Arianne closed her eyes and did not give an immediate reply. This wasn’t her first time wondering the same question. After much consideration, there was only one possibility. In that desperate hour, Mark gave into his late father’s requests in the end, and fulfilled his duty as an older brother. Otherwise, why would Mark do such a thing? Based on Alejandro’s self-blame, it was probably true.Mark was disgusted by and hated everything that his father had done, but his father once held a high place in his heart too. He used to respect him. This had always influenced Mark, till the very end.Regardless, it already happened, so she had no choice but to accept the facts.Noticing Arianne’s silence, Jackson thought that Tiffany had put her foot in her mouth. “You’re such a blabbermouth,” he gently chastised. “Are two babies not enough to keep you busy? Go and check on them. Smore has disappeared.”Tiffany grunted in reply and went off to find Aristotle.Arianne saw through Jackson’s cau
Helen had left on the eve of the festive season. That year, Arianne was unable to even try and get into the mood since she was overwhelmed by the amount of incidents that had happened.When the holidays were almost over, Alejandro suddenly looked for Arianne and made a very harsh suggestion. “It’s already been so long; I believe Mark isn’t going to return. You should transfer the company to your name now.”Arianne remained silent for a while after hearing what Alejandro said. “That would mean that I’m admitting to the public that Mark’s dead… I don’t want to.”Alejandro said in a deep voice, “You need to face the reality. It’s bound to happen sooner or later. Plus, the earlier the company is transferred to you, the earlier you can be at ease since it’d be easier to handle the matters in the office. You’ve seen how bad of a situation Tremont Enterprises is in; the company’s finished the moment its partners cancel their respective contracts with it. Further, every shareholder in the c
Davy acknowledged her and brought Charles into the office not long after he had left. Charles immediately spoke without even greeting Arianne. “Have you transferred the company to your name?”Arianne did not think that he would ask such a question out of the blue. “Not yet. Is something the matter?”Charles reached out for his handkerchief in his jacket pocket and wiped off the sweat on his forehead. “You should get it done now. Someone’s acquiring the company’s shares from other smaller shareholders. The moment those shares fall into that person’s hands, you will lose all claim to the company. Someone came to see me and intended to buy off the 2% I have, but I refused. However, looking at the situation the company is currently at, I believe most of the others would opt to sell.”Arianne’s heart fell. “Mr. Moran, thank you for coming to tell me about this. I had already intended to start working on this today. I should be able to get it resolved soon enough.”Charles continued to w
The moment the call connected, Beau’s voice was heard and he spoke in his native language. “Good day, who’s this?”Arianne did not intend to converse in his language and said, “My name is Arianne. I’m Mark Tremont’s wife.”Beau immediately switched to English. “I see. Hello, I was not expecting for you to call. Is something the matter?”Arianne found it strange. Wasn’t Beau close with Mark and Jackson? Why was Beau’s first reaction not about Mark’s accident, but a very simple approach instead? Either he was not aware of the incident, or he knows about it, but was siding with Seaton.She calmed herself and said, “I was just going through Tremont Enterprise’s shareholders list, and I found that your mother owns 5%. Are you planning to sell? If you are, could you consider selling it to me first?”Beau’s paused for a moment before replying, “Why would I want to sell those shares? Those are my mother’s business; I have no right to interfere. Hold on… Has something happened in the compa
After hanging up the phone, Arianne gave a long sigh in relief. Thankfully, Beau was not in cahoots with Seaton.Due to the urgency of the situation, Arianne did not have time to hesitate and quickly proceeded to claim ownership of the company. The entire process took approximately half a month.Beau got back to Arianne as well. Someone had actually looked for his mother. The person had even said that Tremont Enterprises was in peril and it would be wise to get rid of their shares. Sonya did not reply to him immediately but checked up on the latest situation with the company continuously. Beau had looked for her right after that and his mother agreed to sell their shares to Arianne.At that point, Arianne was racing against time. Although she had claimed the company, she was still afraid of the opposing side claiming partial ownership of the company the moment they accumulated enough shares. Therefore, the more shares she had on hand, the more advantageous it would be for her. That
Seaton had a humble look on his face. “When you’ve been in the business for as long as I have, you learn to predict the future. At the moment, Aerse has 23% of the company’s shares and has requested to revoke his equity. I believe it would best for you to sell off Tremont Enterprise since you aren’t able to accumulate that much money.”Arianne tonelessly laughed. “Even if I do agree to sell, not everyone is able to buy it.”Seaton cut straight to the point and said, “If you believe in me, you could sell the company to me. Based on Mark’s relationship with me, I will most definitely cherish the company as if it were my own. Further, you would be able to escape the perilous situation you’re in right now.”Arianne lightly snorted without giving away any emotions on her face. “Mr. Bart, have you finally gone straight to the point after beating around the bush for so long?”Seaton squinted his eyes. “What do you mean… by that?”Arianne put away her smile and gritted her teeth. “Mark tr
She had underestimated how evil people could be. Some people would stop at nothing to gain profit, disregarding the livelihood of others and ignoring all consequences.Once Seaton was far away, Melanie strode forward and consoled her. “Don’t worry, Alex and I will help you through this. As long as Seaton is behind this, we’ll find proof.”“Thank you, Melanie,” Arianne smiled. “It’s hard, shouldering the Tremont fortune… So, Seaton really was behind it. He has just admitted to it. I will make him pay!” Defeating Seaton wouldn’t be easy, but she refused to give up. Once Tremont Enterprises was stable, she would find evidence to prove Seaton’s involvement in Mark’s murder!Since Seaton underestimated her, she was determined to change his mind. She knew that Seaton was on the same level as Mark and she was nowhere near either. However, she refused to give up.That night, Arianne dragged her tired body back to the Tremont Estate. Mary kindly left her some supper. “Have something to eat,
Suddenly, a clap of thunder boomed from the skies. Arianne covered her ears, painfully. She hated the rain. The sound of thunder scared her…Mary quickly ran to shut every door and window in the Tremont Estate to block out the sound of the storm. “Ari, the noise is gone. Go to bed. Stop tormenting yourself. The Tremont household needs you…”Arianne reluctantly put down Mark’s shirt. “Mary, try to clean up everything in there. It’s alright if you can’t wash off the stains, but keep them for me. Don’t throw any of it away.” She couldn’t shake this feeling that Mark was coming back. However, so many months had passed and everyone was urging her to face reality.She despondently walked upstairs and went to the nursery to see Aristotle. Tiffany was sleeping in the nursery with both babies, one on her left and one on her right, with her arms wrapped around them. Aristotle was fast asleep, so she couldn’t bear disturbing him. She quietly slipped away.Tiffany had been helping her take car
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