Shelly ignored Tiffany altogether and trained her attention on Arianne. She was not going to leave here empty-handed and without a shred of advantage earned.“Arianne Wynn, let me be very clear to you. If Mark stays over at your place tonight, I’ll spread every atrocity his foster mother had done to the public as well as let the whole world know that he’s actually my son,” she declared. “You know damn well that this is the last thing he wants. If your motive is to see him suffer, then by all means, continue clinging to him. I don’t care what you people think of me. I’m clearly the villain to all of you already, and I’m not afraid to play the role to its logical extreme. Besides, I know he’ll one day wake up and feel grateful to me—one day, he’ll be grateful that I’ve taken the necessary step to make him leave you.“If you truly care about him, then don’t let his worst nightmare come true,” she finished. “Don’t force my hand.”Coercion was Shelly’s most adept gambit. All she needed w
Mark strutted to the dining table and stared for a beat, not taking his seat.Then, with one furious swing, he swept every single dish on the table to the floor. Amid the cacophonic clamor, he bellowed, “How could you?! I don’t give a f**k if you threaten me, but why must you do the same to Arianne?!”Shelly was so taken aback by his sudden outburst that she gave up looking for her cane, opting to rise as steadily as she could with the help of her chair. “M-Mark, my dear! W-What have you done?! I’ve poured my heart over that for the entire evening… I… It’s Arianne, isn’t it? She told you, didn’t she? That little snitch!”Mark whipped his face to Shelly’s direction, his eyes as cutting and deadly as knives. “What in hell do you want from me? You bereft me of my wife and son, and now you’re explicitly denying me whatever little chances I have left to see my family? She is the love of my life, and he the fruit of my loins! How could you? How could you be so inhumane? You’ve lived a cra
Henry sighed in resignation. “Whatever floats your boat, I suppose. In all honesty, I watched Madam’s growth from a little girl to who she is today, just as Mr. Tremont had. She has always been under his constant scrutiny all these years. Who are you to judge her character and nature? Overt willfulness can only be your own undoing,” he said. “Compare now to the Tremont Estate before your return. Everything was serene and happy. But now, the house is enveloped by a bedeviling miasma. If you keep this up, this household will implode. Is that what you want to see?”Shelly cracked a bitter smile. “Please, the only thing this household has lost is Arianne Wynn. So what? She’s just another one of the dime-a-dozen women. Mark will move on someday; his so-called devotion will someday change target too. There is no such thing as a devoted, eternal love.”She had all the examples she needed: Mark’s father came to love someone else other than his wife, to the point of siring a bastard son. Her
Smore placed a few of his cookies into an empty plate. “I’m leaving some of these for Daddy. He hasn’t eaten what Mommy made yet.”Was Smore insensitive and inconsiderate? If he were, he would not have cared if his father had gotten to taste his mother’s cookies. Was Smore sensitive and sweet, then? Well, he did just twist the knife in his mother’s heart, right where it hurt…Mary, at the very least, was amused by the little boy’s antic. “Aww, isn’t our Smore just the most precious, sweetest thing?” she praised. “Your daddy puts on an icy exterior all the time, too, but boy, he’s always the nicest gentleman to his lady. The apple doesn’t fall too far from its tree; I know for sure that you’ll grow up to be just as much of a loving man.”Meanwhile in the Tremont Estate, sitting across from each at the dining table, were Mark and Shelly gawking at one another in tense silence.The clamor of fireworks outside was all the presence Christmas’s Eve amounted to within the walls of the Tre
Frankly, Mark had not expected himself to be free tonight. Based on what he learned about Shelly, the more meaningful and important a given day was, the harsher his house arrest would become.His patience toward Shelly and her threats was thinning. Sometimes, an impulse to just give up and let her do whatever she wanted would seduce him. For a chance at freedom from her control, Mark was tempted to allow Shelly free reign in anything—until he thought about the potential ramifications, and suddenly that thought would become baleful again.Most importantly, the man knew that the cost of seeing Arianne and Smore tonight was far heftier than the promise she had coerced him into making. There were more schemes in Shelly’s sleeves waiting for him, he was sure, but right now, he cast his worries to the farthest reach in his mind. He just wanted to meet the people he missed so much.By the time he reached the condominium, it was already nine at night. He had forgotten to bring the back-up k
Right now, the one thing that Arianne feared the most was Shelly’s prediction of Mark falling in love with another woman coming true. With someone like Shelly devoting her effort and relentless persuasion into making it happen, who knows if Mark might cave in one day?As though knowing Mark was going to leave, Smore—who should have gone to bed by ten o’clock—had stubbornly stayed up way past bedtime. Even after the clock ticked past eleven and he kept making jaw-breaking yawns, the little boy was adamant about accompanying Mark.Mary had already gone to sleep. She had decided early on to give Arianne and Mark their much-needed alone time, thus leaving Arianne to accompany the man in watching late-night Christmas programs.Unsurprisingly, neither of them was focused on the TV. Their minds were too preoccupied with a plethora of things they had dreamed of telling each other that now, despite the chance presenting itself, neither knew where to start.When it was almost twelve, Mark’s
Mark’s furious backlash was instantaneous. “Are you done manufacturing outrage over nothing?! Because of you, I only got to be with my son for a few measly hours on a Christmas Eve. Is that not enough control for you?! I’ll have you know that Arianne will be bringing Smore to visit Henry tomorrow. Let me put this out there: I’m not afraid of flipping out if you dare make her feel the slightest discomfort. Of course, you’re welcome to test my resolve if you don’t believe me.”“That’s the most ridiculous crap I’ve ever heard this week! Bringing your child to this house on Christmas Day just to see the butler working for the family?” Shelly mocked scornfully. “Or is there yet another hidden agenda, huh? You know what they say—you can never trust a snake!”Mark balled his hands into fists. “It’s not like there’s anyone else worthy of her visit, is there? What, you can’t really be suggesting yourself, can you? Are you even worth the trouble?… No, don’t answer that question; I’m already fa
Arianne herself was just as reluctant to let Shelly be near Smore, so she intuitively backed away as well.Seeing her reaction coupled with Smore’s words was enough to trigger Shelly’s temper. “Gosh, I just love how you brainwashed your child. Taught the boy to address some random, non-blood-related woman as Granny while despising his true biological grandmother, didn’t you? Are you going to teach your son not to recognize Mark as his father next? Just as I thought, allowing you his custody was a grave mistake!”Arianne was not in the mood to clarify, so she replied simply, “We’re here to see Henry.”Shelly turned to Mark and bristled. “You saw what happened with your own eyes, didn’t you? She brought her son back here for a mere butler on Christmas! Isn’t this the most preposterous, asinine bull ever? Just look at how she indoctrinated her son… Tell me, how could you still think she’s beyond reproach, huh?”Mark wrapped his arm around Arianne’s shoulders and led her away to the li