Will glanced at Arianne but didn’t reveal the matter involving Mark. “It’s nothing. It’s late, let’s call it a night. Tiffie, you should go home and keep your mother company.”Tiffany sighed. “You know what my mother’s like. Now that my father’s gone, she probably won’t be able to catch her breath for a few years.”Arianne nodded, “Then I’m leaving. Call me if you need anything.”Just as she had spoken, she noticed a black Rolls-Royce parked not too far away. She remembered the car plate number all too well—it was Mark’s car…It took Brian a quick moment to get down from the car, walk up to her, and take her handbag. “Time to go, Madam.”Arianne did not expect to see Mark here. She looked at Will and Tiffany then followed Brian into the car without another word.Mark’s expression in the car was difficult to read. “What are you doing here?” she asked.He looked out at the passing buildings. “Why can’t I be here?” he asked in a chilly voice.She was momentarily at a loss for word
Mark had requested for these to be prepared since yesterday. Coincidentally, Helen and Aery had paid them a visit today too. She wasn’t sure if he had prepared it specifically for Aery, but the ingredients ended up arriving late and Aery couldn’t wait until dinnertime, so she became the plug.Such high-grade prawns were hard to come by during this season. Mark had certainly gone through a lot of trouble to have them specifically air flown here.She had just stuffed a prawn into her mouth, with half of it hanging out of her mouth, when Mark arrived at the dining hall. When she saw the ugly look on his face, she thought that he was upset at her for starting the meal impolitely. Just as she was hesitating over whether or not to spit the prawn out, Mark pushed the entire plate of prawns in front of her and said, “No table manners.”Arianne suddenly remembered that he never ate prawns. Looks like she really would be the plug.Even though his tone wasn’t ideal, she couldn’t be bothered w
It had been a while since they had a meal together and spent time in the same house. He hadn’t taken the initiative to speak to her over the past few days, so Arianne paused in her footsteps when she heard these words. “I… don’t like the smell of smoke. You go ahead, I’ll sleep in the guest room.”She had never said anything about her abhorrence towards his smoking before… A complicated glint flashed across Mark’s eyes. He threw the cigarette box into the trash then got up and went to the bed. “Sleep.”Arianne was shocked. She couldn’t understand what this meant. Had he thrown his cigarettes away, just because she said she didn’t like the smell? It didn’t seem possible that he had done this out of consideration towards her feelings. The biggest possibility was that he was pissed off…She went into a momentary daze then walked over to fish the cigarettes out of the trash. The trash can in their room was always clean. After all, she usually only slept in the room. “I didn’t mean anyth
On the other end of the phone, Ethan suddenly popped into Tiffany’s mind. She didn’t tell the story of their breakup, but her tone became a little bitter. “Yeah… It’ll get better, and we’ll all be fine!”As soon as Arianne ended the call, she dove right back into the complicated work. The busy morning passed quickly. By lunch break, she thought of a Chinese restaurant nearby that served light food since that was what she felt like having today.In the Chinese restaurant, she ordered two dishes that she liked and started digging into it. By the time she left, she realized that it was already raining outside. The weather was always unpredictable in this season, just like Mark Tremont...The rain was pouring and showing no signs of letting up anytime soon. As time passed, she grew aware that she was stranded here. Even if her office wasn’t too far away, she couldn’t possibly reach it. There was an open space that served as a parking lot in front of a Chinese restaurant. Since she wasn’
Arianne was rendered speechless for a moment. “...You’re doubting me just like Tiffie. Alright, we’re here. You can pull up now.”She waited for the car to stop then left in a hurry after thanking Ethan.Ethan watched through his dark eyes as her figure left. It seemed like Tiffany hadn’t told her about their breakup...When it was about time to get off work for the day, Arianne received a whining text from Tiffany. ‘It’s too difficult to find a job! Not only that, it’s raining so much today. It’s annoying!’Arianne was almost done with her work at this time, so she replied to her text. ‘You have Ethan to support you, what’s there to worry about? You used to help him out, now it’s his turn to return the favor. Since he has a good job now and is driving a car that costs nearly a hundred thousand dollars, you can live a decent life. Just take your time in searching for a job.’After the text was sent out, Tiffany didn’t reply for some time. Arianne found that strange. After a long t
By the time Arianne came out, Mark was already sitting at the dining table. He was in his light gray loungewear with slightly damp hair. She could smell the after-bath fragrance on his body. Regardless of circumstances, Mark always paid attention to his bearing and manners. He kept his posture straight all the time and never seemed to relax, even for a moment.Since Arianne didn’t know what to say, she decided not to say anything at all.There were two plates of big prawns for dinner tonight. When Mary served up dishes, she purposely placed the prawns in front of Arianne. Arianne unceremoniously began to peel the prawn shells and feasted on them. On the other hand, Mark gracefully brought the small bowl to his lips and slowly sipped on the soup.He failed to see how someone with such a good appetite was suffering from gastritis and was starting to heavily suspect that there was something wrong with her.Arianne noticed his stare, then forced herself to ask, “What’s wrong?”Mark av
Arianne wondered to herself. Didn’t Mark sleep in their room last night? Why did he come out of the study room early in the morning? He looked like… he just woke up. Did he get out of the room and go to the study room in the middle of the night?She naturally couldn’t comprehend Mark’s behavior, but since she knew better than to get herself into trouble, she left without even having breakfast.Mary came out of the kitchen with a bowl of millet porridge, but Arianne was no longer in sight. “Where is she?” she wondered out aloud.As soon as her voice fell, she caught a glimpse of Mark who was coming down the stairs. The sour look on his face instantly muted her.Arianne couldn’t focus on her work the entire morning. She had never expected herself to feel weak and dizzy just from not having breakfast. Her morning sickness felt even more intense than usual when she was hungry.When it was almost lunch break, she received a call from Tiffany. “Ari, I’m downstairs of your office. Come d
Speaking up to this point, she stopped because she really didn’t want to talk about Helen.Tiffany kept her mouth shut too. After all, they were both in depressing situations. Talking about it would just make them feel worse.Then, a sudden thought hit her and she took out a letter from her bag. “Ari, this is for you. I don’t know why it was sent to my place. I’m surprised that there are still people writing letters in this day and age. Isn’t it more convenient to use a phone? Who is it? How did he know where I live or even that we know each other…?”Arianne was very puzzled too. She opened the letter and stared at it. There were only a few lines of crooked handwriting on the letter. It took her a lot of effort to make out every word. As soon as she did, she felt blood rushing to the top of her head. She couldn’t even hear Tiffany calling her anymore.“Ari? Ari? What does it say?” Tiffany’s curiosity was aroused as she urged Arianne to tell her.Arianne snapped back to her senses
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