After their Cokes clinked, Rory finally rembered to ask, "By the way, with so many doctors at the hospital, how did you know who I was?"
Especially since she wasn’t even wearing a white coat right now.
’He recognized just like that?’
"Actually, after I started my orientation, I secretly looked through the photos of the doctors from every departnt," Evan Hollis said with a cheerful laugh. "That way, I don’t have to ask everyone their na when I talk to them, and I can make a good impression."
Evan Hollis said it so casually, but Rory could completely empathize with him.
When she first ca to the hospital, she had done the sa thing, secretly looking through all the photos of the doctors and nurses in the cardiothoracic surgery departnt to avoid the embarrassnt of not knowing soone’s na.
"To be honest, I didn’t recognize you at first, either. It’s just that you stood out, sitting here all by yourself. I took a closer look and thought you seed familiar. Then, while I was buying sothing at the convenience store, it suddenly clicked who you were. I didn’t expect you to still be here when I got back."
Evan Hollis took another sip of his Coke.
Rory took a sip of hers as well.
Whether they were surgeons or anesthesiologists, the workload was heavy, even at a private hospital like Elysian.
Just being able to sit here and drink a Coke felt like a rare, stolen mont of peace.
Rory explained, "I perford two ergency surgeries tonight. I’m too tired to move and just wanted to rest here for a bit before heading ho."
"Oh... a night shift, huh? I’ll be able to join the surgical rotation in a few days, so we’ll be seeing each other again then." Evan Hollis stood up. "Well, I’ll get going. I won’t disturb your rest."
Rory waved at Evan Hollis.
She rembered from his file that Evan Hollis was twenty-nine, a few years older than her, but you wouldn’t know it from his deanor.
Rory rarely had to perform two surgeries back-to-back on a night shift.
After a full day and night without rest, she was utterly exhausted. She got up and walked toward the parking lot.
The car Sean Harrison had arranged for her was parked in the outermost spot, just a few steps away.
Rory went to sleep the mont she got ho.
The next ti she opened her eyes, it was already past six in the evening.
The sky outside was filled with the colors of sunset.
Rory sat on her bed in a daze for a long ti before searching for news about Nadia Willow again.
Other than the one article about her return to the country, there was nothing new.
’That wasn’t surprising. After all, she was just a designer. For a low-key return, getting photographed by even one dia outlet was pretty good.’
After closing the search engine, Rory called Sherry Walsh.
She was a fairly independent person and could usually handle things on her own.
But this...
This was completely beyond her.
After confirming Sherry was free, Rory told her everything that had happened recently.
Naturally, however, she omitted so of the more intimate details.
"So, do you think he knew Nadia Willow was coming back and went to see her on purpose? Do you think this has anything to do with the request he made to you?"
Sherry posed two questions.
Rory was imdiately stumped.
She thought for a mont. "I believe coincidences happen, I just don’t really believe they happen to **."
Sherry asked again, "So you think he’s lying to you, right?"
"..." Rory was silent for a long ti before finally conceding to her gut feeling. "Yes. At the very least, he’s lying about not using as a substitute for Nadia Willow. He approached because I look like her."
"Then... he must have known Nadia Willow was divorced beforehand, right? Why would he ask you to be his girlfriend? He could have just pursued her directly. Why would he need a stand-in?"
Sherry’s series of questions stumped Rory once again.
Rory realized then just how pitifully little she knew about Sean Harrison.
She couldn’t guess what the man was thinking at all.
Sherry continued, "When I was just starting out as a lawyer, I’d get clients who wanted my help but wouldn’t tell the whole truth. After running into a few of them, I developed a kind of habit. The mont I start suspecting soone is lying, I assu everything they say is a lie. Even if they’re telling the truth, I’ll find a way to convince myself it’s a lie."
Rory understood what Sherry was trying to say.
That was exactly the state she was in now.
Even though there was no concrete proof that Sean Harrison was lying, she still felt he was hiding sothing from her.
"But I can’t prove he *isn’t* lying..." Rory said, watching the sunset. "I can’t tell if he’s lying at all..."
"Girl, honestly, I don’t think he has any reason to lie to you. If he likes you, he’ll be with you. If he likes Nadia Willow, he’ll be with Nadia Willow. Why would he lie to you just to go see her? It makes no sense!"
From Sherry’s perspective, Rory was just worrying for nothing.
Rory replied, "But... there’s no reason for him to like ."
"It was probably just a whim," Sherry explained. "Rember that guy with him last ti, Henry Lancaster? He was a classmate of my brother’s. Total playboy, changes girlfriends every other week. But he actually told my brother that he genuinely likes every girl he dates... until the novelty wears off. Can you believe that jerk?"
"..."
"Birds of a feather flock together. If Sean Harrison hangs out with Henry Lancaster, they’re probably the sa kind of person deep down. ’Never had a girlfriend’? He’s probably just had girlfriends he won’t admit to." After her analysis, Sherry offered her conclusion. "I think you should stop overthinking it. If you like him, just be with him. Have a passionate romance so you won’t have any regrets."
’A passionate romance, so she wouldn’t have any regrets.’
Those words moved Rory.
Her knuckles whitened as she gripped the phone, and she nodded slightly. "Okay."
Rory’s original intention had been just as Sherry said: to ignore the consequences and choose to stay by Sean Harrison’s side.
But over the next two days, whenever she had a free mont, she would open up social dia on her phone and search Nadia Willow’s na, checking for any new updates.
Even when there continued to be no news about Nadia Willow, Rory would repeatedly study the photo that showed the man’s watch, trying to recall if it was the sa one Sean Harrison wore.
「The week they had agreed upon passed in the blink of an eye.」
After work, Rory returned to the villa and wandered through the entire house, circling it again and again.
She took in the floor-to-ceiling windows with their panoramic city views, the study lined with giant bookshelves, the beautiful and spacious walk-in closet, and the guest bathroom that was larger than the living room of her old rental.
She had lived here for so ti now, and it felt like she was living out a beautiful dream she had always longed for.
A warm, comfortable ho, no worries, and a partner who would wake up early to make her breakfast.
As Rory found herself unable to stop checking for information on Nadia Willow, she began to feel disgusted with herself.
A woman she had only ever heard about from other people.
And yet, Rory had so easily beco defensive and hostile toward her.
’She hated this behavior in herself. Sean Harrison would surely grow tired of her and cast her aside, just like Henry Lancaster did with his girlfriends.’
’Rather than let that happen, it was better to end the relationship here and leave each other with a good impression.’
Rory packed her belongings into her suitcase.
The only things she couldn’t take right away were her heavy dical textbooks. She found a box, packed them up, and left them in her room for now, planning to move them to her new place later.
Once everything was packed, Rory sat by the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing at the city lights.
She sat there until the alarm on her phone went off.
Eleven o’clock.
Sean Harrison still hadn’t co back.
’Just as I thought,’ she mused. ’He’ll probably be back at midnight on the dot.’
Still in her slippers, Rory walked through the house one last, careful ti before finally leaving with her suitcase.
She took the elevator downstairs. Just as she walked out of the main gate of the complex, she saw a figure in the distance.
The person was standing in the shadows, untouched by the light from the streetlamps...
Even so, Rory recognized him at a single glance. It was Sean Harrison.
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