or tie at least. That's where I've been the past two days, that's what I've been trying to do, trying to convince members of the board that I'm a better fit,  to convince them to give me their votes on the day of the meeting."

He was going to go after Christian? He was going to compete for the spot of CEO of Benoil?

"They are trying to dethrone Dad and take his seat and he's not even dead yet."

"B-but that's -" I paused . The news was just so much for me, I didn't know what to say. "What about your Dad? What's going to happen to him? What's going to happen when he wakes up to find everything gone?"

"Right now, I'm just doing all I can to stop my brother, to save him from doing the one thing that could make him lose everything, I'm going to try and stop him, I have to."

"But how?" I didn't really know him but I had met Christian and I knew exactly the kind of man he was. How on earth did Jeremiah intend to stop his older brother on his own.

"Christian wants my Dad to be taken to an old people's home. He thinks he'd be better there and it'd be harder for him to return even if he wakes up. If he finds out that I have our Dad hidden in one of our family's houses everyone forgot about, he's going to do all he can to stop me. That's why I'm being careful, that's why I can't take my phone off silent or be seen leaving the house when I like. Right now, I'm all my Father has. Christian is bringing everyone else to his side, it's just me and my mum now, best part is, Christian has somehow managed to get my step mother on his side too, she's going to help him. The shareholders, they listen to her and if they join forces, Susan and Christian, I don't think I'd stand a chance."

He exhaled.

"Christian's grandfather is Dennis Uzoma. He used to own one of the largest Banks in Africa before he sold it to the South African Government. He's currently running for senate. His grandmother owns Jojo palace; one of the biggest fashion companies in the country. They have the whole country wrapped around their fingers, and I have nothing, I have no power, no connections or powerful grandparents, I'm just- regular. I don't have an idea how I'm supposed to even win this, it's hard getting a member of the board to vote for me right now, how am I supposed to convince thirteen other people to vote for me? Susan and Christian excluded?"

He raised his eyes to look at me, staring deep into mine.

"I'm scared Kora." He told me. "And I'm confused. I don't even know what I'm doing or if I'm doing the right thing. All my life, all I've always wanted is to be on good terms with my brother, with my Dad too. I want to be Christian's baby brother again. What I'm doing is only going to make him hate me even more. This could ruin the slightest hope of him ever forgiving me but if I do what he wants, if I abandon my Dad for him, what is that going to make me? What kind of son does that make me? What kind of a human being-" his voice broke. I had no idea when I slowly reached for his hand with mine. I placed my hand over his and squeezed it gently, I had never felt so sad in a while all my life.

"I'm tired." He told me. "I don't think I'm cut out for this, I'm only nineteen. I'm supposed to be touring the world with the girl I like, going to school and making bad decisions. I know nothing about handling or managing a company and I sure as hell don't think I'm strong enough or wise enough for the responsibilities that come with all of this. It feels like a lot of things are going on in my family at once and I'm stuck right in the middle of it, like I'm the only one that can fix it, like everyone is expecting me to fix it, I feel like I'm slowly losing my mind, like I'm slowly drowning  and I don't know how to save myself."

I exhaled. I pushed myself on him and hugged him immediately. I wanted to show him, to make him feel that it was okay, that he was doing just fine.

I wanted to show him that he was not alone, because he was not alone.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

Jeremiah

I couldn't wipe the smile on my face off. It was what spending hours with Kora did to me. Thinking about her made me so happy and spending time with her made me even happier all the time. I chuckled at every random thoughts of her. Yes, I was slowly losing my mind but it was better than thinking about the other things in my life. Memories of Kora kept me sane.

I dragged my feet with my hands in the pockets of my grey trousers. I could hear the echoes of my footsteps as I found my way down the empty hall and towards the kitchen. As usual, the mansion felt so lonely, too lonely especially since everyone was out, doing whatever it was that concerned them, everyone except me. Mum was right, I needed to rest, I needed to be home to reduce suspicions about Dad's whereabouts, I was going to take her advice. I needed a drink or better still, I needed a bottle of water.

I found my way to the refrigerator, raising my head so I could find my way around the huge kitchen. I froze for a second when I saw feet poking from beneath the opened refrigerator door. I frowned because I was sure I was the only one in the house earlier and the maids never wore Louis Vuitton stockings, it couldn't have been one of them. I swallowed hard especially when I started to hear soft sobs from inside it. Was someone crying in front of the refrigerator? I exhaled and then took more steps towards it until I was right in front of it.

"Kodi?"

The sob stopped immediately after I heard a loud sniff. I was right, it was Kodi. I could sense a familiar movement from the figure. It looked like she was trying to remove all evidence of her crying. She was cleaning her eyes in a hurry, I waited. I had never seen Kodi cry before but I was sure she didn't want me to either so I wasn't going to force it. The refrigerator door closed slowly and she turned to me. Even when she was trying to bury her gaze into the ground and act like she didn't see me, even when she tried to avoid face contact with me, I could see that she had been crying the whole time. I could see the eye bags beneath her eyes. She started to walk towards me with a bottle of water in her hands.

"Good afternoon Jerry." She walked past me like I wasn't standing just there. That was weird, Kodi never let a chance to look at me or try to hug me pass her by. She was always the happiest to see me, always the happiest in the house. The fact that I had just walked in on her crying didn't sit right with me. It bothered me a lot. I turned on reflex and grabbed her arm immediately. She turned to me.

She had no idea when she raised her face to mine but I could see how shocked she was when she did. It was probably the first time ever, the first time I ever held her hand or looked at her for a straight minute. My frown grew worse when I noticed how hurt she looked. How swollen her eyes were from crying a lot.

"Hey," Concern laced in my voice. "Kodi, what happened? Why are you like this?"

She still stared at me for an extra second right before she pulled her arm away from me.

"Nothing." She turned to leave again. I didn't let her go, I couldn't. I grabbed her arm again, this time, I rushed to stand in front of her, I was worried, really worried. It wasn't nothing, something was wrong with her.

"Didn't you hear me?!" She yelled at me. "I said I'm fine!" Kodi yelled at me.

Kodi never yelled at anyone. That was even more reason for me to hold on to her, to know she was far from being alright.

"Who did this to you?" I asked her. "Who made you cry, tell me and I'd pick a bone with that person."

She pulled her arm again but I didn't let her go.

"Why are you crying?" I noticed her frown got worse as she glared at me. "If someone hurt you you should tell me. If somewhere hurts, you should tell me too. Is it Dad?" Now I was making as much assumptions as I could. I watched her pout. "Are you sad because of what happened to him? Is that why you're like this? Because of Dad?"

I knew just how close Kodi and Dad was, it wasn't news that they were inseparable so it wasn't going to be a surprise if that was why she was crying.

I could see tears slowly find its way into her eyes again and her pout got bigger. She was going to cry again.

"Jeremiah." She pushed herself on me and hugged me immediately, I froze. "I'm sorry." She sobbed, crying as hard as I had ever seen anyone cry. "I'm really sorry, please don't hate me."

I was confused. I had no idea what was going on and I especially didn't have an idea why Kodi was apologizing to me.

"Everyone can hate me but please don't hate me. I didn't know, I'm sorry, I really didn't know, I didn't know. It's all my fault, I'm sorry."

I exhaled.
I drew a deep breath again and then reached for Kodi's shaky arms. I gently pulled her from me. I gave her a second to catch her breath while I squatted in front of her so I didn't look so tall and intimidating. She was trying so hard to swallow her words back.

"Did anything happen to you?" I asked her.

She shut her eyes as another tear dropped. She nodded.

"Can you talk about it? Do you want to talk about it?"

She let out a weak exhale mixed with a sob and then shook her head. That was all I wanted to hear. I wasn't going to force her to talk about something she didn't want to or wasn't ready to at that point. I nodded too.

"Look at me." I told her and she obeyed me. "I could never hate you. No matter what it is that happened, no matter what happens, I can never hate you. I know that I don't say it all the time but you're my sister, and it means that you're my family. Family don't hate each other, family forgives and protects each other no matter what so no matter what it is, don't you think for a second that I could hate you for anything in the world okay?"

Kodi sniffed. She couldn't speak but with the way she nodded, it looked like understood what I meant. I exhaled.

"Come here." I pulled her close and hugged her immediately. "You're going to be fine." I whispered into her hair. "Everything is going to be fine. I promise."