Harper Emery

Harper Emery, a character in the Open Heart series, is one of the doctors and the former Chief at Edenbrook Hospital. She is also Aurora's aunt. She is first seen in Book 1, Chapter 1.

Appearance
Harper has brown hair, brown eyes, and dark skin. She wears an Edenbrook Hospital lab coat with her name tag underneath a black top and a pair of gold earrings. Her statuesque build has impressed interns.

Personality
Harper maintains a strict, no-nonsense attitude that enables her to project an aura of dignity among the interns except her niece Aurora. She also abides by the rules and enforces them, such as giving your character an ethics hearing when you told them you gave Mrs. Martinez the vaccine that purportedly contributed to her death.

However, this wasn't always the case during the youth. If your character joins her and Bryce to help with Rafael's surgery, she told you that she was once an idealistic intern wanting to treat all patients. Years of experience have taught her the harsh truth that she can't save everyone, and there are grave consequences to actions.

Book 1

 * Chapter 1: The Doctor Is In
 * Chapter 4: Dolores
 * Chapter 8: Make-Believe
 * Chapter 10: Risk and Reward
 * Chapter 12: Panacea
 * Chapter 13: Admission
 * Chapter 14: Triage
 * Chapter 15: Hearing Impaired
 * Chapter 16: The Curious Case of Dr. Banerji
 * Chapter 17: The Oath

Book 2

 * Chapter 1: Prognosis
 * Chapter 2: The Interns (Mentioned; Physical Appearance Determinant)
 * Chapter 3: What's Done Is Done (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 4: Blind Spot (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 10: The Senator (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 16: The Kindness of Strangers
 * Chapter 17: Hopeful Hearts

With Every Heartbeat

 * Chapter 10: The Hereafter (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 15: Dancing in the Dark

Aurora Emery
Aurora is her niece. Before Aurora can finish her first round of patients with you, she is paged to see her aunt. In Chapter 14, you overhear Harper that she is disappointed in Aurora and that the younger doctor has a lot to live up to. If you are nice to Aurora, she tells you the pressures that Harper puts on her, as if the Chief is trying to live through her niece since she hates being an administrator.

In Open Heart: Second Year, Aurora overhears Dr. Tobias Carrick offer Harper a job at Solomon Kenmore (previously known as Mass Kenmore) hospital. Harper declines the offer and tells him that stealing Aurora from Edenbrook didn't warm her up to him. He argues that he recruited Aurora to entice her to come, not to punish her. At the fundraising gala, you can help Aurora confront Harper about what she overheard.

Ethan Ramsey
In Chapter 4, she promotes Ethan Ramsey to the head of the diagnostics unit when Dr. Banerji retires suddenly. They decide that instead of hiring a new fellow to take his vacating spot, they will select one young doctor to train with the team as a junior fellow. The best performing intern at the end of your first year will be selected.

In the same chapter, if you choose to accompany him to retrieve Dolores's stuffed frog, he reveals that he and Harper had a fling before finally breaking up for good.

Your Character
Although you see Harper during orientation and a few times in passing as she talks with Aurora, you do not interact with her until Chapter 8, when you find a loophole for your patient to receive the medications she needs to treat Hepatitis C. Harper admires your moxie, as it reminds her of Ethan. However, she looks surprised at your closeness to Ethan. At the end of Chapter 12, she calls you to her office to discuss Mrs. Martinez and the circumstances surrounding her death.

Harper pages your friends to her office to interrogate them about you and Mrs. Martinez. Although she has no proof, she tells you in Chapter 14, that it is only a matter of time. If you decide to help with Rafael's surgery, she tells you that she is impressed with you. However, she won't help you in her investigation. She is surprised when you come to her office in the end and admit to it. She agrees to give you an ethics hearing but doesn't think it will help save you or your career.

Trivia

 * The interns believe she is "the greatest surgeon of her generation".
 * She shares the same forename as Main Character's default name in It Lives Beneath.
 * As of Chapter 8, she does not know about Doctor Banerji's medical condition and that he is staying at the hospital.
 * This changes in Chapter 13, depending on your actions. If you tell Ethan that he "still has a chance if we keep him here", Ethan will text Harper and she and orderlies will come to take Naveen to a different hospital room. If you tell Ethan that Naveen "should enjoy the time he has left", Ethan will allow him to leave and Harper will not discover that he had been in the hospital the whole time.
 * The surname Emery is of German and English origin, which means: Brave, home, whole, universal, work, labor, powerful, industrious ruler. It's derived from the name Emmerich, other variants are Amery, Amory, and Emory.
 * As of Chapter 17, Harper decides to step down as Chief of Medicine and assumes the role of Head of Neurosurgery, as she realizes that she wants to get back to the profession she loves.