A/N: Below.

HARRISON

Three seconds. That's all it took to predict how the years of your life can be played out. Life is composed of three seconds that change who you are and who you will be.

Harrison Montgomery sat on his office, stared at the skyline with glass windows for its frames, as he contemplated about how he lived the past sixteen years of his life.

He knew he was a bitter man and he had lived his life consumed by tangible objects. When he lost love and faith in love at the age of twenty-four, his world turned into a wall full of cracks and no matter how billions of money would fill his bank account, the sun's rays still refused to go through the cracks.

Three seconds was all it took for him to psychedelically think that his son was still alive-one glance at Christian from last week when he saw him with Ana, and he doubted how his whole life had turned out. He even hired some men to watch on Christian and thankfully, they caught pictures of Elena slapping and kissing him. The photos stirred Harrison in a way that anger never felt the same. Anger was for the betrayal he felt for years, but this kind of anger had the unfamiliar companion of protectiveness.

Call him pathetic but he couldn't take it anymore. He hired one man to get a DNA sample from Christian and that man was the waiter on his date with Ana two nights ago. He got Christian's glass of champagne and all else was taken care of scientists. Now he was staring at the brown envelope in his right hand while the other hand travelled an onion ring in between the spaces of his fingers.

He recalled all those three seconds.

3 . . . 2 . . . 1

For a twenty one year old he has his own company, Harrison was indeed underdressed. He just wore a simple white t-shirt and faded jeans, and he laughed at how employees would pass by him like he's a lost man inside the thirty storied building. It was 1988 and M-Corp was rising to the top. Even though he grew up with tycoons for parents, Harrison wanted to be credited on his own.

There were days when he didn't feel like himself so he wanted to act like what normal people do. He ate at the pantry and as usual, she was there.

She had bright copper hair and meadow green eyes. He knew who she was for weeks now but this was the only time he had courage to speak to her. She manages one of the kiosks but that didn't mean anything to him.

"Good morning! What's your order, Sir?"

He smiled, "Anything as long as you eat with me."

"Huh?"

"I believe you're not deaf," he raised his brows and his grey eyes were exaggerated. He had tousled blonde hair and his shoulders were wide and arms so muscular. Karla couldn't deny he was beautiful.

She cleared her throat and asked with attitude, "Seriously, what's your order?"

"Eat with me."

Karla ran out of patience and screamed, "You know what, dude?! I am calling security right now because I believe that you are leading to harassment and I don't let some random handsome guy harass me and—"

"Good morning, Mr. Montgomery!" One employee who passed by greeted Harrison and he nodded professionally in response. Karla was flushed and she couldn't say any word. They stared at each other for a long period of time before Harrison asked, "Shall we eat?"

Karla nodded, completely conscious of the intrigued eyes around them.

They sat across each other on the plastic chairs and table and Harrison ate like he wasn't a CEO. Karla, on the other hand, was so scared. She knew she'd get negative responses because of this.

"Why do you work here?" Harrison asked and of course, Karla expected how he thought her job was too small and that she would be nothing but a play thing to him. He was bored right now and he wanted to cause such a once in a lifetime scene.

"Uhm . . . I am eighteen years old and I'll graduate high school in a couple of months. I don't have parents or anybody else so I am striving to get myself through college." He thought of how honourable it was of her to value education above anything else, while she thought of how he must be so disgusted of her.

Harrison responded by saying, "Oh I thought you're working here because of the random handsome guy."

Karla was speechless for almost a minute and Harrison confidently smirked.

One second, two second, three second . . . he heard her wind chime laugh and he knew the wind took him elsewhere.

3 . . . 2 . . . 1

They've been together for a year now but it's the first time they admitted it to the public. There were headlines like, "A real life Cinderella story" or "A teenage gold digger on the loose" and Harrison was almost amazed by how Karla stood firm despite all the criticisms around her. Harrison thought that the more people know about love, the more they try to destroy it.

He was practically running as soon as his car stopped in front of his parents' company, M-Real Estate. He received information about Karla receiving invitation from his parents and he knew how bad it would be. He ran as soon as he got inside. He asked everybody but no one had any idea. He took the stairs then the elevator then found her in one of the conference rooms with Elena.

None of the two women felt his presence so he witnessed with his own eyes how Elena opened a briefcase full of money in front of Karla. Elena said with her icy voice, "Isn't this what you want? Take it and leave Harrison to marry me."

Karla didn't say anything.

Elena then rolled her eyes and threw the cash right on Karla's face. She was raging, completely obsessed with how her pride was damaged because Harrison would choose a poor college girl over her. She threw the money one by one while calling her names like "whore", "gold digger", or "prostitute" again and again. Karla then spat right at her face and she was more than stunned.

Sooner than later, Harrison grabbed Karla's hand so tightly and glared at Elena before they marched out of the conference room. A shaken Karla just let Harrison take him wherever it was. Then Harrison slammed one black door open and they faced his parents. Karla wasn't that scared since Harrison looked so serious.

"Harrison . . . what are you doing here with that trash?" His mother asked.

He responded by showing them their tangled hands and said, "I'd like you to meet my fiance."

They gasped and Harrison suddenly dragged Karla out of their office and down to the lobby of the building. When Karla overcame her shock, she grabbed her wrist away from his protective grasp and as they stood by the vending machine, Karla asked incredulously, "We're getting married?"

It amazed Harrison how he could still manage to smile despite of the situation, and it was all because of her. He chuckled when he marvelled, "I kind of skipped the proposal, didn't I?"

Karla smiled and almost cried when Harrison knelt in front of her. There were a few people but they didn't mind them. He asked, "Karla, I love you so much so will you do the honour of marrying me?"

In a span of three seconds, she finally decided and uttered, "Yes!"

Harrison and wrapped his arms around her and spun her around. They were completely different—as different as north and south, but maybe that's why they had magnetic connection. After such passionate kiss, Harrison took an order from the vending machine.

"What's that for? You suddenly got hungry?" Karla was curious.

"I didn't have time to buy a ring so . . ." He then slid the onion ring to her third finger.

3 . . . 2 . . . 1

He drove his car in the middle of the night, while he screamed out his anger. He recently found out that Ana wasn't his child. He was so happy when he and Karla finally had a child and he loved the child so much. However, he wasn't blind like Karla. He recognized how different she was and somehow the connection he felt with her wasn't that strong.

Then it happened. He listened to people's doubts that it was all about money and that she had always cheated. Maybe it was all true. Maybe everything was all a lie. His eyes were blurry because of all the tears and in three seconds . . . his car hit a truck.

~HH~

While he was in coma for two months, his parents found out about the DNA test and they wasted no time taking everything away from Karla. They treated her like the trash they deemed she was when they threw all of her stuffs out of the house Harrison brought for his family. They even took Ana's last name away and shut down all bank accounts. Karla was more than scared, she asked Elena, "What are you doing?"

Just like what Elena did with the money before, she threw the paper right to her face and Karla screamed how wrong the DNA results were. She demanded for a repeat.

Elena folded her arms and Harrison's father was the one who said, "You can't fool Harrison again, Karla. You may have had him wrapped around your middle finger but he's not gullible anymore."

"He won't do this to me! He won't do this to us!"

"He did. He's in Hungary for a business trip right now and he left us to take care of everything. He wants you two out of his life and Karla? He couldn't bear to see your face."

There was Karla. College student, penniless, with a baby. Two weeks of being homeless and hungry . . . then she married Harrison's business rival, Raymond Steele.

~HH~

After three months of being a comatosed patient, Harrison finally woke up and with an unsteady voice, he whispered, "K-karla . . . K-karla?"

One second and to three . . . Elena who stood next to his parents explained, "Harrison, Karla's married to Raymond Steele now. Ana's last name is Steele now. Can't you see how much of a whore she is? Now you finally see?"

Harrison remembered crying, tears falling, hospital furniture breaking, and a needle against his skin shushing him to sleep.

Before he fell asleep, he saw her Karla's face for three seconds.

Right now?

3 . . . 2 . . . 1

Harrison opened the envelope and sobbed. Christian's his son.

A/N: So there's a love story before the love story. What do you think of this chapter? We go back to Ana and Christian next chapter. My classes will be back on the first week of January so I am doing my best to update as regular as I could. Please leave a review.

Thank you!

HotelHeart23