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Chapter 202: Chapter 202: I Didn’t Mean You

Ian Sterling tilted his face up, his narrow eyes glistening with unshed tears.

”Weren’t you just saying it was nothing, that it just needed to be disinfected? So why are you crying so pathetically now?”

Ian Sterling seemed a little embarrassed and buried his face again, saying in a muffled voice, ”How was I supposed to know it would hurt that much?”

The doctor, who was still packing up his tools and hadn’t left yet, froze upon hearing this.

Lynn Winslow looked up just in time to see the doctor’s hands frozen mid-air and offered a faint smile. ”Sorry, Doctor. He’s a bit delicate.”

What could the doctor say? Since she had put it that way, he could only smile and shake his head. ”It’s fine. Everyone has a different pain threshold.”

Lynn Winslow lightly patted the back of Ian Sterling’s head, signaling him to stop being a baby. Any more and it would be genuinely embarrassing.

After placating Ian Sterling, the two of them walked out of the hospital. The rain was still falling, and it looked to be getting heavier.

Ian Sterling looked up at the dark, gloomy sky, a trace of worry on his face.

”Worried about the venue?”

Ian Sterling didn’t hide it from her, giving a wry twist of his lips. ”This downpour really couldn’t have come at a worse time,” he said helplessly.

”It’s okay. We’ll just stay a few more days. Don’t worry.” Lynn Winslow stood on her tiptoes, stretching to pat his head.

Ian Sterling lowered his gaze to her eyes and saw a hint of amusement. Her gesture really did look like she was petting a puppy.

He sucked in a sharp breath, his hands shooting out to trap Lynn Winslow by the waist.

”What, you think you’re petting a puppy?”

Lynn Winslow’s eyes crinkled with laughter. ”That’s right. And aren’t you one?”

Ian Sterling frowned, retorting with displeasure, ”I’m not a dog. You are.”

Their bickering was just like a pair of elementary schoolers arguing. A few other people waiting for cars nearby overheard them and chuckled, thinking to themselves, ’What a good-looking young couple. Who would have thought they’d be so childish?’

Ian Sterling heard the passersby laughing and reined himself in a little, though he didn’t let go of Lynn Winslow.

The driver pulled up to the entrance and came out with an umbrella to escort them. In the brief moment it took to get into the car, they were still coated in a fine mist of rain.

Once they arrived at the hotel, Lynn Winslow saw it was nearly noon and called Mr. Powell and Elder Winslow, inviting them to join them for a meal at the restaurant.

They first returned to their room to change into some comfortable clothes. As they were heading to the restaurant, Ian Sterling hung back to take a call from a subordinate, while Lynn Winslow walked on ahead. Suddenly, she came face-to-face with someone.

Lynn Winslow frowned, then froze for a second when she got a clear look at the person’s face.

”Simon... Sinclair?”

He apparently hadn’t expected to see Lynn Winslow here either. A flash of surprise crossed his face, quickly followed by delight.

”Miss Winslow, what a coincidence. It’s been so long. I can’t believe we’ve run into each other here.”

Lynn Winslow smiled, recalling that this seemingly gentle senior of hers was, in reality, as fickle as a weathervane. She had no desire to continue the conversation.

”It certainly is a coincidence. Well, I’ll let you go. I wouldn’t want to hold you up,” Lynn Winslow said tactfully.

But Simon Sinclair seemed oblivious to her subtle annoyance, following a few steps behind her. ”I’m here on a business trip, but I’m stranded because of the storm,” he said excitedly. ”Is that why you’re here too, Miss Winslow?”

Lynn Winslow frowned. Just as she was about to respond, Ian Sterling caught up. The phone was still pressed to his ear, but his expression was deeply unpleasant, his face grim.

He spoke in a cold voice. ”Simon Sinclair. What are you doing?”

Simon Sinclair stared, watching as Ian Sterling slung an arm around Lynn Winslow and pulled her close. ”You two...?” he murmured.

”We got back together a long time ago. Simon Sinclair, did you study abroad so much you fried your brain? You didn’t even bother to catch up on the news in Quartos before hitting on my fiancée.” He was merciless, his words making Simon Sinclair flush with embarrassment.

”Fiancée?” The word registered with Simon Sinclair. ”Since when were you two engaged? I never heard anything about it.”

In his flustered anger, he exposed the fact that he already knew they had gotten back together. Ian Sterling sneered and shifted his body to block Simon’s line of sight to Lynn Winslow. Enunciating each word, he said, ”Simon Sinclair, instead of burying your head in all that useless knowledge, maybe you should use the time to get your brain checked.”

With that, he turned and started walking toward the restaurant again, his arm around Lynn. Behind them, a vicious glint flashed in Simon Sinclair’s eyes as he called out, ”Miss Winslow, are you just going to let him humiliate me like that?”

Lynn Winslow looked surprised. The couple stopped, and she turned around. ”What do you mean by that, Simon?” she asked, puzzled.

Simon Sinclair took two steps forward and repeated, ”He’s humiliating me. Are you just going to stand there and watch, Miss Winslow?”

”What else would I do?” Lynn Winslow tilted her head.

”Miss Winslow, are you really going to be with a man who has absolutely no class?”

Lynn Winslow looked as if she’d just had an epiphany. She nodded in sudden understanding and squeezed Ian Sterling’s hand, stopping him from doing something he’d regret.

She replied with a radiant smile, ”Well, Simon, compared to a man with no brain, a man with no class is hardly a big deal. Oh, but I’m not saying *you* don’t have a brain, of course. It was just a random example.”

The icy expression on Ian Sterling’s face instantly melted when he heard her words. He let out a snort, unable to suppress his laughter.

He stopped Lynn Winslow from engaging further and said coolly, ”Simon Sinclair, stop making a fool of yourself. My fiancée isn’t someone you can so easily manipulate. She’s not like you—a weathervane.”

With that, the two of them continued to the restaurant and sat at a table by the floor-to-ceiling windows. Lynn Winslow was a little curious.

”I’ve noticed you seem to have disliked Simon Sinclair for a long time. Didn’t he pretty much grow up with you and Jasper Jennings?”

Ian Sterling grimaced and glanced out at the misty rain. ”He’s been a spineless weathervane since we were kids,” he explained. ”We’d take him along to skip school, and if we got caught, he’d claim we forced him. If there was something he wanted that the Sinclair family wouldn’t let him buy, he’d get it in secret. Then when they found out, he’d blame us for putting him up to it.”

Lynn Winslow was floored. Ian himself seemed exasperated just recalling it. ”It happened every time,” he went on. ”He’d apologize, we’d forgive him, and then he’d pull the same stunt again. Eventually, we just stopped hanging out with him. After Elder Sinclair passed away, he stopped coming around the residential compound, and we drifted even further apart.”

”So he was like that even as a kid? I thought it was a more recent development.” Lynn Winslow shook her head, dumbfounded. Resting her chin in her hands, she gazed at Ian Sterling, blinked, and said in a deliberately exaggerated tone, ”Our Finn is still the best. So full of righteous integrity his whole life, nothing at all like them.”

”...” ’If he didn’t already know that Lynn had heard all about his childhood from his mother and sister, he might have actually believed her.’

”Oh, give me a break,” he said, rolling his eyes.

Lynn Winslow couldn’t stop laughing. When Elder Winslow and Mr. Powell arrived, the smile still hadn’t left her face.

”What were you two talking about that’s made you so happy?” Elder Winslow asked curiously.

Lynn Winslow shook her head. Mr. Powell then looked to Ian Sterling and asked, ”Did you just run into that boy from the Sinclair family?”