Arianne half-jokingly said, “I sold off most of your cars when the company was in peril before. I suppose you still can’t drop that, can you? Are you trying to use your son’s birthday present as an excuse to fill up your garage again? How old do you think Smore is? He’s just about to turn three years old on his next birthday—what could he possibly understand? Even if you bought it, wouldn’t it be you who’s the one driving? You should stop buying so many cars and keeping them as an exhibition, wasting your resources. We’ll be fine as long as we have sufficient cars.”Mark’s lips curled into a smile. “Yes, my wifey’s right. Let’s not buy it then. Smore, it’s not that papa doesn’t love you, but your mama’s the one who’s being strict.”When she heard the word “wifey”, Arianne’s hair stood upright, although her heart was elated at the same time. It was a rare sight for him to be such a smooth talker. Everyone had been feeling stressed with everything that had happened recently; it was rar
Mark’s facial expression slightly changed. “Are you saying that Aunt Shelly’s the one who ambushed Alejandro? Stop joking, you already know that Aunt Shelly isn’t that fit to begin with, and even if she had the use of all her limbs, it’s more likely that Alejandro would’ve successfully retaliated and she wouldn’t have been able to escape unharmed.”Arianne did not dare to dive deeper into the topic. “I didn’t mean it like that. It was just a random thought that came to mind… It’s quite late now, so let’s get some sleep and continue our search tomorrow. I’m sure we’ll get some leads soon.”When the lights were out, the entire house was enshrouded in darkness. Mark laid sideways as he faced Arianne. She could neither see his facial expression through the darkness, nor did she know how he was riddled with insomnia the entire night.Could it be true that Aunt Shelly had faked losing the use of her leg just to bluff him? Could it be that her leg wasn’t crippled at all? Why would she go t
The doctor gulped a few times, probably because he was overly nervous. Based on his obvious reaction, Mark knew that he had guessed correctly.The doctor finally broke after being threatened by Mark’s stare—no one would ever dare to offend a person of such importance like Mark. “Yes, she asked me to do everything! Her leg was truly injured, but it wasn’t to the point where she would be crippled. She has already regained her mobility and can move around like any normal person after recovering over this period of time. However, she needed to avoid any strenuous activities for her to be able to fully recover. She begged me so hard. She said… your wife was trying to chase her away and she had to lie in order to be able to continue to stay at your house, at her safe haven. I couldn’t bear not to help after seeing how pitiful she was…”Mark’s mental barrier immediately crumbled. So, it was true… Aunt Shelly had been lying to him all along. She had orchestrated the entire incident and even
Mark’s throat slightly moved as he gulped. He found it quite hard to bring the words to his mouth. “Her leg isn’t crippled. In fact, she has probably mostly recovered after such a long period of time. Hence, it shouldn’t be an issue for her to move around freely. She’s been lying to me all along.”Alejandro was not surprised by the fact. He had been receiving news about what Shelly had caused at home. “I see… Then, I’m pretty sure she’s the culprit. She must’ve known who I truly am, which would explain her ambush. She already managed to escape from the mental hospital, so if she really wanted to hide, it’d definitely be hard for you to find her. Plus, she hasn’t got any money or identification with her, yet she’s able to survive outside for so many days; she’s truly amazing. However, we have no idea if anyone else other than me has been hurt when she’s had one of her mental attacks. Now that I think of it, it’s quite scary to be targeted by someone who’s mentally ill.”Mark found Ale
Alejandro’s face darkened. “Divorce? Who’re you trying to scare off? If we get divorced, our daughter belongs to me. I refuse to believe that you’d be capable of snatching her away from me. Why bother getting a divorce when you can’t bear to be away from your daughter? I meant it when I said that I wasn’t there, so either you catch me in the act, or you can stop suspecting me. Women have a really serious case of being suspicious of everything, going around thinking about all kinds of nonsense every single day. Are you not tired?”Melanie pouted her cheek and scoffed, placing Millie in Alejandro’s arms before turning to walk away. Alejandro was initially quietly seated in his rocking chair and did not dare make too big of a movement since his wound was still hurting. However, he instantly felt so much pain that he gritted his teeth when Millie’s weight was dropped onto him.Millie stared at his exaggerated facial expression, looking like she was shocked. Her jet black eyes did not eve
Water quickly filled Shelly’s eyes. Before the first tear broke, however, Mark groaned exasperatedly. “No, you stop that! Stop your tears! Now! It’s not going to inspire mercy from me—hell, the longer I look, the more you disgust me. Don’t bother wasting your acting chops on me! It was you who harmed Alejandro, wasn’t it? What the hell are you going to do next, huh? Murder Arianne, isn’t it, you psycho?! You don’t belong anywhere other than a goddamned asylum, where you can get your lunacy mended!”Shelly forced the rolling tears back into her eyes. “Y-Y-You’re disappointed to see me here, aren’t you?” she said, her voice trembling. “But I can assure you, it’s not what you think! Not once has my body been defiled. I simply have nowhere to go, Mark. I have no money. This is only temporary, a quick fix. Do you…? Do you really think so little of me…?”Mark’s mind was so utterly ablaze that it fueled the curtness in his answer. “How about ‘bloody yes?!’ I wish you’d never tainted my life
Shelly seemed to have reached a point where she balked at recounting her past. Her voice, thick and strained, had broken into a series of unintelligible croaks complementing the anguish in her face.Mark curled his fingers into fists and gritted his teeth. “Go on.”Shelly waited, letting the brunt of her emotional turmoil pass, before continuing.After the labor was over, she took a glance at her baby boy.In a snap, all the repulsion and the feeling of defilement left her completely. Women may experience a profound change of heart the moment they claim motherhood, and Shelly emerged from her experience a mother who could not bear to part with her son.Suddenly, she refused to let her sister take her child away.To stem unwanted developments from this incident, Shelly’s sister took the baby back home the next day. The baby was then christened as Mark Tremont.Never had Shelly ever imagined that her sister would one day be so utterly possessed by a man that she saw her own little
Years of care and dedication had not awarded the man any reciprocation. It was only a matter of time before her husband wore out his senses and devolved into the same unstable mess that Shelly was. He started drinking hard and physically abusing her when prompted by liquid courage.Shelly thought that receiving his abuses was the only way to get even with what she owed him. She forgave him every time.When the alcohol passed, the man’s sobriety would be marked with tears of guilt as he gawked at the bruises all over Shelly’s body. He would always throw in an equal-part apology and equal-part relentless inquisition. He could not stop asking why Shelly refused to love him, and why she balked at bearing him a progeny.And Shelly would always reply, “Because you remind me of my sister. I’m only your wife because she arranged my life that way; you’re a cage she’s prepared for me. I want to go home—my home, where my son is! I hate them… I hate them all. I want them all dead!”For the pas
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