As expected, that so-called aunt had lied to her. They weren’t completely unaware of the plane crash and actually intended on taking Arianne away.From the sound of it, it seemed entirely forgivable. After all, that incident was pretty severe.Arianne didn't plan on playing the blame game, and she could understand her, “Actually, my father wasn’t behind that plane crash. He was innocent. He never hurt anyone in the Tremont family. I don’t want to go into the specifics with you, but I just want you to know that my father was innocent. I’ve left the Tremonts and started a desserts café. I’m not exactly rolling in cash, but I do have enough for the both of us. I’ll find a bigger place and get a nursemaid to take care of you. I have to go out every morning and come home late at night. I’m really sorry that I can’t take care of you personally.”The old lady did not ask any more questions about the plane crash, probably because she didn’t want to talk about it anymore. She sighed, “Now it
She stared at the co-driver’s seat hesitantly, “I didn’t mean to hang up on you. I truly was swamped.”Mark surveyed the look on her face, “What are you busy with that you couldn’t even sleep? Talk to me, what did you mean when you said that you wouldn’t have any time anymore?”Now she understood, he was here because of her careless dismissal…Arianne explained the entire situation involving the old lady to him. Mark was surprised, too, and astonished, “I’ve done an investigation before, and I’ve been long aware that you have a grandmother and a non-blood related aunt. I thought they’d never reveal themselves, as they never appeared in the past, so I never planned on telling you. I’m surprised that they came all the way here to see you. What’s your plan? Are you going to take care of an old lady all on your own?”Mark actually knew of her grandmother and aunt! She glared at him resentfully, “Why didn’t you tell me? I wasn’t even mentally prepared for this…”Mark’s eyes darted back
Right when he stepped into the condo, he received a bolster that was flung at his face. The old woman reclined on the couch, railing at him, “If you can’t take care of me, why did you ask me to stay?”Mark’s gaze sank as he internally recited a mantra: ‘No matter what happens, this is Arianne’s grandmother.’He had to address her as “grandmother” too. He had to contain his temper…He picked up the bolster and walked towards the couch, “I’ll help you to the toilet.”The old woman casually locked her arms around his neck and hung off his body, “You’re pretty solid, kid. I thought you and Arianne had a divorce? Why are you still trying to gain brownie points?”Mark’s mind was buzzing, “We did not get a divorce… She’s still my wife. I did something bad, so she’s angry with me.”The old woman shot him an irritable glare, “What did you do? Did you have an affair? You rich men are all the same. You can’t even handle your own shit; why are you concerning yourself with me? I’ve been coope
Tiffany couldn’t stand it any longer. She pulled off her eye-mask, “Come on, speak a little louder. I can’t hear you. I was only carrying a bag worth more than $10,000, right? Does that give you the license to talk about me for more than half a day out of jealousy? Your salaries might not be much, but you should be able to afford it if you saved for two years, right? There’s no need to be jealous. By the way, I bought this bag on my own. It wasn’t a gift from some man. I have a huge pile of handbags that I bought a few years ago. Altogether, they’d cost enough for a good few years of your salaries. There’s no use in being jealous. Stop for a while. Otherwise, how am I supposed to run errands for you if I’m too tired?”Henrietta mockingly said, “Since your family is so rich, why not stay home and enjoy your life of luxury. Why are you running errands? You can’t even do your errands right. Aren’t you just giving us more work?”Tiffany’s small universe was close to exploding. She was here
Jackson took a deep breath. His woman had been suffering under someone else’s hands and was driven to tears. Aside from heartache, he felt enraged as well, “Alright, alright. Don’t cry. Where are you? I’ll come over and pick you up right now. Stay right where you are and don’t move, okay? What kind of a horrible company are they? Don’t be angry, forget them!”Tiffany sniffed, told him where she was, and waited for him at the side of the road. The weather was gradually turning cold and it wasn’t hot anymore. Sometimes, a gentle breeze would pass and put her emotions slightly more at ease.Soon, Jackson’s luxurious sports car stopped at the side of the road. When she got into the car and saw him, she broke down again. She leaned against his shoulder and sobbed, “I feel so useless, I’ve been fired… I’m so pissed…”Jackson patted her on the back soothingly as he turned towards the office floor, not too far away. That company wasn’t even fit to lick his boots, yet they’d brought grief up
Tiffany blurrily grunted a reply and ended the video call. Arianne irritably threw the phone aside.At past 8 pm, the old lady called Arianne. Based on her tone, she seemed to be in a good mood, “I’m at the Tremont Estate, and everything here is great. Much better than that bird cage of yours, around the same size as our old home. It’s comfortable, living here. You don’t have to worry about me. Mark is here.”Then, she hung up. It was done very neat and tidily.A shiver ran across Arianne's heart. The old lady was not easy to deal with. How did Mark manage to familiarize himself with her in such a short time, then persuade her to go back to the capital? Something must be wrong… Mark had never met the old woman prior to this. She checked through her call records and found that the old woman had actually called while she was asleep in Mark’s hotel room. Of course, she wasn’t the one who answered the call, which could only mean that Mark had gone back to the condo to help the old wom
As Jackson walked past her office desk, he purposefully tapped on it and said, “Hey, newbie, do your best.”Holding back the urge to burst out laughing, Tiffany nodded and bowed, “I will, Mr. West. I’ll do my best!”The corners of Jackson’s lips tilted upwards slightly. He walked into his office. Less than two minutes later, Tiffany received a text message from him: ‘How dare you address me as “Mr. West”.’She replied to him with a “playful” emoji and put her phone into her bag. She was in the middle of working hours now, and it was inadvisable for her to be fiddling with her phone.The environment in this big company was a stark contrast to her previously smaller company. Aside from its fast-paced environment, there wasn’t a lot of in-fighting at play.Unbeknownst to her, the human resource manager had slipped into Jackson’s office. Jackson was in a particularly good mood and was smiling radiantly, “She doesn’t suspect anything, does she?”The human resource manager quickly repl
Tiffany scratched her hair, completely unfazed by this. After all, Jackson never complained whenever she stood in front of him or rode on him. “Got it, thanks…” she replied absent-mindedly.At around 3PM or so, Tiffany began to feel sleepy. Suddenly, she heard Summer’s voice, “Tiffie, are you working with us now? Jackson was just talking about how reluctant you were. Looks like you’ve finally thought things through. It’s like I’ve said, how can someone else’s land be better than ours? When did you get here? Would you like me to…”Before she could finish, Tiffany jumped up, reached out, and covered her mouth.Both women were in shock. Tiffany broke out into cold sweat. What had she done? Covered her future mother-in-law’s lipstick-lined lips with her hand! She could feel the lipstick on her hand, which must be very red by now. She was finished…“Mrs. West… It’s fine,” she said, trembling fearfully, “I’ve spoken to Mr. West. There’s no need to do anything for me. I can do this on my
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