Arianne was still perplexing over the origin of this ring when Mark pointed out, “I designed it myself a long time ago. Revamped a bit and had someone craft it for three months. I only decided to give it to you after I was satisfied enough.”His admission reminded Arianne—she had seen its design plan in his study when she was still a kid! This was why she felt as though she had seen it before!Back then, Arianne had imagined the ring to be something Mark had designed for his future wife. How would she have known that the same ring would one day fall on her hand?Fate was an enigmatic mistress. By her machination, Arianne’s life was bound to Mark’s for this lifetime.She closed the box carefully, clearly not intending to wear the ring right there and then. She was afraid of losing it during work.Mark was a little displeased with her action. In fact, his handsome face became stormy. “You’re not gonna wear it?”“Well, I don’t want to lose it…”“I can always hire someone to remake
Suddenly, Robin walked over. “Arianne, I’ve settled your sketches. Do you need me to come up with a sample this afternoon? Mr. Yaleman needs it in the afternoon, the day after tomorrow.”Arianne quickly turned off her phone and tucked her hair behind her ears awkwardly. “Uh… Sure. Thank you. You can start on the sample in the afternoon. This one’s a little complicated, so you’ll need some time. Do it early so you won’t have to do overtime.”Robin’s keen eyes spotted the ring on her finger. “Wow, Arianne, your ring is beautiful. The diamond is huge. It must have been expensive. I didn’t see you wearing it this morning. Your husband must have given it to you during lunch, right? Mr. Tremont is so romantic.”Arianne smiled. “Go on, go to the workshop, and start on the sample. You’ll have to support me.”She felt very uneasy the entire afternoon due to Mark’s message. Her mind would always wander off into strange territories. This was her first time going to a hotel with him, and she f
Arianne’s heart exploded from cuteness. She finally understood why Mark wanted a daughter. The joy of having a daughter was completely different from having a son.“Pumpkin, where did you go? Come back to daddy.”Arianne stiffened. She turned to the side and found Will Sivan’s astonished gaze. Everything had changed in time, but they still looked the same, save for a sense of maturity throughout the years.She jumped in fright when she heard his voice. She thought that his voice sounded more like a stranger’s. She never expected such a coincidence…“When… did you come back?” She got up and asked calmly after a short pause.Will took a deep breath, strode forward, and picked up the little girl. “I just arrived a few days ago. I’m here to visit relatives. I’m not staying long. What a coincidence… I never thought that I’d run into you here. Are you here to shop for baby things? I came back in a rush, so I couldn’t contact you or Tiffie…”Will knew that she had a baby, and she knew t
The woman stayed in her spot, holding the baby. She was feeling slightly humiliated but mostly helpless. She knew that she could never replace Arianne in Will’s heart in this lifetime, not even when she and Will had already had a baby. This was a tragic fact.Arianne let out a long sigh of relief after leaving the shopping mall. The cold winds refreshed her emotions. It was almost time, and Mark would be reaching soon.She sent him a message to tell him that she was at the shopping mall entrance. His car soon arrived on the street across the road from her. She opened the car door and got into the car. The warm air in the car cut off the chill from outside. She smoothed her hair, which had been messed up because of the wind. “Where are we going for dinner?”Mark didn’t reply, so she turned around and looked at him. “What’s wrong?”He stared at the rearview mirror with an expressionless face. “When did Will Sivan come back?”She was taken aback, then realized that Will was at a dist
Arianne felt a kind of emptiness deep down. Their relationship may look like it’s going strong on the surface, but in reality, it was still fragile. Based on everything that had happened today, it was clear.She fell fast asleep before Mark emerged from the bathroom, probably because it was easier to fall asleep in the dark.After an unknown amount of time, she felt something move next to her. She opened her eyes, just a little bit, and found Mark looking through her phone. She pretended not to know, hoping that this would bring him some form of assurance. He was probably trying to confirm if she had saved Will’s contact details. Luckily, she hadn’t…Arianne woke up before sunrise the next day because she had gone to bed early. Mark was still fast asleep. She silently got up and took a shower. She longed for Aristotle. This was her first time spending the night away from home since Aristotle’s birth.She stepped out of the bathroom, absent-mindedly after her shower. She jumped with
Mark walked closer toward her again, reached out, and pinched Aristotle’s ear. “I wanted to create a perfect and romantic atmosphere too, but your body was very honest. You refused to show any reaction at all, no matter how much I tried to entice you. What does that mean? It means that you weren’t in the mood for our date at all.”Arianne was indignant from his false accusation. “It’s because you had such a sullen face for the entire night. I panicked. How could I possibly have the mood for anything else? You made it look like I was actually in the wrong. You’re unreasonable and petty! I wasn’t sickened with you when I came back from seeing Aery, was I? So you’re upset, just because I accidentally ran into Will?”Aristotle pulled Mark’s hand away in protest, and Mark did not continue their conversation. “Come downstairs for breakfast when you’re done with feeding him. I’ll take you to the office later.”On the way to the office, Tiffany sent Arianne an ill-timed message: ‘How was la
Jackson was inwardly skeptical. He did not think there could be a purely platonic relationship between a man and a woman. Although he knew that Arianne was the one that Will liked, Tiffany was quite friendly with Will as well. Was it possible that Tiffany had like Will at one point? Otherwise, why would she request for leave to meet Will the moment she found Will had returned? In the past, Tiffany would not acquiesce to his request when he begged her to take leave. With these thoughts in mind, he was even more certain of his decision. “Either I go with you or you don’t go at all.”Tiffany’s temper exploded. “Fine, I won’t go! I’ll tell your mum that you won’t let your pregnant wife take leave. We’ll see if she gives you an earful or not!”Jackson paid no heed to Tiffany’s threats. He did not expect her to complain to Summer.As soon as Tiffany walked out, Summer had instantly called Jackson to lecture him. He felt his temper begin to rise as he said, “Don’t listen to her, mom. She’s
Lillian fell silent when she realized the atmosphere had turned heavy.Tiffany feigned ignorance and said, “It’s just a plant… You’re free to take care of it if you want to. If it’s too much of a bother, you can just throw it away. I don’t have the time to bother with it.”Jackson muttered, “You can keep it if you want to. After all, it’s a gift from someone…”Tiffany looked at Lillian pointedly.Lillian only shrugged helplessly. How was she to know the plant was a forbidden topic? She was only striking up a conversation.At this moment, Tiffany’s phone suddenly rang. The number was not saved on her phone, but it looked familiar to her. She casually answered the call. “Hello?”Tanya’s voice rang from the other end of the line. “Tiffany! Help me… Help me…”Tiffany rose to her feet immediately. “What happened?”Tiffany had deleted Tanya’s number a long time ago. Therefore, Tanya’s name did not show up when she called. Tanya sounded like she was in great pain, and Tiffany could no
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