His Naughty Lessons-Chapter 291: Little Secrets

** Harper **

"He’s got nothing to do with you, Harper." Eli took half a step forward, blocking her from Emory’s mother. "You don’t need to go see him, whatever he might think he has to say to you."

"Oh, of course she doesn’t have to. That was by no means a request, just something he mentioned while I was in there." Emory’s mother smiled again. "Anyway, I will be heading out now that he’s feeling better. Don’t come home too late, Emory."

As if knowing that her presence was making the new visitors uncomfortable, she left quickly, leaving only the three young people standing in the waiting room and staring at each other in somewhat skeptical silence.

"I doubt my dad has enough energy right now to say anything harsh or mean to you," Emory offered at last with a shrug. "If you want to hear him out, shouldn’t hurt to go in. We’ll be right outside anyway."

"I wasn’t saying Harper needs to be afraid of him." Eli raised an eyebrow at Emory’s proposal that suggested too much caution. "I simply don’t think he deserves her time."

"It’s alright, he’s just a patient we stopped by to see," Harper cut in before the half siblings started arguing over how to protect her from their father. An interesting situation that she might find fascinating or even pleasing on a different day. At the moment, however, she was more intrigued by the person in the treatment room — what could he possibly want to talk to her about, out of all the people waiting out here?

"I don’t mind talking to him. It shouldn’t take long." Upon further thought, Harper added, "If it turns out that he’s the soap opera type of parent trying to write me a check so that I can break up with you ... Hmm, guess I’ll just take the money and use it to pay for our next vacation together."

"Oh come on you two." Emory rolled her eyes.

The joke brought a smile to Eli’s gloomy face. After only a brief hesitation, he nodded. "Come right out if he dares make you feel uncomfortable. I’ll be right here."

Well, Harper was more concerned about whether the half-sibling pair would feel uncomfortable if she left them alone again, but she didn’t voice that thought out loud. Trying to keep her high heel clicks as quiet as she could, she made her way to the patient room and knocked.

Then, as she carefully pushed the door open and stepped inside, it really hit her how long it had been since the last time she actually met Eli’s father in person.

For as much as she could remember, the man had aged a lot. For someone who should be in his early fifties, he seemed ... older, with the weary look and subtle wrinkles lining his face. Or maybe it was just the drama of the evening leaving a visible aftermath on him already.

"Ah, I wasn’t expecting to see you here at all." Ronald Sterling made a similar comment as his wife when Harper closed the door, sitting down at a chair by the bed. "Can I assume that Eli is outside as well?"

"He is. With Emory." Harper pondered for a moment before deciding that she wouldn’t ask if he wanted to see his son. The answer to that question might not turn out well.

Eli’s father hummed a thoughtful acknowledgment. "What an ironic day for those two to finally meet ... And I had no idea that Emory is working with you until just now. The world is quite small, isn’t it? To make the three of you get together this way."

His gaze swept over Harper a bit assessingly as he spoke. "You’ve grown quite a bit over the years, by the way. I wouldn’t have recognized such a lovely lady walking on the street to be that little girl running around in our neighborhood so long ago."

That was an interesting opening line, and Harper wasn’t entirely sure if any of those words were meant to carry deeper implications. The assessing gaze also felt slightly weird to her, especially considering that all the makeup and the designer dress were already making her awkward showing up at an ER.

So she chose not to address any of those topics. "Glad to see you as well after so many years, Mr. Sterling." She went with the usual way she called Eli’s father, since he had never corrected her to use his first name. "I’m sorry that the gala turned out ... not entirely to our expectations, but it’s a relief that you are feeling much better now."

"Ah, about that." Eli’s father let out a slight snort. "I’m fine to begin with. The faint was fake. But thank you for caring regardless — I presume it must be you who convinced Eli to come visit me, because otherwise he probably never would."

Harper’s eyes went wide. The faint was ... fake?

"It wasn’t a planned trick, of course. There simply didn’t seem to be any better ways for me to get out of that horrible situation otherwise. And as an extra bonus, it went perfectly with the health excuse I gave for passing my CEO position to my son ... which was also a fake reason, by the way."

"..."

Now, Harper’s view of the man in front of her had completely changed. No wonder Eli’s relationship with his father had always been so complicated. This man was truly a con artist, full of manipulation even when it came to his own business plans and social image.

"I hope the rest of the announcement was real, at least?" Harper asked the first thought on her mind. "You’re not playing Eli by passing the position to him in name only, are you?"

"Oh, of course not." Ronald Sterling smiled. "Eli always says you are a smart girl. Take a guess — do you know why I did what I did, and why am I telling you these little secrets now?"