At six in the morning, a string of frenzied ringing startled Arianne out of her sleep. This was not her usual time to wake up, and she did not intend to start now. She jostled Mark, signaling him to help her get it. The man groggily obeyed and stood up from his bed, grabbing her phone and taking a glance on the caller’s name before passing it to Arianne. “Your phone; it’s Melanie. You pick it up.” Arianne placed the phone by her ear blearily. “Mmm, helloww? Melanie? Why the early call?” All the way from the other side of the phone, Melanie’s voice was dangerously light and evidently shaking, “A-Arianne… T-Teo… He… He’s been abducted… The m-media’s already on it… D-Don’t you know yet?” The fog of sleep around Arianne was immediately dispelled. “What did you just say?! W-What happened?!?!” Mark was so shocked, his plan to return to his slumber was instantly thwarted, and in response, he rolled on his back to express protest. Arianne willed herself to recover her composure bef
Arianne’s mind was upheaved into a terrible confusion.She hung the call soon and stood in the bathroom alone, desperately combing through her memory of Mark’s recent behavior to find any abnormality.Arianne would not have ever suspected Mark before Melanie stated her case. But once the woman raised her points, Arianne just could not help but follow the way the conjecture went. Yes, Arianne very much wanted to believe Mark was in the clear, but even she had to admit that he had always been capable of analogous cruelties. He had been downright apoplectic the night he found her with Mateo. And yet with the exception of beating that man on the spot as an outlet for his anger, Mark came out of the experience almost unaffected. There was no follow-up to the event; there was not even a mention on the days after. The way he had been acting was simply a far cry from his character.The Mark that Arianne knew was a man who never gave anyone or anything a pass. Anything he perceived as a th
Mark heard the pandemonium from outside and frowned slightly, but he showed no inclination to care. Arianne, however, caught Mateo’s name among the hubbub and sprang out of the elevator unthinkingly before heading to the entrance. “What’s going on?! Who’s responsible for this hoo-ha?!”Seeing her leaving the elevator, Mark hesitated for a beat before trailing behind.By the time the two of them got closer, the troublemaker—an upper-class woman whose dress reflected her standing—dropped to her knees and let out a bloodcurdling keen. “Mr. Tremont, please! Teo knows he’s messed up, please! Please, he’s my only son! Please, please, please have mercy, please let him go!”Arianne felt her heart shudder. Was this Mateo’s family? But… who told them that Mark might be connected to his abduction? How else could they be so quick to show up here, in his turf?!A storm had clouded Mark’s darkening expression. “What’s that supposed to mean? What does Mateo Rodriguez’s welfare have anything to do
The only thing Mark’s speech was able to do was to make the couple exchange glances.Who in their right mind would ever confess to a crime like this?Arianne watched the tempest in Mark’s mien slowly pooling into a hurricane. Before he lost control and erupted, Arianne shot a meaningful look at Davy, who called in security to escort Mateo’s parents away.Unfortunately, the influence of the kerfuffle to the office’s mood had taken effect. Suddenly, all the office could talk about was this strange riot; Arianne could not tune it out even if she wanted to.When it was finally lunch break, she called Melanie. “Hey, Melanie? Did you tell Mr. and Mrs. Rodriguez about the thing that happened that night?”Melanie sounded completely flabbergasted. “I haven’t mentioned a thing, though? …Arianne, what happened over there? What made you ask? I admit I suspect Mark’s involvement, but before there is concrete, indisputable evidence proving it, telling people about that night is like begging for
Mark yanked his tie loose as a fit of anxious frenzy seized him, and he strode to the couch for a seat.“So? You think I’m the one behind it too, don’t you?! A stupid requital against that Mateo Rodriguez? —You really believe that I would be behind any of this?!”Arianne said nothing. She suspected him, but she doubted that suspicion just as much as she doubted him. When pressed, she had no idea what to say.All her deafening silence succeeded in doing was to pour fuel into Mark’s fire. In the blink of an eye, he rose to his feet and grabbed Arianne by the chin, hard. “What are you implying? Melanie suspects me, and now, in her footsteps, so do you? If this were my doing, mark my words, I would not keep my lips shut on the matter nor bend over backward trying to hide it from you; rather, I would confess—plainly—to you that I want Rodriguez dead! So why am I being accused of a crime that I have not a single connection to, let alone pulled strings behind?!”Pain flared in response to
It had been more than a decade since she was bound to him.Whether Mark would ever begin the spiral into domestic abuse—Arianne knew from the bottom of her heart.Comforting Smore later, she started toward the stairs to where Mark was.The shut door had become less of an entrance to the study, and more an impenetrable stone wall forced between the two of them, separating them—plunging them into oppressive gloom.Downtrodden, she pushed it open. Her arrival was greeted by a pungent stench of cigarettes. It choked her so hard a fit of coughs began to seize her.Hearing her sputters, Mark furtively crushed the ember on his cigarette to snuff it out. “Why are you here?” he bristled. “Leave me alone.”Arianne willed herself to acclimate to the mire without letting out another sputter. “I’m… sorry… I admit… I suspected you… B-But I just want to be… honest with you! I’ve hoped against hope that it isn’t you, and c-compared to my suspicion… the amount of my faith in you is more!” she pro
One look at Mark’s stormy expression prompted Jackson to quickly cup his hand over Tiffany’s mouth. “—I mean, people say the sh*ttiest things everywhere on the internet, riiiiight? Who needs you to remind us all about it? So how about we zip our lips on this one, honey, and move on to discussing the solution,” he quickly chimed in. “We didn’t wanna intervene at first, but Mark’s gotten dragged into it. It’s in all of our best interest to solve this as soon as possible, because as it stands, this is seriously staining Tremont Enterprise too much.”Mark let out a steely sneer. “And the world never changes. Who cares about evidence or proof? All it takes to damn anyone to death is a someone’s piehole. But I’m not just any weakling who can be taken down by some unfounded rumor, and good luck on getting me to care about Rodriguez’s abduction,” he bristled. “Why should I squander my effort in saving him—what, just to prove that I’m innocent? I’m already innocent, for God’s sake, whether I h
Arianne pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “What do you think I can do? What can I even say at this point? You saw Mark’s attitude—he’s not gonna help, ‘period.’ Even if the consensus is literally pulling his reputation apart, he’s basically ossified into this goddamned attitude. At this point, I can only hope that Mateo’s abduction genuinely has zero connection to him.”If Mark was the mastermind… Then Arianne would be exactly as guilty as the talking heads online painted her to be.She would be the bane whose existence sealed Mateo’s fate.She should not have met Mateo.Tiffany widened her eyes. “Ari! No frickin’ way—you can’t really think Mark’s behind this, right? What the hell even makes you think that?!”“It’s just! It’s, well, I… I mean…! I don’t think it’s him from the way he reacts?” Pressed and bedeviled, Arianne’s answer had turned into a disheveled meandering. “I pray it’s not him, I really do, and I don’t think it’s him! I just… I just want Mateo’s abduction’s timi