Eric almost doubted himself after Tiffany’s spiel. “You… Fine! That’s all I have to say. Do whatever you want. I’m only giving you a reminder. You can’t sport with certain people, neither can you afford to as well. This is to prevent things from getting awkward when we meet Arianne in the future. Jackson’s never one to force others. If you’re reluctant to, nothing will happen between you both. Done and dusted, think about it yourself.” Tiffany rolled her eyes at him. “Okay, okay. Thank you for your reminder. Now go away, don’t block my source of light!”…Forty minutes later, Brian dropped Arianne off at the White Waters Bay. The door to Jackson’s house was left ajar, but she still knocked first.When Tiffany heard it, she sprinted to pull the door open like a gust of wind. “Ari!”Arianne was surprised. “Tiffie, why are you here?”Pulling the girl inside, Tiffany explained briefly, “Found a part-time job. I’m working by the hour here. Some cleaning and whatnot…”Arianne felt her heart
Truthfully, not many women could resist a man like Jackson. Even when you knew that he was a playboy, you would still think that he was elegant and charming. The unintentional details would always reflect his gentlemanly manner and his considerate character. More crucially, he had the assets to be a playboy. He was rich and handsome. Even devil-may-care Tiffany felt butterflies in her stomach for a while.…It was past ten at night when Mark and Arianne left Jackson’s villa. Everyone had some wine during the dinner, including Arianne, but she did not have too much. She could feel her cheeks heating up but she was still clear-minded.Brian had been waiting outside for a long time. When they got into the car, Arianne looked at the villa that turned scintillating in the nightfall and suddenly asked, “Is Jackson married?”Mark paused for a beat before answering, “No, but soon. He knows what he’s doing, you don’t have to worry.”Mark was Mark, he knew what she was thinking with just one que
“Give me a reason. Don’t tell me that someone your age is still afraid of sleeping alone. Are you afraid of the dark?” Tiffany asked him jokingly.“Something like that. Give it a thought.” Jackson got up and poured himself a glass of wine then drank half of it in one go.Tiffany thought about it, but still refused in the end. “The cab I hailed is arriving soon. Besides… it's not appropriate for us to do this. I heard from Eric that your marriage has been internally decided, which means you already have a partner. Why are you asking me to do something like this instead of your fiancée? I don’t want to be criticized by someone else. Come on now, there’s nothing scary about sleeping alone. Don’t worry so much.”Jackson smiled, somewhat self-deprecatingly. “My fiancée? Didn’t you see her at the restaurant last time? She isn’t like you.”Tiffany was suddenly at a loss for words. What did he mean by that? Was he insulting her? Being here with Jackson alone made her feel awkward. She coul
“You did this on purpose, didn’t you?” She gave Jackson an accusing look.“No, I didn’t. The wine glass was on the armrest when I left. I don’t know how it spilled.” Jackson shrugged innocently.“You’re deliberately making things difficult for me, aren’t you? You knew how tired I am already from cleaning and created another mess for me! How am I supposed to clean this sofa?” Tiffany looked like she was about to cry because she had absolutely no experience in cleaning up a stained sofa.Jackson burst out laughing on the spot. He thought Tiffany was going to accuse him of deliberately soiling the sofa to force her into submission. He didn’t expect her mind to be this pure. It was as if her brain didn’t function like a normal person’s.It was already midnight and Tiffany finally accepted the fact that she wouldn’t be going home today. Even so, she still insisted on not sharing the same blanket as Jackson. At least, it felt safer that way.At the Tremont Estate...Nina was forcing Ar
After a wild storm, Mark finally got up and went into the bathroom. “I’ll send Nina off later. You should get more sleep after getting some food.”Arianne blushed and sank into the blankets, still panting slightly. The man looked as cold as an iceberg again after getting out of the bed, but they were talking a lot more now. In the past, he would never talk to her unless necessary.In the White Water Bay Villa, Tiffany woke up freezing cold. Except for the warmth on her back, she felt cold everywhere else. She didn’t know how the two blankets ended up being kicked onto the ground. Jackson and her were supposed to be sleeping on each side of the bed, but they were now in each other’s arms! No, to be precise, she was the one being held in his arms. She would’ve murdered him if it wasn’t for the fact that he kept his arm on her waist and not any higher than that.She only now understood what he meant by sleeping with him. Jackson only wanted her to be his pillow. It was only as simple a
Silence immediately set in. Jackson started to get a headache. Annie didn’t expect this woman to be so ‘daring’ as to not take her seriously! She stared at Tiffany and suddenly recalled meeting her in the restaurant before. Not only that, Jackson even footed a $6,600 bill for her back then!Realizing the tense atmosphere, Tiffany was finally fully awake. Upon seeing the situation at the door, she gulped audibly. “Um… this is a misunderstanding! It’s all a misunderstanding! I’m just a part-time cleaner here. Have fun chatting, I’ll be leaving now.”Naturally, Annie wasn’t buying that. She tried her best to spread her slender arms and blocked the door. “Cleaner? Are you taking me for a fool? How did a cleaner end up on his bed!”Tiffany stopped trying to explain herself. There was no way she could justify the situation with her sleepy face and dishevelled clothing. No one expected Annie to pull out her phone in the next second and snap a photo of her. After that, she barged her way in
Mark thought for a while. “We’ll talk about it later when I’m back. Still busy right now. There are still a lot of things we need to buy for Nina’s new place.”In the afternoon, Arianne met up with Tiffany at the Southern Café. Both of them looked glum. There was no news from Jackson’s side, but Annie was merciless. She immediately found someone to edit the article and posted it on the Internet. The views skyrocketed within a few hours. Tiffany was the only one exposed in the article and there was no sight of Jackson in the photo. Not even his shadow. In the end, this just made Tiffany feel like she was the only one shouldering the blame for everything.Arianne had always despised these condemning news. “I called Mark just now; he will find Jackson. Don't worry, I won't let this news stay on the Internet for more than a day. You’re not to be blamed for this.”Tiffany took a sip of her coffee then curled her lips. “How can I not be blamed? The fact is, I still slept with someone else
Arianne went to work as usual the second day and found out that Mark had not returned home the entire night.It was not that she suspected that something happened between him and Nina. She was just curious as to why he did not inform anyone in advance about not coming home.When she arrived at the office, Eric looked the usual as if nothing happened. His state of ease was supposed to relieve Arianne since the former shared a close relationship with Mark and would know if anything happened to either of them, but it still did not assuage her.Tiffany texted her then. “Ari, I realize that there are people guarding nearby my house and someone painted curses on my door in red. I dare not go out now!”Arianne was close to jumping when she read the text and decided to go to Tiffany’s house. Too afraid to go alone, she thought about it before dragging Eric along.When Eric’s car stopped outside of Tiffany’s house, Arianne took note of several suspicious people roaming the vicinity. Eric knew a
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