Love at First Sight? Mr. Harrison Has Been Scheming All Along-Chapter 146: Forcing Her to Accept His Kiss

"It’s nothing."

Sean Harrison didn’t seem too concerned.

Rory Linden completely ignored him. She leaned in closer, brushing his hair aside to reveal a small cut underneath.

The wound didn’t look deep, and it hadn’t bled much.

After all this time, the blood had mostly clotted.

Still worried, Rory Linden took his hand. "Come on, let’s go to the treatment room. I’ll clean that wound for you."

"I’m fine."

"Don’t be stubborn. Are you going to listen to yourself or the doctor?"

Rory Linden paid him no mind, pulling him into the elevator and down to the treatment room on a lower floor.

She carefully cleaned the matted blood from his hair, then disinfected the cut with iodine.

Since the wound wasn’t deep, it didn’t require much treatment.

Still, Rory Linden decided to tease him. "Technically, for a wound like this, I should shave this patch of hair, stitch it up, and put a bandage on it. But seeing as you’re a CEO, being this ugly might hurt your company’s image, so I’ll let it slide."

Sean Harrison sat in the chair, watching the woman in front of him pack things away. He reached out and pulled her into his arms.

One hand wrapped around her waist while the other cupped the back of her head, forcing her to lower her face for his kiss.

Rory Linden thought he was just going for a light peck, so she didn’t plan on resisting.

But his fingers tightened on the back of her head, giving her no room to escape as his tongue tried to part her lips...

"Don’t..."

Rory Linden quickly pushed his chin away.

When she looked down at him, he had the expression of a child who’d been denied candy, looking almost pitiful.

It was the first time she had ever seen him make such a face.

Rory Linden cupped his face and gave him a quick kiss. "Alright now, I’m at work."

"I know."

Sean Harrison’s arm was still wrapped around Rory Linden as he spoke.

Only then did Rory Linden ask him, "So... why was your mother suddenly hospitalized again? Was there a problem with the surgery?"

"No."

"Then... did you argue with her?" Rory Linden felt that was the only other possibility. She pressed on, "Was it because of me?"

"No."

Sean Harrison denied it.

Rory Linden had noticed over this period that Sean Harrison and his mother did not have a good relationship.

The two of them hardly ever saw or spoke to each other.

’A sudden argument...’

’It must be related to the request he made last night.’

"Sean Harrison, you don’t have to be in such a rush. I think our life right now is great. I’m very happy with it, and I’ll stay by your side and won’t go anywhere. We can just keep on like this..."

Rory Linden hugged him back and said softly,

"We don’t need to rush into marriage. I just graduated, I’m thinking of changing jobs next year, and I still have so much I want to do. It’s too soon for me to get married..."

At least, at this very moment, that was what Rory Linden truly thought.

She had considered marrying Miles Harrison back then, but only because the Harrington Family had been good to her.

As repayment, she had been willing to listen to Evelyn Irving and marry Miles Harrison.

’If she could choose for herself,’

’she definitely wouldn’t want to walk down the aisle right after graduation.’

Once you get married, many things are no longer up to you.

Rory Linden was about to say more when the phone in her white coat’s pocket began to ring.

After taking the call, she said to Sean Harrison, "I have to go. There’s an urgent consultation."

"Okay." Sean Harrison loosened his arms from around her. "I’ll pick you up after your shift tonight."

"Okay."

Rory Linden fluffed the hair around the cut on his head one more time, making sure the wound wasn’t too obvious before she left.

After she was gone, he was alone in the treatment room.

Sean Harrison gazed out the window.

Veridia in the winter month was especially desolate. The sky was a pale blue, empty of birds.

The entire space was exceptionally quiet.

He sat alone for nearly half an hour before taking out his phone, and then the small note.

He keyed in the numbers from the note, one by one.

He stared at the string of digits for another moment before pressing the call button.

After a long series of default rings,

a cold, automated voice came from the other end: "Hello, the number you have dialed is currently unavailable. Please try again later..."

Sean Harrison closed his eyes.

He crumpled the note into a ball and tossed it into the yellow hazardous waste bin nearby.

Just as he stood up to leave...

his phone rang.

The screen displayed the very number he had just dialed.

Sean Harrison stared at the number in silence for a long time before finally pressing the answer button.

"Hello, this is Evan Hollis. I was busy and couldn’t get to the phone just now. How can I help you?"

A familiar male voice came through the receiver.

Evan Hollis.

From the voice alone, Sean Harrison could easily tell that the man speaking was the Evan Hollis he knew of.

Before this, he had never met this "Lion" from the orphanage.

Now, he finally understood why Evan Hollis used that English name.

’It’s probably because his long, curly hair looks a bit like a lion’s mane.’

Sean Harrison didn’t say a single word.

He hung up the phone and strode out of the room.

The world was so big, yet so small.

So small that at the very moment he dialed that number, he, this Lion, and his mother were all inside the very same, small Elysian Hospital.

Sean Harrison took the elevator to the sixth floor.

As he walked up to Charlotte Rhodes’s hospital room, he heard the same voice from the phone call.

It was coming from the room right in front of him.

From his angle, he couldn’t see their faces, only hear them talking.

He couldn’t make out what Evan Hollis was saying, but he could hear Charlotte Rhodes’s laughter echoing from the room again and again.

’When she was with him, her own son,’

’she had never seemed this happy before.’

’She must regret it. Regret that she didn’t choose *him* in the end, and chose her own flesh and blood instead.’

-

After Rory Linden finished her work, the first thing she did was head to Charlotte Rhodes’s room.

After all, she had been the one to perform her surgery a few months ago.

Now that she was hospitalized again, Rory felt she had to check on her.

Just as Rory Linden reached the nurses’ station, she ran into Evelyn Irving, who was asking some questions.

"Rory!" Evelyn Irving saw Rory Linden and immediately grabbed her arm. "Did you know? Sean has changed so much recently. Even though he and his mom never got along, it was never as bad as it is today."

"Did something happen today?"

Rory Linden asked, seizing the opportunity.

"I’m not sure about the details. All I know is that Sean suddenly went home, said a few words to his mom, and upset the old lady so much her heart condition acted up!"

Evelyn Irving sighed. "And then he just dropped her off at the hospital and left, not caring about a thing!"

"But I just saw him sitting by the door."

"Really? I didn’t see him!" Evelyn Irving said. "He’s not even as good as that Dr. Hollis. Dr. Hollis is in there chatting with her now, and the old lady is in much better spirits."

"Dr. Hollis?"

Rory Linden thought for a moment. ’There isn’t a Dr. Hollis in the cardiac surgery department, is there?’

"The one with the curly hair," Evelyn Irving added. "It seems he and his mom knew each other from when they were abroad."

’It’s Evan Hollis.’

"I’ll go take a look, then."

Rory Linden didn’t overthink it.

Evan Hollis grew up abroad, and Charlotte Rhodes and Sean Harrison had also spent many years overseas.

While it was a coincidence that they knew each other, it wasn’t impossible.

When she entered the room, Evan Hollis hadn’t left yet. He was still there, chatting with Charlotte Rhodes.

Charlotte Rhodes’s face was wreathed in smiles.

’In all the time she’d known the older woman, this seemed to be the first time she had ever seen her with such an expression.’