When Melanie finally understood what had transpired, she quickly ducked aside to call Alejandro for help. “Something terrible has happened—Arianne went missing while attending Mateo’s funeral! And now your brother has gone mad from worry… God help me, I don’t know what to do!”Naturally, this bombshell sucker-punched Alejandro into confusion. “Hold on. Arianne went to Mateo Rodriguez’s funeral? And Mark is attending it too?!”Melanie was not in the mood to divulge the details. “The most important thing is that Arianne has somehow gone missing,” she repeated. “And Mark—for God knows why—is here, like right now, conducting this frantic search for her. From the looks of it, no one’s found her yet. My God, Alejandro, it’s pure chaos! Please come here as soon as possible!”Without another word, Alejandro hung up. Melanie understood that he was not going to turn his back against such a request and let out a sigh of relief. She tucked her phone safely and strode toward Mark and Mrs. Rodr
Words of Arianne’s disappearance quickly reached Tiffany and Jackson. Then, with help from Alejandro, three powerful families launched into a massive, city-wide search together.All through his life, Mark Tremont had never known true fear as he was experiencing now. For once, he was terrified of vengeance against him—in the form of Arianne, who would die like Mateo did!He could not live without her!The day quickly died into the night, but the things that had happened in the former did not end in the latter. In fact, the night only seemed to have pushed outward frenzy into inward anxiety.Mark was chain-smoking in his study while he held his phone with his other hand. All to make sure that he would not miss any new development about Arianne’s whereabouts.Smore pushed open his door fearfully and poked his head out from behind. “Dad? Um, when is Mom coming home?”Mark froze in mid-action. Then, came his croak, “Soon, little man. Very soon… She’ll be back… You just have to be a go
The old woman followed her out of the room a while later. “Miss Wynn, when you’re finally hungry, just tell me and I’ll make you something nice for that empty stomach. House rules, sweetie: you can move around and do whatever you like within this house, but you should give up on getting outside, you know? You ain’t gonna leave the house.”“Are you a member of the Rodriguez family?” Arianne asked tentatively. “Is Mateo’s family the people behind this?”Never mind how Geralt had promised Arianne that Mrs. Rodriguez would never trouble her again…The old woman’s answer sounded as canned as it could get. “Sorry, sweetie, but I’m just an old woman who’s doing the job she’s been asked to do for money. I have no idea about this whole thing so you’re not gonna get anything of worth from asking me. Oh, but I’m handy with housekeeping duties—meals, cleaning, you name ‘em. Anytime you need me, just give a holler.”Arianne was clearly not going to extract any information from her, so she gave
Any less desperate than she was right now would have made harming an old lady a gigantic “no!” to Arianne—but desperate times call for desperate measures. Who could tell the motives behind whoever her mysterious captor was at this point? Arianne was not going to just twiddle her thumb and wait!At that thought, she scanned her surroundings to locate the perfect weapon. Ideally, it would be something that could bludgeon someone unconscious rather than outright fatal; even now, Arianne was not ready to have someone’s life on her hand.Before she could even make her first move, however, the old woman suddenly spoke, “Miss Wynn, I can see what’s brewing in your head, and you’re spot on: I’m just an old, powerless granny you can easily take on. But my master apparently doesn’t want to see you as of now. He ain’t gonna just show himself to you just because a senior citizen died here. On the other hand, he will come to you when the time is right, guaranteed,” she intoned. “You have fresh, c
Arianne cast away the broken shard in her hand and sat so that the old woman could tend to her wound. She had accidentally applied a bit more force than she had intended for the performance, resulting in a deeper cut than required. The silver lining was that sharp pain was all she had to endure, since the bleeding stopped without fail.All this time she wondered when that scumbag would show himself. As she waited, though, sleepiness gradually conquered her. She slept not a wink last night, and when combining that with the psychological torment she had endured, Arianne lost the fight against her bleariness and succumbed to sleep.Back in Tremont Tower, Mark was sitting behind his usual desk, his face fraught with worry. His eyes had never left his phone.There was still no news of Arianne. That was despite all of the efforts of their search party.The widespread, unsavory news about his conduct at Mateo's funeral was long below his attention; no, what drove him to nigh madness was t
Mark could feel his chest tightening until even breathing itself had become difficult. “Have any questionable people contacted us over these two days? There’s bound to be a phone call or something for ransom in a typical abduction, right?”By this point, he wished this was about money, because at least he could have her back through an exchange of money. At the very least, that would be miles better than not knowing where Arianne was, or how she was at all.Henry shook his head. “I’m afraid there is none. I’ve paid my utmost attention, and there hasn’t been any strange number ringing us. If I may, Mr. Tremont—you overtax yourself. You need respite; leave this to me,” he admonished. “I may be old, but something like this is still well within my capabilities. As long as Madam has a sliver of chance of being alive, I won’t even hesitate to trade my life to save her.”Mark said nothing.Any news would be good. Just any news, however small.But there was none for him. All there was lef
Mateo’s eyes were bright—almost dazzling—when he looked at her. “Because… you.“I thought that I would finally be able to move on after a hug from you. But when your body collapsed into my arms, I had a revelation—I can never move on; it’s impossible. At that moment, I felt as though my one true dream had finally come true,” he explained. “I demand more. There is no way I can let you go like this… So, I want to take you with me, to a place where no one knows us, and I will use the rest of my life to make you love me. I’ve already spent so many years bound to you; adding the rest of my life into it is a small feat.”Arianne’s mind was a mess, but as she worked hard to connect the dots, the truth slowly reared its head in her own. “And Geralt Bernard knew about this all along, didn’t he? He helped you fake your death. He then came to save me from your mother when she abducted me, because he was privy to your scheme. The things he said to me—and that time he brought me to that so-called
Shock stimulated her memory, and Arianne remembered losing her handbag when Mrs. Rodriguez abducted her. All of her identification documents had been inside. But later, Geralt told her he had gotten those things all “cleaned up”, which was why she had not……That was a lie too, wasn’t it? Arianne was only stymied from replacing her lost ID and whatnot because this debacle had been developing at breakneck speed since then.Damn Mateo and his watertight scheme! Just the suggestion—that she might never see Mark and Smore ever again in her life—coursed into her chest before sharpening into an acute agony mangling her heart.“No! Never—! I’ll never leave with you unless I’m dead! Noooo!”Mateo let her hysterics roll past him without effect. He announced calmly, “You should rest; I have something to attend to, so please excuse me. Friendly reminder: don’t waste time and effort trying to escape this place, fair lady; it’s futile. When we’re finally abroad, I’ll help you reinvent a new iden