Chapter 152 Chapter 152

Chapter 152 Chapter 152
Emily's POV

Some victories didn't feel loud. Nobody applauded. Nobody knew they happened. Sometimes they looked like walking across campus with a folder tucked under your arm while trying to remember whether you'd answered an email. Life had started doing that lately. The extraordinary kept disguising itself as ordinary. My internship paperwork had finally been approved. Orientation dates were confirmed. Housing information sat inside my bag. There were still dozens of details to figure out, but for the first time, the future had stopped feeling imaginary. It had an address. A start date. A schedule. It still terrified me. Just... differently.

I left the department building just after six. The sun hung low behind the engineering block, painting long shadows across campus. Students laughed outside the library. Someone rode a skateboard past me carrying a pizza box balanced on one hand. Music drifted from somewhere across the quad. Life continued with complete indifference to the fact that mine kept changing. I smiled to myself. Noah had texted me fifteen minutes earlier.

Noah: Coach trapped us in another meeting. Save me.

I had replied exactly as any supportive girlfriend should.

Me: No.

His response had arrived immediately.

Noah: Betrayal.

I laughed quietly. Then tucked my phone back into my pocket. The parking garage came into view. It was almost empty. I walked towards my car, already thinking about dinner. Maybe we could order takeout. Maybe Noah would insist he could cook. Maybe we would both regret letting him again. I rounded the corner and stopped. Richard Harris stood beside my car. My heartbeat stumbled once. Not panic. Recognition.

He wore another perfectly tailored suit. Dark charcoal this time. His hands rested loosely in his coat pockets. He wasn't leaning against the car. He wasn't blocking my path. He simply waited like he had all the time in the world. I took one slow breath. Months ago, seeing him unexpectedly would've made my stomach twist itself into impossible knots. Today, I still felt nervous. But it wasn't the same.

I walked closer and stopped several feet away. "Mr. Harris."

His expression softened just enough to qualify as polite. "Emily." Silence settled between us. He looked exactly the same as every other time I had seen him. Controlled. Measured. Like every sentence had already been edited before he spoke it. He inclined his head slightly. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

I glanced towards my car. "You were waiting."

"Yes." His honesty surprised me. I folded my arms loosely. "What do you need?"

He looked at me for a long moment before answering. "I wanted to speak with you once, properly." I didn't interrupt. He continued. "No manipulation. No misunderstandings." His voice remained calm. "I would like five minutes."

I could leave. That thought arrived immediately. I wasn't trapped. I wasn't obligated. I could unlock my car. Drive away. Call Noah. Ignore the conversation entirely. The realization settled something inside me. Choice. I looked back at Richard. "You have five."

He nodded once. No satisfaction. Just acknowledgment. We walked towards a quieter corner of the garage where the evening traffic echoed faintly off the concrete walls. The silence stretched comfortably. Or perhaps uncomfortably. It was difficult to tell. Finally Richard spoke. "I've watched your work."

I frowned. "My work?"

"Your department. The interview. The internship."

I blinked. "I wasn't aware you were following my career."

"I pay attention to people who affect my family." There it was. Honest, at least.

I waited. He looked towards the open side of the parking structure where the sunset spilled gold across the city. "You've earned remarkable opportunities."

I nodded politely. "Thank you."

"I mean that." He turned back towards me. I've spoken with people who think very highly of you." Something about the conversation felt... wrong. Like standing on ice that hadn't cracked yet.

I stayed quiet. Richard reached into the inside pocket of his jacket. Pulled out a business card. Then another. Not ordinary business cards. Heavy stock. Embossed. He held one between two fingers but didn't offer it yet. "I serve on several advisory boards. I know department chairs. Research directors." He named organizations I had only ever read about in journals. People whose lectures filled auditoriums. Professionals whose work shaped entire industries. My pulse quickened despite myself. Richard noticed. Of course he did. He continued in the same even tone. "One recommendation from the right person changes careers." He looked at the card. Then at me. "I can arrange introductions."

My fingers tightened around the strap of my bag. Interesting. Because it wasn't an empty promise. He actually could. I knew enough about Richard Harris to understand that influence wasn't something he exaggerated. He simply possessed it. He stepped forward once. Still leaving plenty of space between us. "You've worked too hard not to reach the rooms where decisions are made." The words landed somewhere uncomfortable. Because part of me, the ambitious part, understood exactly what he meant. Doors mattered. Mentors mattered. Connections mattered. Entire careers shifted because someone important decided to make a phone call.

He watched my expression carefully. Then spoke again. "I admire ambition. I would like to help yours."

The evening air felt suddenly colder. I looked at the business card again. Didn't reach for it. Instead, I quietly asked, "Why?"

Richard didn't answer immediately. For the first time since I'd met him, he actually seemed to consider how much truth he wanted to give me. When he finally spoke, his voice had lost some of its practiced smoothness. "Because you're exceptional. And because exceptional people deserve opportunities. But..." There it was. The word I had been waiting for. Richard looked directly into my eyes. "There is one condition." I didn't move. I didn't speak. He continued quietly. "Keep your distance from Noah during draft season."

The parking garage became impossibly still. I stared at him. Certain I had misunderstood. He shook his head slightly. "Not permanently. Not forever. Only until his image stabilizes." He said it as if he were suggesting we postpone dinner plans. "I don't mean end the relationship." His voice stayed measured. "Only remove yourselves from public association for a while." He held my gaze. "After the draft...Do whatever you wish." The business card remained suspended between his fingers, waiting. Like the offer itself. And for the first time... I truly understood the difference between intimidation and temptation. This wasn't a threat. It would've been easier if it were. Threats are obvious. You know what you're fighting. This was opportunity wrapped around compromise. A future placed gently in my hands.
All I had to do, was disappear for a little while.

The silence stretched. Long enough that I could hear my own breathing. Long enough that I could feel the weight of everything he was offering pressing against my chest. I imagined it. Just for a second. Walking into rooms filled with people whose names appeared in textbooks. Being introduced not as a student, but as someone worth noticing. Doors opening before I even knocked. Emails answered immediately. Opportunities arriving instead of being chased. It would be easier. So much easier. And all it would cost was time. Temporary distance.

A few months of pretending something important didn't exist. My fingers loosened slightly around my bag. Then tightened again. Because another image pushed its way forward. Noah in the kitchen, arguing with a recipe like it had personally offended him. Noah falling asleep halfway through a movie because he'd been up since five.
Noah looking at me like I was something steady in a life that kept shifting under his feet. Noah never asking me to be smaller. Never asking me to wait. Never asking me to disappear.

I looked back at Richard. At the certainty in his posture. At the quiet expectation in his eyes. He wasn't trying to hurt me. That was the strangest part. He genuinely believed this was reasonable. He thought he was offering me something valuable. And he was. Just not in the way he understood. I took a slow breath. "Do you know what the hardest part of getting here was?" He didn't answer. So I continued. "Not the classes. Not the interviews. Not even the rejections." I shook my head slightly. "It was learning how to trust that I deserved to be in those rooms without someone else's permission."

His expression shifted. I stepped closer. Not enough to close the distance completely. Just enough that my voice didn't have to carry. "I've spent years proving I belong."
I met his gaze. "And you're asking me to trade that for access." The words settled between us. He didn't interrupt. So I kept going. "You're offering me a shortcut. And asking me to pretend it isn't one." His jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. I glanced at the card again. Then back at him. "I don't want to walk into a room because someone powerful made a call." I shook my head. "I want to walk in because I earned my way there."

The kind that doesn't feel empty. The kind that feels final. Richard studied me carefully. Like he was recalculating something. Adjusting expectations. "You believe those things are mutually exclusive."

It wasn't a question. I nodded. "I believe how you get somewhere matters. And who you become along the way matters more." The evening light shifted, casting longer shadows across the concrete floor. For a moment, neither of us spoke. "And I won't become someone who disappears when it's convenient for someone else's plan." That landed. I saw it. Not anger. Not frustration.

He lowered the card slightly. Not offering it anymore. Just holding it. Like he wasn't entirely sure what to do with it now. "You care about him." Again, not a question.

I smiled faintly. "Yes."

"And he cares about you."

"Yes."

Richard exhaled slowly. "That complicates things."

I tilted my head. "Only if you think relationships are problems to solve."

For the first time, he didn't have an immediate response. The silence that followed felt different. Finally, he slipped the card back into his jacket. The motion was small. But it said everything. "I see."

I nodded once. "So do I."

We stood there for another second. Two people who understood each other perfectly, and still disagreed completely. Then I stepped back. Reached into my pocket. Pulled out my keys. "I think your five minutes are up."

He didn't argue. Didn't try again. Just inclined his head slightly. "Thank you for listening."

I met his gaze. "Thank you for asking directly." Then I turned around and walked towards my car. Each step felt lighter than the last. Not because the decision had been easy. But because it had been mine.

I unlocked the door. Slid into the driver's seat. And only when I closed the door did I let out the breath I'd been holding. My phone buzzed in my pocket. It was Noah.

I smiled before even reading it.

Noah: Escaped meeting. barely alive. Food?

I leaned back against the seat and looked out through the windshield at the fading light. Then typed back.

Me: Always.

I hit send. Started the engine. And drove away, without looking back.

I wasn't going to be forced to take bribes or think I can be bought over by a powerful person or even rich person for my dreams just to stay away from Noah. I can see why Noah resents his father, but on the other hand, why do this to Noah as a father? Am I simply not good enough to fit in the "family" because I am average? The nerve of Richard. But I hope that he can see now that I will go nowhere, and I won't ever take his bribe. I'm not after money, and I prefer to work for my dreams on my own. I will never bend for anyone's rules or how to fit in a rich family. I will not be told what to do either. Noah is my everything at this point and I won't mess this up.