CHAPTER 71: CHAPTER 71: MAYBE HE’S NOT UP TO IT

After Conrad Sterling turned the car around and left, Sharon Langley suddenly crossed her arms, gazing thoughtfully at his taillights.

"President Sterling sure knows how to keep his cool, he’s really not an ordinary guy!" she remarked wistfully.

"What do you mean?" Marilyn Ford asked her.

"You’ve already made the first move and kissed him. How could an average man handle that? Even if he couldn’t take you to a hotel right here, he would at least hold you and kiss you fiercely, just to make the three-hour drive worth it coming from so far, right?" Sharon Langley teased Marilyn Ford, "Have you two never been intimate yet?"

"No, things like that can’t have me bringing it up first." Marilyn Ford added understandingly, "I haven’t officially agreed to be with him, and Conrad has always been composed and clear-headed with exceptional self-control. Him restraining his desires is also a sign of respect for me."

"But don’t you think President Sterling is a bit too restrained? Marilyn, don’t take my words the wrong way, but at the end of the day, isn’t it all about intimacy between men and women? If a man likes a woman, wouldn’t he want to be with her in bed? President Sterling hasn’t shown any such signs, could it be that he... isn’t capable?"

Sharon Langley thought about how handsome President Sterling was, with such a good build—what a waste it would be if something were wrong!

"That’s impossible!" Marilyn Ford asserted confidently.

If Conrad Sterling weren’t capable, then there wouldn’t be a love child.

But what Sharon Langley said had some merit; if Conrad Sterling is truly as composed and self-contained as described, how did the love child come about?

What happened between Conrad and Anna Thornton four years ago, and how it came to be... these questions remained a thorn in Marilyn Ford’s heart.

"Sharon, could you make a call to my home and ask if my dad knows anyone in Veridia?"

"Veridia? You’ve never been there, so why ask?"

"I want to find out something."

...

Conrad Sterling drove back to the hospital for three hours, arriving by midnight.

The corridors of the various departments, bustling and crowded during the day, were now silent, with only a few nurses on duty in sight.

Conrad Sterling went upstairs to his ward alone, and as he passed Pop’s room, the door suddenly opened from the inside.

Anna Thornton stepped out with her phone, unexpectedly bumping into someone, drawing in a sharp breath in surprise, and startling enough to drop her phone.

When she looked up and saw it was Conrad Sterling, her hands stopped shaking: "Oh my gosh, Conrad Sterling, are you trying to scare someone to death, standing silently at someone’s room door in the middle of the night?"

President Sterling bent down to pick up her phone and handed it back to her, countering, "You do realize it’s the middle of the night, how can I speak out?"

"That’s one way to put it, but this is a hospital— a hospital!" Anna Thornton emphasized in a hushed voice, "Birthplace of so many horror tales!"

"I’ve never believed in ghost stories."

"You not believing doesn’t mean they don’t exist. There are countless unexplained phenomena in this world. This place always gets eerily quiet and cold at night. Even getting up to use the bathroom requires a long mental pep talk for me."

Anna Thornton’s face was pale, still unsettled, clearly she had been genuinely frightened.

"Then why did you come out?" Conrad Sterling asked her.

His question reminded Anna Thornton why she had come out in the first place—to take a call.

She took her phone, gave it a pat, and put it to her ear: "Hey, Mary, are you still there?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Mary sounded anxious on the other end, "Anna, listen to me, there’s an urgent situation, there may be changes in the guests for your variety show recording."

"What situation?"

"It’s Ethan Hawthorne, he was caught in a sex scandal by the media at a hotel this afternoon. The whole thing is quite the scene, I can’t quite explain it, so I’ve sent you a link. You need to look at it quickly; it might get taken down later."

Following Mary’s instructions, Anna Thornton clicked the link to check the news.

It was her first time seeing what Ethan Hawthorne looked like— with sharp, angular features. Though he could still be considered handsome, he had that typical player look.

The media photos showed him wearing nothing but a towel, which even fell off in a few mosaic-covered pictures; it was such an embarrassing sight.

"This Ethan Hawthorne is really unlucky. Other celebrities at most forget to pull the curtains and get snapped kissing, but he actually got cornered inside a hotel room. It was apparently quite a scene in the afternoon, trapped in the hotel bathroom for two hours, and the Hawthorne Family had to deploy two squads of bodyguards to get him out," Mary remarked.

"Serves him right! Trying to drug a girl and have his way with her; would he admit it if he wasn’t caught in the act? If I were that girl, I’d definitely crush his manhood first, tie a bow on it, and wait for the media to photograph as public shaming."

"If you were drugged, would you even have the strength to kick him?" Mary seriously discussed the logic with her.

"He wouldn’t get a chance to drug me; all those drugs are harmful! If a sleazy guy dared come after me to fulfill his perverted desires, I’d pour chili water on his little buddy!"

"Then rub a sugar ball for rich women on his man parts..." Mary chimed in.

Girls, when chatting privately, can really say anything—especially when it comes to the topic of bad men, where everyone’s united as sisters in arms.

Conrad Sterling was really exposed to a new side today: "..."

After finishing her call with Mary, Anna Thornton purposely didn’t hang up until she returned to her room.

The hospital corridor at night genuinely scared her.

When she turned around, the tall figure behind nearly shocked her again.

Fortunately, before losing her wits, she realized that the tall figure leaning against the door was Conrad Sterling.

"Why are you still here?"

Anna Thornton glared at Conrad Sterling, annoyed that if he had been standing there the whole time, hadn’t he heard everything she said over the phone?

Conrad Sterling crossed his arms, giving off an air of mere boredom in standing there, and asked as if it were a casual afterthought, "Now do you realize what kind of person Ethan Hawthorne is?"

Indeed, he heard everything. Why act ignorant?

"I know, so what if I do? I’m just a small-time actress with no background, no connections, and even my company is unreliable. Can I decide which guests the variety show producers invite? If this scandal doesn’t affect Ethan Hawthorne’s recording, I still have to go on!"

Anna Thornton shrugged, expressing a certain helpless resignation.

Conrad Sterling wasn’t buying her act: "Didn’t someone say before that they considered Ethan Hawthorne? Even wanted to be friends with him?"

"Did I? Who said that?"

"..."

"Uh, that was a joke earlier, and you believed it?"

Anna Thornton flashed a playful grin at Conrad Sterling, unwilling to continue this pointless chatter and only wanting to return to her room and sleep.

However, as she passed by Conrad Sterling, Anna Thornton pressed the door handle with one hand, and felt her other hand being grabbed by the man: "Is this casual attitude how you treat feelings? Was proposing to me a joke too? So when you let go, you just let go?"