When Robin arrived at the Tremont estate in a taxi, Mark had already finished his dinner and took Smore upstairs with him. Arianne was in the living room discussing work with Robin. The rain had already cleared when Robin was ready to leave. The air was filled with the freshness that comes after the rain with a slight humid smell from the rain water.Arianne accompanied Robin to the taxi stand. “See you tomorrow.”Robin waved at her and said, “You should head home first. I’ll see you tomorrow. By the way, your house is really beautiful, as expected of a luxury home.”Arianne smiled and returned home when she saw the taxi driving off.After a busy day, Robin sat in the car and took a deep relaxed breath. She enjoyed living a fulfilling life where every moment was well spent so that she did not have the time to have any sad thoughts. However, there would come a point where she would still have to slow down. To be exact, now…Jessica had been sent to prison, and Sylvain was most like
After a second’s worth of hesitation, she chose to trust him. She was surprised that he was still in the country. This was a merciful stroke of luck in her misfortune. She amplified the sound on her phone and hurriedly followed the road ahead. The street lights cast a long shadow on her figure. The sound of her high heels clicking against the ground seemed particularly sudden. Every moment seemed to drum heavily into her heart. She forced herself to act tough, too afraid to turn around. Her eyes glistened with tears. “I’m walking. Where are you?”Based on the current state of their relationship, she wasn’t sure of what else to say aside from asking him where he was.Sylvain seemed to be driving. He quickly answered, “I’m close.”His voice echoed through the phone, piercing through the quiet night and providing her with a strange sense of assurance. Only then did she realize how good it was to hear his voice, clear and rife with magnetism.After more than ten minutes, which was fu
The flippant expression on Sylvain’s face instantly disappeared. “So, do you think that I’m an assh*le who relies on a sugar mommy too?”Robin was suddenly at a loss for words. That’s what everyone thought. If she denied it right now, it would be hypocritical. After a two second pause, she opened her mouth to speak, but Sylvain stopped her mid-way. “Okay. You don’t have to answer. I don’t care what people think.”The atmosphere turned sombre after that. Robin felt slightly suffocated in the car, so she winded the windows down, allowing the night breeze to blow through her hair and release the fragrance of her shampoo into the car. It was a charming scent. Sylvain suddenly spoke up. “Tie up your hair.”“I don’t have a hair tie…” she replied awkwardly.He pulled out a hair scrunchie, as if he were doing a magic trick. “Here.”She accepted it and felt even more awkward than ever. She had left this when she stayed over at his place once. She was surprised that he still kept it and… Br
She stepped into Sylvain’s villa once again. “Jessica gave me this place when I represented the company in a competition and won first place. I accepted it, not because I liked being someone’s boy toy, but because the benefits I’d given Jessica exceed this house. My conscience was clear, so I accepted it.”Robin walked to the couch and sat down. “Do you… have feelings for Jessica?” She had been wanting to ask this question, ever since she found out about his relationship with Jessica.Sylvain eyed her for a good measure of time. “Do you want to know?”His gaze made her feel very uncomfortable. “I… I was just making conversation. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”Sylvain walked to the bar and opened up a bottle of wine, poured a glass, and gave it to her. “It’s not that I don’t want to talk about it, and there’s nothing to avoid talking about either. I used to admire her. It was many years ago. Everyone has delusions of love in their youth. Some are lucky enough
Sylvain had probably slept very late last night. He was still asleep when she left, so she had no choice but to leave him a note. She had to leave some form of notification, at least. That was the polite thing to do.She had just arrived at the office building when Arianne pulled her aside. “Your mom is here, asking everyone in the office if you stayed all night to work overtime. She seemed really angry when she found out that there was no one at the office last night. She’s waiting for you. Where were you last night? Didn’t I walk you to the cab? Didn’t you go home?”All the color drained from Robin’s face. “Arianne… I didn’t think that my mother would come all the way here. I’m so sorry! You have to help me! I left in the cab last night, but there was something wrong with the cabbie. He dragged me to a secluded road. I was so scared, so I called Sylvain, and he picked me up. Going back and forth took up a lot of time. It was pretty late and I forgot my keys. My parents have a habit
Arianne shook her head helplessly and returned to her seat. Robin’s relationship with Sylvain was still considered vaguely above average. Sylvain’s future was now considered bleak after everything he had been through. She wasn’t sure of what to make of Robin’s relationship with Sylvain. She would simply play by ear.Mark picked her up after work that evening. The pair headed to the hospital with a bag full of fruits. As she had expected, Tiffany was in too much pain to get down from bed. She had suffered worse than she did. She was supposed to get down from bed the next day after surgery. The amount of IV fluids she had received meant that she had to go to the toilet a few times. Tiffany would wail and howl whenever she had to go to the toilet. Her cries made Jackson, who had to support her along the way, break out into cold sweat.Tiffany burst into tears when she saw that Arianne and Mark had arrived. “Arianne,” she sobbed. “I should have listened to you and chosen natural birth in
Lilian shared the same view. “Tiffie, quit being so stubborn, would you? This is all for your own good. Staying at home during confinement is just a roundabout way to burden everyone around you, sweetie. That includes Jackson and his mom. Look, you’ll be in a weak state for about a month, just like your newborn baby, so it’d relieve all of us if we could let professionals in the post-partum center take care of you, right? Besides, we have the money for this now. Using it for an appropriate service isn’t a waste of anything. And stop saying how unsafe it’ll be! Jackson will always be by your side anyway!”Tiffany furrowed her eyebrows, silently seething. It did not matter what they said. She did not want to stay in a foreign environment for a month, no matter how high-class that place was. It would never be as comfortable as her own home. Heck, all these days staying in the hospital were driving her nuts. Every day she wished she could just go home already.Jackson read her expression
Arianne instinctively shot Mark a glance. Honestly, Arianne was not quiet by nature—before eight years old, her childhood was one of joy and rambunctious guffaws, especially when she was playing with her friends. The only reason why she became so quiet was that Mark influenced her that way. In other words, Smore was quiet because he followed his father’s trait, and as the baby grew, the resemblance became unmistakable.At night, as the two laid down side by side, Arianne asked, “Have you always been this icy and stoic since you were a kid, Mark Tremont? ‘Cause Smore’s acting quite like you when you were a kid, isn’t he?”Mark pinched the bridge of her nose. “What did you just call me? For some reason, hearing it makes me miffed.”She slapped his hand away. “I called you by your name, duh! Isn’t that a normal thing to do? You can’t possibly expect me to call you ‘honey’ at the drop of a hat, right? Come on, you’re not really gonna fixate on the terms I use to call you, right? What el
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