Mark did not say anything, but seeing the insistence in his eyes, Arianne did not push it.On the way to the hospital, she could not help asking, “How many brothers are there in Eric’s family? Why have they gotten to this stage?”Mark tugged at his tie. “One elder sister and two elder brothers. He’s a late comer to the family… from his father’s third wife. He has a different mother from his elder siblings. It’s complicated. His old man doesn’t really regard him highly. It’s honestly not Eric’s fault. If it were me, I would have done much worse than he had.”Arianne also thought that things would not stop here if it were Mark.Arriving at the hospital, the doctor picked out the pricks in Arianne’s palm. When she saw her bloodied palm, she realized how hard she must have gone just now. After having her palm treated and bandaged, Mark wore a frown while looking at her hand. “Don’t go back to the office later. I’ll send you home.”Arianne was reluctant. “I’m fine. I still have unfinished t
Jackson clicked his tongue. “Your face is ruined. He’s too harsh.”Not used to a table full of men and not being able to chat along as the only woman, Arianne took a few bites and stood up. “I’m full. You guys enjoy the meal.”Mark nodded. She went to sit down on the couch at the living room while Rice Ball snuggled into her embrace naturally.Jackson was slightly surprised by the scene. “That cat is pretty fat…”Mark sighed without saying anything, but Jackson caught the oddity. “Tsk, tsk, I didn’t expect this. You were the most afraid of furry animals in the past and now you have one at home. Looks like someone’s influence on you is quite strong, eh?”Still not saying anything, Mark glared at him but with upturned lips. His gaze involuntarily fleeted to the living room.When they were done with the meal, it was nearly ten at night. Jackson and Eric were tipsy when they left, and Mark was in a no better state. This was Arianne’s first time feeling that the huge Tremont Estate felt som
Arianne’s phone rang out of the blue. Escaping his grip, she picked up the device on the bed and saw that Tiffany’s name was blinking as the caller ID. It was necessary to pick up the call, and Arianne, without a doubt, thought that Mark would stop until she was done with the call.Without worrying, she connected the call. The moment Tiffany’s voice was heard, Mark gave her neck a soft bite. Arianne froze before turning to jelly and could only talk through a tough front, “Tiffie… It’s not a good time to talk now. I’ll call you later.”Perplexed, Tiffany asked, “What’s wrong, Ari? Why would it be inconvenient right now? I have something serious to tell you. It’s Mr.—” Arianne hung up directly before Tiffany could finish her words.Her heartbeat pumped incredibly fast. Tiffany had nearly said “Mr. Sloane”. Before she found out the truth, she must not let Mark know about it. He was so close to her right now, he could hear Tiffany…Fortunately, Mark was drunk and did not question it. His f
Tiffany huffily pushed the glass of water to the man’s lips. “Drink up. I still have a bunch of chores to do and no time to chat. You’ve only asked me to clean your house and prepare your meals. You didn’t ask me to serve you. That requires a higher rate!”Jackson emptied the glass and fished out a stack of banknotes from his wallet. “Sure… As high as you’d like. I have a tiny request. Sleep… with me. You can state the price.”Tiffany was about to explode from this madness. “Jackson West, what did you just say?”Jackson tugged his shirt button open and exposed his muscular chest. “Sleep with me…”Unable to hold back, Tiffany pushed herself forward and slapped him. “Screw yourself! I’ll hit you to death if you continue to act like this!”She did not actually land a harsh blow. Tiffany loved beautiful things. When Jackson tugged his shirt open, she nearly lost her composure. If Jackson weren’t so handsome, she would have beat him up until she incapacitated him! Because he was drunk, she
Half a minute later, Jackson got off of her. Tiffany got up and straightened her clothes, feeling slightly out of breath. “Umm… It’s getting late. I’ll come back early tomorrow morning and clean. You go to sleep first, I’m leaving!”Jackson sat on the edge of the bed with his back facing her, so Tiffany couldn’t see the expression on his face. Since he didn’t say anything, she took it as a silent approval and left quickly.She didn’t expect to encounter this kind of situation in her normal part time job. Nevertheless, it wasn’t hard to understand. A guy like Jackson was probably used to things like this. Maybe another woman would come here as soon as she left.The next day at the Tremont Estate…Arianne got up early. Mark and Nina were still asleep. She returned the call she got from Tiffany, who was still muddle-headed from her sleep. Basically, the person they hired found out that Mr. Sloane was taken away by someone from the mailing address and he had fallen sick at the time. Th
After everyone else left, Will walked toward the lounge. “Ari.”Arianne stood up and smiled at him. “What a coincidence, I didn’t know you were coming to the meeting too. I came with Mark here to relieve my boredom… How’s your leg?”Will didn’t point out her anxiety but smiled warmly. “It's fine now. It just feels a bit funny when I walk, but it will get better in time. I see that Mark treats you well. I just hope he wasn’t putting on an act for others.”Arianne didn’t carry on the conversation and instead changed the topic. “Um… Would you like to drink something? I can make coffee.”Will pondered for a moment then said, “Sure, sorry for the trouble.”Arianne smiled at him then went into Mark’s office to make two cups of coffee since his office had more stuff than in the pantry. Two minutes after she came back to the lounge with coffee, the conference room’s door opened and Mark came out. “Ari, what are you doing?”Arianne tried her best to speak calmly. “Just chatting with Will.
Arianne thought she was running as swiftly as the wind, but she unexpectedly got caught by Mark before she even ran out of the lobby on the ground floor. “Oh, seems like you’re getting bolder if you’re now stepping on my foot. Great. I’ll make sure to teach you a lesson later.”She surrendered and allowed herself to be dragged back to the car dejectedly. Brian noticed both of them panting as though they just finished exercising and couldn’t hold himself back from commenting. “What’s going on here? Did you two just finish running a hundred meter sprint?”Mark seemed to be in a great mood and replied to his question. “Something like that, except it was over before we even ran a hundred meters. Let’s go to White Water Bay Café.”White Water Bay Café...Arianne recalled her last visit with Mark to that café, but of course, it couldn’t be considered a wonderful memory. She couldn’t understand her current state of mind. Rather than saying that they had changed their way of getting along,
Mark turned his head back and looked at her with complex emotions running through his eyes. “What if I told you that the past didn’t matter? I’m not really…” Before he could finish his sentence, he got interrupted by Aery and her family. Not only was her mother here today, but even her father, Jean Kinsey, was here.“Mark dear, what a coincidence! I didn’t expect to meet you here. It’s been a long while, how are you?” Aery pretended as if nothing had happened and spoke to Mark in her usual cutesy voice.Mark was rather unhappy to be interrupted, so naturally, his feelings were reflected on his face. “Yeah,” he replied curtly.Aery knew how to observe the situation, so she stepped aside and stopped talking but continued giving dirty looks to Arianne. Jean and Helen both acted friendly around Mark. Speaking of schemes, those two were probably on another level. They even directly addressed him as ‘Mark’ instead of ‘Mr. Tremont’ like everyone else. “The weather is nice today, Mark. It’s