As if to reassure Rory Linden, Sean Harrison added, "We don’t need to sign a prenup when we get married. Or we can, if you want. If I cheat on you, I’ll walk away with nothing. All the assets in my na will be yours."
"Sherry Walsh told that contracts with those kinds of clauses aren’t really legally binding or enforceable. If it ever ca to a divorce lawsuit, the court wouldn’t actually force one party to walk away with nothing just because it was in the agreent."
It was sothing Sherry Walsh had ranted about while they were watching TV dramas.
In those shows, the male characters would often offer to sign agreents to walk away with nothing if they divorced, which made them seem so sincere.
But in a real divorce over infidelity, the court would never actually rule based on that clause.
"I won’t cheat on you, you can rest assured of that. If you ever don’t want to work, you can quit anyti and do whatever you want. I can provide for you forever."
Sean Harrison knew full well that before he t Rory Linden that sumr, his life had been a chaotic darkness that no light could penetrate.
It was that little girl who ca to "bother" him again and again, who protected him when he was scared of thunder.
She pulled him back from the brink when he had decided to give up on everything.
The Sean Harrison of today was just as everyone saw him: high and mighty, able to look down on anyone.
He would never go back to that darkest hour.
The Sean Harrison who had been abandoned in a corner, wanting to give up on everything, was gone forever.
In his life, Rory Linden would always be one of a kind.
He just didn’t know how to express how unique she was to him.
"I don’t need that," Rory Linden refused even more bluntly. "I spent twenty years in school, and it wasn’t so soone else could provide for . I love my job, and I plan on doing it for a very long ti."
On her first day of dical school, she had taken an oath with her classmates.
She had endured eight years of grueling dical training and worked far too hard to achieve what she had today.
Admittedly, after eting Sean Harrison, it was the first ti in her life she’d ever felt like she had a safety net.
She no longer had to worry that any single failure could destroy her.
But having that safety net didn’t an she would give up on her own ambitions.
The car pulled smoothly into a parking space.
Neither of them was in a hurry to get out.
"Then just switch hospitals. Didn’t you say a while ago that Elysian was holding back your career? What’s the difference between switching this month versus next year?"
Sean Harrison absolutely did not want Rory Linden to have any more contact with Evan Hollis.
’Even his mother, a woman who could be almost unfeelingly detached, was that fond of Evan Hollis.’
’So what about Rory?’
’Would she spend more ti with him and eventually decide that Evan Hollis was better...?’
She turned her head to look at the man just a couple of feet away,
"Sean Harrison, you’ve never trusted , have you?"
"First Miles Harrison, now Evan Hollis. Is there going to be soone else after them?"
"In your eyes, am I just the kind of woman who’d run off with any man who so much as crooked his finger at ? Is that it?"
Rory Linden’s disappointnt was palpable with every word she spoke.
’Sean Harrison and Miles Harrison were truly polar opposites.’
’One thinks I can’t live without him, so he’ll be forgiven no matter how outrageously he acts.’
’The other thinks I could be lured away by any man at any mont.’
Rory Linden’s fingers dug into the car door. "I know that a year-end bonus of a few tens of thousands is probably nothing in your eyes. It might not even cover the maintenance on one of your watches. But that’s the reward I earned for a year of hard work, and I have no reason to give it up."
"..."
"Sean Harrison, if—and this is a hypothetical—if I move to a new hospital, what happens if there’s a young, promising doctor there who’s around my age?"
Rory asked him.
The light in the underground garage was dim.
When Rory turned to look at him, half of his face was lost in shadow, his dark, inky eyes betraying no emotion.
In those few seconds of silence, Rory already knew the answer.
’She had always thought that if she and Sean Harrison were to have a conflict, it would be over their parents. Or because of their different views on money. She’d never imagined it would be like this.’
’To any outsider, she was the one who should have been insecure in the relationship.’
Rory continued to press him. "Even if there aren’t any single colleagues my age in my departnt, what about single, successful patients? Or their family mbers?"
The silence in the car stretched on, longer than before.
Rory leaned over, took his hand, and asked, "Sean, can’t you just try to trust ? Trust that I’m not the kind of person whose heart changes so easily."
Sean Harrison squeezed her hand back. "Okay."
They got out of the car together.
While they were still in the elevator, Rory’s phone rang. It was Evelyn Irving.
When she first saw Evelyn Irving’s na on the caller ID, she felt a pang of anxiety.
Charlotte Rhodes was in the hospital right now.
’What if sothing had happened...?’
"Oh, Rory, you have to help talk so sense into Miles!"
The mont the call connected, Evelyn Irving’s voice, already choked with sobs, ca through the line.
Hearing the na "Miles," Rory finally let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding.
Even without Evelyn Irving saying more, she could guess what this was about.
"What’s wrong?"
Still, Rory pretended she didn’t know what the other woman was going to say.
"I don’t know what’s gotten into that boy Miles. He’s talking about giving the company back to Sean, and saying he wants to go abroad and build his own career..."
As Evelyn Irving spoke, her voice began to break.
’Rory understood.’
’As his mother, she had absolutely spoiled Miles over the years.’
’No matter what he did wrong, Evelyn Irving would almost never say the word "no" to him.’
’That was why, on the night a drunk Miles had tried to get into her room, it hadn’t even crossed Rory’s mind to ask Evelyn for help.’
"Auntie Irving, Young Master Harrison already told about this..."
"He told you? Did you talk him out of it? He’s never known a day of hardship in his life! What’s he going to do abroad? Co back in a few years... How is he supposed to make a coback after a few years!"
Evelyn Irving didn’t let Rory finish her sentence.
She just barrelled on, pouring out all her frustrations.
’Then again... it wasn’t surprising that soone who knew Miles would think that way.’
By this point, Rory and Sean had arrived ho.
The apartnt was very quiet.
Evelyn Irving’s agitated voice echoed in the foyer.
Sean, standing right beside her, could hear every word from the phone clearly.
"I was worried he was being scamd, so I tried to talk him out of it, but he seems dead set on it. Nothing I said made a difference."
’Rory didn’t really care what happened to Miles.’
She made her voice sound as helpless as possible.
As if she were commiserating with Evelyn Irving.
"I suppose so... Well, then, what about having Sean try to talk to him?" Evelyn Irving asked quickly. "Are you with Sean? Can you please tell him about this?"
Rory looked up at the man beside her.
Just as she was about to ask for his opinion, Sean, who had heard the entire conversation, bent down.
He pressed his forehead to hers and spoke, his lips close to the phone’s microphone. "Sister-in-law, I’m right here."
As he spoke, he wrapped his arm around her waist.
Reviews
All reviews (0)