Love at First Sight? Mr. Harrison Has Been Scheming All Along-Chapter 118: "Sean Harrison, Do You Love Me?
"Don’t call me Mr. Harrison!"
Sean Harrison leaned in to kiss her, but then stopped himself.
He hated hearing her call him "Mr. Harrison."
It was like a silent reminder that his actions were destroying their relationship.
The room fell silent for several seconds.
Finally, Sean Harrison shook his head. "No, it was for my own sake."
’He was afraid she wouldn’t be able to accept the man he used to be.’
’Looking at it now, that decision might not have been wrong.’
’What he’d done back then was far worse than what happened tonight.’
’If Rory Linden knew he was an innately cruel person, she would probably leave him without a second thought...’
Rory Linden lay calmly on the bed, looking at the man before her.
After a long, long time,
she asked him, "Sean Harrison, do you love me?"
"I love you."
The man answered quickly.
As if that question could only ever have one answer.
Rory Linden raised her hand, her fingers gently caressing the man’s face. "Sean Harrison, no matter why you fell in love with me, since you love me, you should trust that you didn’t choose the wrong person. Why can’t you just try to trust the person you love?!"
Her question echoed in the empty bedroom.
She continued, "I’m the one you chose, right? Why won’t you try to trust me? Trust that I love you too, and that I’m willing to accept any version of you."
Rory Linden thought for a moment, then corrected herself. "No, I can love any version of you, but if you do something that breaks the law, I will definitely give up on you. I definitely won’t love you anymore."
As she spoke, word by word, the man’s grip on her wrist tightened.
The calloused pads of his fingers pressed into her palm.
"I won’t lie to you again..."
Sean Harrison tried to kiss her.
She turned her face away.
"Then tell me. What does Nadia Willow know? Tell me right now, and she won’t be a threat to you anymore."
Rory Linden didn’t see what the problem was.
It didn’t matter what Sean Harrison had done.
"Let the past be the past..."
Sean Harrison resisted telling her everything.
Even his own mother couldn’t accept it.
So why should he expect an outsider to?
His childhood experiences had taught him time and again that only "good children" were rewarded, while "bad children" were abandoned.
He never believed...
...that someone would steadfastly accept his bad side.
Even though he was an adult now, the lessons of his childhood were deeply ingrained.
Rory Linden was already exhausted from the day.
Lying in bed now, her mind was growing fuzzy, too sleepy to utter another word.
"Forget it..." She gave up struggling. "I’m tired. I want to sleep for a bit."
"Okay, I’ll go get your pajamas."
The man rolled out of bed.
In the end, Rory Linden relented.
She was too tired today. She didn’t want to argue with him, didn’t want to persuade him. She just wanted to rest.
She was leaving tomorrow.
During this time, perhaps she really should think things over.
Think about how they were going to move forward together.
Rory Linden quickly changed into her pajamas and fell asleep.
Sean Harrison, however, wasn’t sleepy at all.
He propped himself up on one arm, his gaze tracing the woman’s peaceful sleeping face over and over as he listened to her calm, even breathing.
It felt as if the entire world had grown still in that moment.
Sean Harrison’s feelings for Rory Linden had perhaps begun many years ago, a warmth like the spring sun shining down on him.
After spending this time with her, however,
he saw that she was truly like a piece of flawless jade.
With each passing day, he discovered more of her beauty and rarity.
Sean Harrison knew that what Rory Linden said was probably right.
Perhaps she really could accept his wretched self.
But he...
...why risk it when there was a better solution?
He wrapped his arms around the woman in his embrace, feeling her instinctively snuggle closer into his chest in response to his movement.
His eyes were steeped in tenderness.
He lowered his head and kissed the crown of her hair.
-
In the morning, when Rory Linden was woken by her alarm, she found the man holding her was still fast asleep.
He showed no signs of waking, even after she got up to turn off the alarm.
It was rare to see him sleeping so soundly, and she subconsciously reached out to check if he was still breathing.
She was only relieved after confirming he was still alive.
He was still asleep by the time she had changed her clothes and left, dragging her suitcase behind her.
Before she left, she put a sticky note in the entryway.
When she arrived at the hospital, the bus that was taking them had already stopped at the entrance.
Rory Linden picked up her freshly laundered white coat and checked on a few of the patients she had been responsible for one last time before heading downstairs.
She had just boarded the bus and chosen a seat when Evan Hollis got on as well.
He naturally sat down next to her.
"Dr. Linden, do you get motion sickness?"
As Evan Hollis spoke, he took out several small boxes from the small bag he was carrying.
There were motion sickness patches, motion sickness pills, and even a... pair of glasses?
"What are these?"
Rory Linden asked, pointing to a pair of glasses that looked like they were made of plastic tubes.
"Motion sickness glasses. I saw them when I was shopping online and bought them on a whim."
Evan Hollis tried them on himself first.
They looked a little strange.
Wearing the glasses, he asked Rory Linden, "Do you need any motion sickness pills?" 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚
Rory Linden smiled and declined. "I don’t get motion sickness."
As colleagues boarded the bus one by one, Evan Hollis went around asking each of them if they needed patches or pills.
When a colleague needed a patch, he would thoughtfully help them stick it behind their ear.
If a colleague chose to take a pill, he would thoughtfully offer them a small bottle of mineral water.
Rory Linden watched silently from her seat.
’Evan Hollis...’
’He really is a natural-born ray of sunshine.’
At 8:30, once everyone had arrived, they all got off the bus to unfurl a banner for a group photo before reboarding and setting off.
The bus’s route took it past the residential complex where they lived.
Rory Linden gazed at the familiar scenery outside the window...
Evan Hollis, sitting beside her, spoke up. "Did your boyfriend not come to see you off today?"
"Huh?" Rory Linden snapped out of her thoughts and replied casually, "He’s busy with work."
’If this were before... if last night hadn’t happened, she would have at least sent him a text by now to update him. But after what happened last night, she could clearly feel a subtle shift in their relationship.’
The words had barely left her mouth when the phone in her pocket rang.
It was Sean Harrison.
She hesitated for a moment before answering.
"You’ve already left, haven’t you?"
The man’s voice, slightly hoarse, came from the other end of the line.
"Yeah,"
Rory Linden responded.
After a few seconds of silence on the line, Sean Harrison continued, "I saw the note you left."
A small smile finally appeared on Rory Linden’s face. "Good, as long as you saw it."
"Take care of yourself, and stay safe."
"Okay. We can talk more when I get back."
"Alright," Sean Harrison said. "I’ll come pick you up when you get back."
"Okay."
After the call ended, Sean Harrison quietly stared at the sticky note in his hand.
It was just an ordinary, plain-colored sticky note.
On it was the woman’s elegant handwriting.
"I love you, and I trust you."
Six neat words.
But after what had happened yesterday, they held an extraordinary power.
Before he could tear his gaze away from the note, his phone rang again.
The name displayed on the screen was: [Mother].
It was Charlotte Rhodes.
Sean Harrison’s expression turned cold. He let the phone ring for dozens of seconds, only answering when it was about to go to voicemail.
Charlotte Rhodes’s voice came through. "Get to Elysian Hospital right now!"
