Mark Tremont got up and left in disgust. “You’re not qualified to negotiate with me!”The room door was slammed closed, the loud bang sent shivers through Arianne. For the first time in ten years, she felt like her world had collapsed.Mark Tremont’s enraged words echoed in her ears, truly frightening her. Arianne tried her best to call Tiffany but for the entire afternoon, but the only reply she received was the busy-line tone.Arianne panicked. Could Mark Tremont have forced them away?She clenched her jaws and went to his room. This was her first time entering directly without knocking.The room was smoky. Mark Tremont was still seated on the chair in front of the French window but this time, he had his back facing her. The ashtray beside him was brimming with cigarette butts and ash. His back was laced with a sense of melancholy.“Please… don’t do anything to them. It’s my fault. I know that I’m wrong…” Arianne cried while she begged him. Will Sivan’s departure abroad the last time
Arianne gasped from the pain. Just as she was about to pick herself up, a pristine pair of high quality custom-made leather shoes appeared before her eyes. Mark Tremont’s apathetic voice came from above her head.“You have two minutes.”Arianne looked up into his deep orb eyes and carefully probed. “Can you… let them go now?”She did not catch the disappointment that flashed across the bottom of his eyes. What he wished to hear was not this.“You’re wasting my time if that’s all you had to say after chasing after my car so recklessly.”Mark Tremont went back to the car without a pause after speaking. His forceful slam of the car door frightened Brian.“Cancel my return ticket for next week. I’ll take over the overseas branch myself.”Brian Pearce was hesitant. “Sir… You won’t be able to come back for at least three years then… Are you sure you want to cancel it?”“Do what I say!” Mark Tremont’s lips were pressed into a thin line as he closed his eyes and rested against the seat.Ariann
Finally digesting this information, Arianne Wynn was actually more nervous now than when she was on the call. She darted downstairs.“Mama Mary, please give the house a good cleaning…”Mary was surprised since Arianne was usually not bothered with such matters.“What’s up, Ari?”Arianne could not pinpoint if she was feeling happy or scared. “He’s… coming back.”Mary was bewildered for a moment, before realizing who Arianne was referring to. Grinning with her eyes. “Really? Sir is coming back? That’s great. You guys haven’t seen each other since being married three years ago. It’s good news that he’s coming back. I’ll have the house cleaned thoroughly. Don’t you worry.”Returning to her room, Arianne tidied up the messy sketches scattered all around. She was working in a fashion design company having just passed her probation. She was usually busy and her room was a reflection of that. Mary dared not mindlessly clean her room as she had no idea how to organize her sketches. Now that Mar
The short finishing touch of his reply successfully stopped her in her tracks. She would never doubt Mark Tremont’s ability to suspend the company she was working at from operating if he wished to…However, Arianne did not say anything, choosing to go back upstairs to her room. Lying on her bed, her mind was blank.On the dining table, Mark Tremont put down his mobile phone emotionlessly and ate his meal in full concentration, feigning ignorant to the text messages that were stacking up, no longer giving them another glance.“Mary, move her to my room.”Mary was struck with a realization. “This should be the case… You weren’t here for three years, yes? Ari’s has stayed in her original room. Now that you’re back, she should move. I’m on it.”Mark Tremont corrected her. “Your form of address should change now.”“Oh, right, right. I’ve gotten used to it. I have to call her madam from now on,” Mary replied with a smile.When Mary went to Arianne’s room to move her things in glee, the latte
The foreign voice of a man came from the other end of the line.“Hello? Sis-in-law? Uh, Mark had too much to drink. Do you think you can come pick him up?”Sis-in-law? The address caused her to jolt. Arianne’s first reaction was that the caller must have been mistaken. She was quite puzzled.“What? Where?”It took Arianna some effort to finally clarify which bar they were at, since the other end of the line was noisy.Hanging up, she put on her coat and woke Henry up. She had no driver’s license and could not pick him up on her own.Arriving at the location, she saw the men at the bar entrance from afar right as she got off the car. Other than Mark Tremont who was intoxicated, there were two other men.‘Birds of a feather flock together’ – this was Arianne’s immediate thought. Both men were good looking and lofty. It was just that she had never seen them in the past, having no opportunity to familiarize herself with his circle of friends.“Ay, Mark’s good at hiding. He’s spilled the be
For some reason, Arianne remembered the woman who hooked arms with him at the airport and instinctively pushed Mark Tremont away.“We’ll talk about when you’re sober!”If he were sober, he definitely wouldn’t want to touch her…“Get out!” He growled in a low tone.Taken aback, Arianne quickly got up and smoothed out her pajamas before going back to her room next door. Although all that remained was the bed, she could still sleep in the empty room.When morning came the next day and Arianne seated herself down at the dining hall, she saw Mary taking the sheets in her original room away in a haste, even the mattress was moved away.Mark Tremont did not even spare her a glance, as he came downstairs and left in his car.Arianne had a simple meal, then grabbed her bag and went out. When she worked, she did not have to worry about Mark Tremont’s presence.Just as she sat down in the office, her supervisor, Simon Donn, placed a document on her desk.“Send this to the Wyatt Company. Remember,
Without warning, a woman’s voice faintly sounded from Mark Tremont’s office. “Hmph! You said that you’re not free, yet you aren’t even busy! I saw a bag I like – no, a bag that I love! Buy it for me, okay?”Arianne Wynn’s breath was caught in her throat, like someone was choking her.She did not hear if Mark Tremont said anything back. Soon enough, the woman came out. Upon meeting eyes, Arianne was astonished as it was the same woman whom she saw at the airport.Her gaze did not linger on the woman’s triumphant face, but her eyes stayed fixated on the high heels the woman wore. Mark Tremont prohibited everyone from disturbing the peace and quiet of this level yet he had allowed this woman here with high heels.“It’s you again. What business do you have with my dear Mark? I don’t know what past you have with Mark, but I don’t like you and from now on, I will resent you. After we came back from abroad, I see you every time I look for my dear Mark. I hate it.” The woman spoke in a tone t
“No, I’ll leave immediately.” Arianne answered shortly.Just as she turned around, a pen flew past her ear and smashed against the office door. Ink leaked from the crack of the pen and stained the floor.Throwing things meant that Mark Tremont was furious. Arianne dared not move, although she was slightly shaken. She wanted to restrain her fear toward him but she was unable to…“Come here!” Mark Tremont’s voice was laced with anger. To Arianne, it was the forewarning of a life threatening situation.Her hesitation lasted for only two seconds before she turned to go toward him with her hands clutching the hem of her clothes and looked cautiously at him.Mark Tremont tugged her close to him and wrapped his arm tight around her waist to prevent her from moving. His voice was piercing and icy cold. “What did you call me? Does making such a clear distinction mean that you’re changing how you address me at home?”Once he was reminded that she would rather stand for more than two hours outsid
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