** Harper **
Those words gave Harper an odd feeling.
Perhaps she should be flattered that someone like Ronald Sterling was giving her a peace offering, finding her adequate to enter the exclusive social circle that would otherwise be reluctant to welcome her. Or perhaps she should be thrilled that her boyfriend's difficult father was finally giving them his blessing, changing his mind on those manipulative games and cold wars with his son.
But … what she felt instead was only a dull ache of sorrow for Eli. What kind of position was his father in to ask this of her? As a husband who betrayed his wife — wives — he was in no place to speak of loyalty. As a father who neglected his son during the hardest years of a child's youth, and then tried to show "care" by meddling incessantly in an adult's life, he had long missed the chance to act like a guardian angel. Even if he was asking for her promises out of good intention … it still didn't feel right.
