She returned to her office desk. “Did you touch the documents on my desk?” the manager asked as she stormed towards her.“Mr. Tremont already arrived at the office, but you didn’t get his signature.” Janice calmly replied. “I sent these over for you while you were away. Mr. Tremont has already signed these. No need to thank me.”The manager was upset. “You’re an intern. Why are you butting into affairs that don’t concern you? Do not touch these things again! You haven’t earned the right to enter the CEO’s office!”“You’re the one neglecting your job, so why won’t you let other people do it?” Janice asked. “We all work in the same company; we have the same goals to make the company flourish. These documents are important. You don’t have to get angry with me. If you’re not happy, you’re perfectly welcome to speak to Mr. Tremont. See what he says.”The manager was so enraged that she turned both green and white. “You… You’re an intern. Are you planning on stepping on me? Challenge me
Arianne nodded. “Okay.” Even though she did not show it, she was still feeling a little frustrated. Her life may seem peaceful, but it was too peaceful, like stagnant water, lifeless. Mark had no parents, relatives, or siblings. Jackson and Eric mean a lot to him. The trauma of losing Eric would probably be with him for a long while.Honestly, she wasn’t happy. She was upset at him for neglecting her and the baby during his sorrow. She and Aristotle were important to him too, and they were his closest relatives, now and forever.Once the storm had passed, the weather in the capital grew chilly. They were entering autumn.Aristotle was beginning to learn to sit down on his own, albeit in a wobbly manner. He would lose balance from time to time and topple over, but he still loved sitting back down and playing on his own. He could now fiddle with his favorite toys too.Arianne was now free to get away. She brought her job hunt earlier than scheduled. She did not intend on joining Mark
Suddenly, he pulled her into his embrace. “Ari… I love the fact that you’ll tell me about it when you’re unhappy about anything. We’ll let Smore sleep in the nursery. We’ll refurbish that room in the future to make it his bedroom. We’ll then let him get used to it earlier. We’ve got Mary to take care of him, so we don’t have to worry about it.” Suddenly, she felt like he was not being serious again, just like his usual self. She was not entirely infuriated just now, so her anger soon subsided. She played around with the button on his coat around his chest and said sweetly, “Do you think that Smore acts like a third wheel, as he’s sleeping between us every night? Fine, he’s almost half a year old now. Let’s sleep early tonight. I need to get to the company early in the morning tomorrow to make a report.”He stretched his hand out and lifted her chin. He then stared straight into her eyes. “I’m afraid that we can’t sleep early tonight…”Her face became slightly flushed, but she did n
An unknown period of time went by. The moon hid behind the clouds, and the noise in the house finally subsided. They hugged each other and fell into a deep sleep. That night, they no longer had the third wheel, Smore, with them. The next morning, Arianne left for work in a hurry before Mark left the house. It was the first day of work, and she was in a great mood. She certainly could not be late. Smore was held by Mary, who stood at the door as she left. Smore seemed to be unable to part with his mother. He even waved his little hands in the direction where Arianne left. Further, his eyes were teary too. Seeing him like that, Mark smiled in dissatisfaction. He then said, “You’re quite big now. How are you still unable to part with your mom? Aren’t you feeling ashamed of yourself? Your mom wants to go out there and make a name for herself. Even if I’m unable to part with her, I didn’t dare to do anything. How could you make her stay? If you cry anymore, your mom won’t even want you
There was nothing special with her working desk. It was just separated from the other ordinary designers, and the space was slightly spacious. Her working desk was slightly bigger too. After less than ten minutes, Mr. Yaleman sent the contract to her in person. “Please take a look at it. If there’s no problem, you can sign it now.” She held the contract and read it carefully. After a short while, she said, “No problem. By the way, I need to explain myself on something. I’ll try my best to complete my work in the daytime. I must never be asked to work overtime during weekends. During weekdays, I hope that I don’t have to work overtime either. If you have any objection, you can decrease the amount of my yearly income. Is that okay?”Mr. Yaleman said in a flattering tone, “What are you talking about? How could I ask you to work overtime? Don’t mention working overtime at night either. Even if you complete your work in the daytime, you’re welcome to clock off early if you want. We can
Tiffany was filled with jealousy. “I’m still only getting a monthly salary. Your yearly income is already $100,000. You’re indeed excellent! You need to treat me then.” Arianne could not help but sneer at her. “That’s enough. Jackson’s money still belongs to you every month, doesn’t it? What’s there to be dissatisfied about? The little money you earn isn’t even enough for your cosmetics. Don’t act smug here. Do you feel any fetal movements yet? You should, given how long you’ve been pregnant.” Tiffany pursed her lips. “No. Maybe he’s too lazy to move. After all, the pregnancy check up shows that everything is fine. So, I don’t have to bother about it. Maybe the skin of my stomach is just so thick that I can’t feel any fetal movement. By the way, Tanya should be pregnant for a few months now too. I don’t know how she’s been doing recently.” Talking about Tanya, it became awkward. They did not hate Tanya deeply. But now, it could not go back to how it used to be. They could only ce
When the door opened, Tiffany saw Melanie there. It surprised both Jackson and Tiffany. Although Jackson had never met Melanie, he had seen her on the news occasionally. That was why he could recognize her at first glance. Tiffany had seen Melanie before, so Tiffany certainly knew who she was. She then asked Melanie, “Why are you here? When did you come?”Standing at the door, Melanie appeared graceful and elegant. She smiled and said, “I’ve been here for a short while. The security guard at the entrance was quite strict. He doesn’t remember your name, so I had no choice but to tell him your fiancé’s name. I claimed that I’m his friend. Do you mind that? My memory is not good. After searching for a long while, I only managed to find the right house. Miss Lane, I came today just to bring you some health supplements for pregnant ladies. I thought that you might be home at this hour.” Tiffany noticed now that Melanie was holding things in her hands. She received them from her politel
Tiffany made no mention of anything she assumed Alejandro had not told Melanie about, for she felt that his reservation was likely due to personal reasons. Hence, she could not betray his secret against his consent. “Uh, yeah. It’s a pity. I mean, he’s a good guy with pretty handsome features whose only flaw is, well, his disability. It’s alright, though, I mean—you agreed to marry him, so I know you don’t mind it.”Melanie felt a little more confident. “No, of course not. I love him,” she replied. “Anyway, I shouldn’t keep both of you any longer. I’ll be off.”It was then that Jackson came out of the kitchen with glasses of fresh orange juice in his hands. Melanie eyed the juice and added implicatively, “Oh, I guess I’ll have to skip the juice. You can enjoy mine, Miss Lane. It’s your favorite drink, isn’t it?”Before Tiffany could ask Melanie about how she knew that, the woman was already gone. So, instead, she took the juice from Jackson’s hand and drained half of the glass in on
Arianne had not heard that name for so long, she had to reel back in bemusement for a few seconds before finally remembering her face.Shelly-Ann Leigh… She must have spent all those years in the mental institution, right? God knows if the woman’s hair was now grey and white all over.When someone was near death, one could stand to forgive all of the history between them—even the dark ones, even if the ledger was brimming—for good. So, Arianne replied, “I’ll go with you. No matter what happened, she’s still your mother.”Mark did not expect that answer from her at all. In his surprise, he bent down and left a kiss on her lips. “I knew I picked the right woman as my wife. I thought you wouldn’t agree to let me accompany her for the last of her days…”Arianne replied nothing. She was not so obtuse that she would try to win over a woman whose days were numbered. No matter how much of an a**hole Shelly was, Arianne was still the one who came out on top. That victory was all she needed.
Arianne sneered. “You confused, little thing. I wouldn’t be daft enough to anger the mother of the man I like if I were you, girl. I would especially not say anything as low IQ as that, too. Let me be completely frank with you: no one who bears the surname of Leigh will ever get the better of me—the last one failed. Hard. I can guarantee that you’ll leave us in the span of three days. If I lose, you can stay here forever. Wanna bet? I dare you.”She left her threat hanging at that and turned her wheelchair away, leaving the scorned young woman behind.Rage came out of Raven as waves of quakes all over her body. She was lurching close to hyperventilation, but right before it became impossible to stop, she came around and battled herself to calm down. She had a feeling that even if she fainted right there and then, no one would discover her, would they?Now that Arianne and Mark had returned, the Tremont Estate had recovered its vivacity and life. It had become merry.And Raven Leigh
Melissa was the type who always pushed things to go as festive as logically possible. She leaped to her feet and raised her cup, “Yo, everyone! Let’s toast to Cindy becoming my cousin-in-law!”The crowd answered enthusiastically with their cups in the air and a roar—except Raven, who remained seated. “I have a sickly constitution. I can’t drink. I’m sorry.”Her smile was so mechanical, her face too ashen. Something flickered in Arianne’s eyes before she replied, “Sure.”After the revelry faded, Arianne steered her wheelchair to the courtyard. The outward appearance of the Tremont Estate seemed to have frozen in time, which was why being here made her feel so… safe.Of course, that was despite Henry and Mary’s passing. In the end, time passed and things changed, characters and objects came and went, and all these missing years left lingering regrets in their wake.Arianne espied the silhouette standing alone at a distance and approached her, sighing, “Nothing beats being home.”Ra
Arianne grabbed the two beauties by the hands and smiled. “Thank you! Gosh, to me… it’s like you two have grown older in the blink of an eye! How gorgeous the two of you are! Cindy, where’s your brother? Plato hasn’t come home yet?”Mentioning the name of her dear brother made Cynthia pout. “He said he was coming home half a month ago—that’s what he said. Who knows what he’s actually doing, though? Anyway, who cares about that no-good. He’s always like this anyway. Oh, um, the weather is quite hot. We should probably get inside.”Arianne nodded and shot a brief, uneasy look at Aristotle. Not once did he look like he wanted to talk to her… Could the boy be counting his grievances in his mind? Mark and Arianne had stayed in Switzerland for so long; life must have been hard for him all alone.It took until she reached the living room to finally notice Raven. “Millie, is this your younger sister?”Melissa quickly sprung to correct her. “What? Noooo. This is Ares’ classmate or something
Aristotle’s entire being stilled.He had waited for this news for nineteen years. As time passed, the flames died little by little, the heart grew more numb, until the very thought of it was no different from a pipe dream. But today, news of it coming true reached him and plunged him into a torrent of feelings.A long while later, he finally muttered under his breath, “When… When will they be back?”Jackson closed the distance between them and gave the young man a light, comforting pat on the shoulders. “Not so soon, I bet; not when your mother has just woken up and is in need of some time to recover. She did sleep for nineteen years, you know. So maybe after she’s recuperated enough for a while…” he answered. “We’ve waited for nineteen years for this, right? What’s waiting for just a little bit more compared to that? The most important thing for you to do is to manage the company to the best of your abilities. That’s the way to not disappoint your father’s expectation.”Aristotle
Cynthia had never had a relationship before, so she did not know what love was. However, one thing was for certain. She loved the feeling of being with Aristotle and how he had protected her since they were kids. Even though Aristotle had become a little domineering and “naughty”, she was not taken aback by him. Instead, she even felt a little moved, which was amazing.It wasn’t known how they ended up in bed, with their breaths synchronized. Apart from the final step, they had done just about everything else that could be done.Just as they were about to hit the final step, Aristotle suddenly stopped and helped pull the covers over Cynthia. “Let’s sleep, good night.”Cynthia was still lost in a daze from before. She did not know why Aristotle had suddenly stopped, nor did she have the courage to ask him. She had struggled for so long before having persuaded herself to go with the flow…The next day, when Cynthia woke up, Aristotle had already long gone to his company.She took a
Cynthia heard what Aristotle said, but her hands did not stop doing what they were doing. Her head was in a complete mess. “There’s no… no need. I’ll be able to be done with these now. Go ahead and get some sleep first. By the way, where am I sleeping tonight? There are so many rooms here, I’ll ask Agnes to help me clear one up.”Aristotle walked up to her and squatted. He grabbed onto her arm with one hand while the other closed the luggage. “Just sleep with me here and stop tidying already.”Cynthia suspected that she might have misheard. She took a look at the big bed behind him in a daze and suddenly felt her palm, which was held by him, burning up. “Y… You’re kidding, aren’t you, Ares? Although we used to sleep with each other a lot when we were kids, we’re all grown ups now, so wouldn’t that be a little inappropriate?”Aristotle said with a straight face, “I wasn't joking.”Cynthia panicked a little and recalled Melissa’s words once again. ‘Would Ares, whom I’ve known for so
Melissa knew that Aristotle had kissed Cynthia, so she knew what was going on. Hence, she very naturally boasted, “Of course, they’ve been engaged to each other since they were born. Coincidentally, the both of them felt the same way about each other as they grew up, so wouldn’t this make it even better? From the way I see it, your illness isn’t going to recover for the rest of your life and the both of them are probably going to have to wait until Cindy graduates before they get married. So, you’d be better off moving back to France as early as possible. Don’t worry, you’ve saved Aristotle’s life before, so he wouldn’t be stingy with you financially.”Raven wanted to control the unhappiness she had in her heart very much, but her emotions refused to follow her will. Hence, she fiercely struggled to wring free from Melissa’s grasp. Melissa was startled for a moment. “Are you crazy?”After that, Raven regained her senses and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry… I was a little unwell just n
‘You’re not that worried?’ Melissa was so furious that she laughed. “Am I the only one who’s being worried for nothing? I thought you loved my brother, didn’t you? The man you’ve been dreaming of every day has returned from France but brought a woman with him, yet you’re actually not that worried? Let’s put aside your parents’ intentions for a moment. Do you dare to say that you don’t love him? I’m only helping you because you’re my best friend, so could you not be so relaxed, as if I’m helping you for no reason?”Cynthia shook her head and lowered her volume as she said, “He… might have confessed to me. We also… did that already. So, I think he doesn’t feel that way towards Raven. It’s purely because she saved his life once. I trust that Ares will be able to handle the situation properly.”Melissa’s eyes opened wide. “What? He’s only returned for a few days, yet the two of you have already had sex? That fast?! I never knew it, but you’ve really got it in you!”Cynthia’s face flushe