Love at First Sight? Mr. Harrison Has Been Scheming All Along-Chapter 257: Clasping Her Hand Holding the Blanket
"You think I can just become a stepfather whenever I want? She doesn’t even like me."
Ryan Sterling sat casually on the living room rug.
One leg was bent, his arm resting on his knee.
"Good that you’re not," Noah Sterling said. "Otherwise, if Mom found out, she’d kill you."
"She’s never cared about what I do my whole life. Now she’d suddenly start?"
Ryan Sterling acted like he didn’t care, but his tone betrayed his obvious frustration.
Noah Sterling’s expression turned serious. "Ryan, you’re not a kid anymore. Even if you don’t think about yourself, you have to think about her. If a woman with a child gets together with you, people will just think she’s tricking you."
"Trick me out of what? She has a Ph.D. in medicine from Celestria Medical University, she’s a cardiothoracic surgery expert, she’s perfectly capable of earning her own money, and she even has a child. What do I have that’s worth tricking me for? I wish someone would tell me how *I* could trick *her*!"
Ryan Sterling was getting worked up.
Deep down, he knew the chances of anything happening between him and Rory Linden were slim.
But the slimmer the chances, the more he refused to give up.
"You know that, but other people don’t. Society will only see an older woman with a child."
Noah Sterling told him this with a grave and serious demeanor.
"It’s fine for a man to be older than a woman, but not the other way around? What kind of twisted logic is that?"
"Yes, that’s how other people see it."
"I don’t care what you all think."
Seeing the two were about to start a real fight, Sherry Walsh slammed her hand on the coffee table in front of her.
"Hey, what’s the rush? The thing you’re all worried about is basically impossible, okay!" Sherry Walsh pouted. "My Rory didn’t even want Sean Harrison. Why would she want this little punk!"
Noah Sterling nodded. "That would be for the best. Besides, he really doesn’t have many likable qualities."
Ryan Sterling was speechless. "I’m still here, you know. Could you at least wait until I’m gone to talk trash about me?"
Sherry Walsh shook her head. "This is mainly to get you to give up your fantasies and face reality."
-
Charlotte Rhodes’s surgery lasted ten hours.
When Rory Linden walked out of the operating room, a faint, pale light was just beginning to streak the sky outside the window.
In the hallway, Evan Hollis and Sean Harrison were sitting in two rows of chairs across from each other, both seemingly asleep.
Soon, Sean Harrison woke up first.
"Is it over? Was the surgery a success?"
Sean Harrison asked her first.
Rory Linden said, "Yes. I stayed until the very last suture was done before I came out."
As the lead surgeon, she would normally leave after completing the main part of the operation.
The subsequent closing and suturing would be left to her assistants.
Charlotte Rhodes was Sean Harrison’s mother.
In light of their relationship, she had personally handled the sutures herself.
"Is there anything else you need to do? Or are you going home to rest?" Sean Harrison said. "You must be exhausted after the surgery. Let me drive you home."
"Okay, thank you."
Rory Linden didn’t refuse.
She had given her car to Sherry Walsh to drive yesterday, so she didn’t have a car today.
"Dr. Linden, is the surgery over?"
Evan Hollis finally woke up and hurried over.
"Yes." Rory Linden nodded. "The surgery was a success."
Hearing this, Evan Hollis’s expression visibly relaxed.
Rory Linden continued, "The patient needs to recover post-op. She’ll be in the ICU for now and can’t have visitors. You can go home and rest for a couple of days, then come back to see her."
"What if I follow all the sanitization procedures?"
Worry was written all over Evan Hollis’s face.
Rory Linden hadn’t slept in 24 hours, and her energy was nearing its limit.
She gently rubbed her temples. "Don’t worry, the doctors will monitor her 24/7. They’ll take immediate action if any issues arise. The most critical part is over."
"Okay, I understand. Thank you, Dr. Linden."
Evan Hollis had also been an anesthesiologist before, so he knew all too well how difficult an artificial heart surgery was.
A hospital the size of Celestria University Affiliated Hospital had only performed a few hundred such cases over several years.
With the surgery successfully completed, the biggest hurdle had indeed been overcome.
Sean Harrison walked with Rory Linden to her office.
"President Harrison, you should go home. I’m not leaving just yet. I need to wait a bit, check on the patient’s condition, and make sure there are no problems before I go."
In truth, Rory Linden only needed to stay for a little while.
Even so, she was already regretting having agreed to let him drive her home.
"It’s fine. I’ll wait for you," Sean Harrison said.
A few strands of her hair at her forehead had stuck up when she’d carelessly removed her surgical cap.
Sean subconsciously raised his hand, wanting to smooth down the stray hairs for her.
He lifted his hand slightly, his fingers just barely brushing against her soft hair...
"What is it?"
Rory Linden froze for a second before realizing what he was doing.
A hint of unnatural alarm flickered in her expression.
Sean Harrison’s expression faltered in surprise. He explained, "Your hair was sticking up."
"Thanks."
Rory Linden hastily brushed at her hair and unnaturally turned her face away. "I’m going to go check on Auntie Rhodes. If everything’s normal, I’ll be able to leave soon."
"Okay. I’ll wait for you here in the hallway."
Sean Harrison’s tone was placid.
After she left, he sat down on the bench, his gaze lowered to his own fingers.
His action just now had been completely instinctual.
After all, they had once been the closest of partners. In the five years since they’d separated, he had buried himself in an ever-increasing workload.
Now that he had finally slowed down, he realized that his busy schedule had, in a way, hit the fast-forward button on time.
He had to really stop and think about it to realize that five years had already passed.
About an hour later, Rory Linden returned to the hallway, having changed her clothes.
"Finished with work? Let’s go."
Sean Harrison stood up from the chair.
The two of them went downstairs together.
Veridia at five in the morning was completely different from its usual self.
The entire city had not yet awoken.
The streets were empty, with pitifully few pedestrians.
Sean Harrison pulled the car over to the side of the road and looked around. "Should we find a place for breakfast?"
"No, thanks. I’m a bit tired and just want to get back and rest. Besides, Sherry Walsh is probably still at my place."
As Rory Linden spoke, she rested her head against the car window, her eyelids already gently closed as she rested.
The hospital was very close to her apartment.
The car stopped at the entrance to her residential community.
"Should I walk you in?"
"No need, President Harrison. Pulling all-nighters is normal in our line of work. I’m used to it."
Rory Linden forced a smile and waved at him. "You’ve had a long night too. Go home and get some rest."
Even so, Sean Harrison still got out of the car and walked her all the way through the community gates.
Watching her retreating figure, he became increasingly aware of how difficult Rory Linden’s life must have been these past few years.
She was alone and penniless in a foreign country, pregnant, and then had to work after giving birth to Leo Linden...
A doctor’s hours are long, with so many night shifts.
Under such difficult conditions, she still managed to save up 540,000 to pay him back.
What was even more despicable was that when he received the money back then, he had no reaction at all.
He never stopped to think about what she was doing or how she had managed to save up all that money.
It was only natural that she wouldn’t accept him now.
-
Rory Linden had just walked through her front door when she saw someone lying on the sofa.
Her first thought was that it was Sherry Walsh, but when she took a closer look, she realized...
It was Ryan Sterling!
Ryan Sterling was lying on the sofa in sweatpants and a T-shirt, with nothing covering him.
’Why would Ryan Sterling be the one who stayed?’
Though Rory Linden was puzzled, she checked on Leo, then found a thin blanket in the closet and tiptoed into the living room.
She bent down and gently draped the blanket over Ryan Sterling.
The moment the blanket settled on him, the young man who had been sound asleep on the sofa slowly opened his eyes.
Ryan Sterling’s eyelashes were long, and they trembled slightly as his eyes opened.
Rory Linden knew her movements had woken him and was just about to apologize when...
Ryan Sterling’s hand shot out from under the blanket and clasped her right hand, which was still holding the edge of the blanket.
