After leaving the luxury boutique, the two went to dinner.
When they got ho, Rory Linden freshened up before going to the study to look for Sean Harrison.
The man was sitting at his desk, handling so work. He only looked up when he heard a sound at the door.
"Sean Harrison, about the engagent..."
Rory Linden walked over.
Before she could finish her thought, he pulled her onto his lap by the wrist.
Sean Harrison liked this—holding her while they talked.
As their relationship grew more intimate, he beca increasingly bold.
He wrapped his arm around her waist. "Go on."
"I can’t get engaged to you just yet. But... it’s not that I don’t want to. You know your mother has a misunderstanding about mine, and she would never agree to it. I want to try and find so evidence myself to clear things up..."
Sean Harrison’s grip on her wrist tightened. "It was over twenty years ago. What if there’s no evidence left?"
"I have to try..."
"That Ivan Lowell... he was the butler for the Sheffield family. He has a son, and a grandson who just started elentary school this year..."
"You don’t have to help with this."
Rory Linden hurriedly refused.
Hearing him so clearly lay out every detail about Ivan Lowell, a strange sense of worry washed over her.
’Sean Harrison was clearly a good person.’
’But his tone just now had been a little... sinister.’
’As if he was about to do sothing... illegal.’
She looked up at the man before her. "Sean Harrison, this is my business, not yours."
Sean Harrison’s expression didn’t change, but his long, well-defined fingers tightened around her wrist. "Do we really need to draw such a clear line between your business and mine?"
Rory Linden smiled. "You’re so busy. I can handle sothing this small on my own."
The man’s brow furrowed slightly. "I know my mother’s personality. No matter what evidence you present, she’ll almost certainly refuse to admit she was wrong."
"From her perspective, she’s not really wrong. The fault lies with your father for being deceived all those years by the person right beside him..."
As Rory Linden spoke, she tried to wrap her fingers around his.
There was a huge difference in the size of their hands.
She hadn’t even managed to close her hand around his palm before he enveloped her hand in his grip again.
"Is that what you think?"
Sean Harrison stared at Rory Linden.
’He wanted to see right through her.’
Rory Linden nodded earnestly. "Yes. Your mother knew about this twenty years ago. She must have been the one who replaced all the maids and butlers. But she didn’t throw out. If she had insisted on sending to an orphanage, I doubt anyone could have stopped her."
’It must be her nature.’
Rory Linden never assud the worst in people.
She believed that Charlotte Rhodes was kind at heart.
’She just never imagined she would end up with her son.’
Sean Harrison listened quietly as Rory Linden finished. The barren wasteland deep in his heart began to change, little by little.
’The woman he loved was truly like the purest snow on a mountaintop, like a flower blooming in the desert.’
’She was so pure, so resilient, that he once again suppressed the urge to tell her he might not be as kind and perfect as she thought.’
’He could keep up the facade for a lifeti.’
’Perhaps her influence would make him better.’
’Maybe one day, he really would beco a better person.’
’But before that, he had to eliminate a few potential threats.’
Seeing that he was silent, Rory Linden explained again, "I really an it. Your mother never said anything cruel to . She..."
The rest of her words were swallowed.
Rory Linden’s cheeks flushed.
Sean Harrison pinned both of her hands with one of his own, his lips brushing against the shell of her ear. "Rory, if you ever dare to even think about leaving , then I..."
His words trailed off.
He moved closer to her earlobe, murmuring, "...then I will lock you by my side and never let you go anywhere..."
Rory Linden’s head was spinning.
She gently shook her head. "I won’t leave you. I won’t go anywhere..."
’She didn’t want to leave him.’
’Perhaps the heavens had taken pity on her after all those difficult years and finally sent Sean Harrison to her.’
These last few months with him had been the most peaceful and joyful days of her life.
Sean Harrison stood up.
His gaze traveled down from her earlobe, finally stopping at her collarbone...
He asked, "If I leave a mark here, will anyone see it?"
She shook her head.
He chuckled lightly.
There, he left tonight’s first mark...
-
The dical outreach trip to the countryside was scheduled for September 9th.
The day before, Rory Linden had a particularly busy day at work. Just as her shift was about to end, she was called in for an ergency surgery.
She was the first assistant, and she didn’t get out of the operating room until eleven.
Her legs were so stiff from standing she could barely bend them.
She took a shower at the hospital. Just as she stepped out of the shower room, she heard her phone ringing from her locker.
Thinking it was another ergency surgery, Rory Linden scrambled to answer the call.
"Miss... Miss Linden..."
The voice on the other end of the line was very weak.
"Hello? Who is this?"
Rory Linden didn’t recognize the voice at first, but she could tell the person on the other end was very weak.
"It’s... it’s , Nadia Willow..."
Nadia Willow spoke very slowly.
She struggled to explain her situation.
She said she’d fallen in the bathroom of her studio and couldn’t get up. She wasn’t wearing anything to cover herself and hoped Rory Linden could co with the ambulance.
And bring her sothing to wear.
"You..."
Rory Linden was suspicious, but the fact that Nadia asked her to co with an ambulance ant she wasn’t being asked to co alone.
’Maybe...’
’...it was real.’
Rory Linden hesitated for a mont before saying, "I understand."
She called for an ambulance and drove directly to the studio Nadia had ntioned.
The studio was very close to Elysian Hospital. It only took the ambulance ten minutes to reach the entrance.
It was late at night. There were no lights on around the studio; only the building itself was lit from within.
The building stood isolated in the darkness.
The ambulance pulled up to the door.
For the mont, Rory Linden chose to believe Nadia’s story. She grabbed a jacket and led the way.
There was no one on the first floor of the studio.
She walked up the stairs to the second floor.
The entire second floor was quiet.
Following Nadia’s instructions from the phone call, Rory Linden hurried toward the end of the hallway.
The door to the last room in the hallway was wide open.
From the doorway, Rory Linden could see the entire scene inside.
All the curtains in the room were drawn.
There were four people in the room.
Nadia Willow was lying on the floor. She wore a long dress that might have once been white, but was now almost completely stained crimson.
The floor, too, was pooled with red liquid.
A faint, almost unnoticeable, tallic scent of blood hung in the air.
Two n in black suits, looking like bodyguards, were trying to stuff her into a large woven sack.
And the last person in the room was soone Rory Linden should have known better than anyone.
But there he was, sitting in the room’s only chair with his legs crossed.
Those eyes, which had always looked at her with such tenderness, now watched the scene with cold indifference. His dark eyes were utterly devoid of emotion.
He exuded an air...
...an aura that made him feel like a complete stranger.
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