Summer’s eyes looked shifty. “A baby is the best way to tie a woman down. I would have married someone else if I hadn’t had you. If you can make Tiffie pregnant, this feat will be pretty much accomplished. This is the safest and most fool-proof plan!”Jackson felt a little worried. “I don’t… think it would work. She and I are perfectly healthy, but we haven’t been able to conceive after such a long time. I’m losing hope. Isn’t there another way?”Summer shot him a glare. “There isn’t. It’s your fault for not restraining yourself. Abstain for a while, wait for a nice increase in your little tadpoles, then launch a full scale attack. Understand? Alright. I won’t continue this subject. It’s inappropriate for me to talk to my son about these things. The driver’s waiting for me downstairs; I’m going home. My leg is still hurting…”Jackson seemed lost in thought. He remembered his mother’s words. Although he was a man and was unfamiliar with a woman’s sentiment towards her child, perhaps
‘I’m afraid of Mark Tremont getting in the way, so I’ve asked someone to give you this letter in secret. You must not trust him! He is a demon! You’re aware that he’s behind your father’s death, aren’t you? Your forgiveness is expected, for the sake of the baby. After all, it’s been so many years. It’ll be fine as long as he makes up for it. But did you know that he caused your grandmother’s death too? Your granny was only sent to the hospital because of a cold and a fever; she had a slight bout of pneumonia. However, she died when he saw her. I’m sure that he’s been too afraid of telling you about your granny’s death, hasn’t he? Think about it.‘We may not be related by blood, but you should still address me as your uncle. I won’t hurt you. He killed your grandmother because she knew about his part in your father’s death. She wanted to make you leave him. Afraid of being thwarted and of you leaving him with the child in your belly, he determinedly silenced her for good! He must have
“How could I possibly do that?” Mary replied without lifting her head. “What if something happens? Mr. Tremont was very specific, you mustn’t be left alone at this time. I was already terrified enough in leaving you just now. Should Mr. Tremont ever find out, I’d never hear the end of it.”She was losing hold of her emotions. “Is he worried about my safety, or does he want to keep me under surveillance? Stop fixating on me!”Her yelling put Mary into shock. “Ari… What’s wrong? Why would you think that? Don’t you know how well Mr. Tremont has been to you? We’ve been kind to you out of the goodness of our hearts. We want to take care of you. Why would we want to monitor you? Are you feeling unwell? Would you like me to call the doctor?”Arianne felt it. Whenever her emotions were out of control, the baby in her belly would move and kick. Unfortunately, she could no longer contain herself, probably because of Mark’s lies in the past. As a result, her trust in Mark was pitifully small a
His hand still trembled slightly after hanging up the phone. If anything happened to Arianne, he would definitely make Mr. and Mrs. Harris pay for it. Soon, they took Arianne’s baby out through the delivery operation. The child was only seven months old, and he needed to be put in the incubator temporarily. Mark did not even bother to glance at the child. He learned about the child’s gender from the nurse; it was a boy. Arianne was still in the surgical room. He was too anxious to step away. Other than signing the surgical consent form, he asked Mary to deal with the rest of the hospitalization procedures. No one knew how much he suffered through those two hours that he waited outside of the surgical room. He was tense and did not relax for even a single moment. Besides, he did not dare to imagine any kind of terrible accidents that might befall Arianne. Luckily, the surgery was performed smoothly without any accident. Two hours later, Arianne was pushed out of the surgical room
He nodded. “Yes, he’s fine. He’s now in the incubator. They need to observe his condition closely because of the premature birth. I heard his crying, and it was extremely soft. He might be quite small… Promise me that you’ll take care of your health. I just want you and the child to be healthy.” He received no reply from her. When he looked at her again, he realized that she had fallen fast asleep again. The only thing that he could do at the moment was ask Jackson to prepare a nutritious meal specially for her after the labor, before she was sent for lying-in, postpartum confinement. It was a critical period, and he needed to strengthen her body again, improving her health. He was greatly frightened when he saw her extremely pale face. After receiving the news about the labor, Tiffany, Tanya and Eric rushed to the hospital before they clocked out of work. Arianne was still too weak. She fell asleep from time to time. After the effects of the anesthesia subsided, her surgical wou
Mary nodded. Mark took another look at Arianne, who was lying in the hospital bed, before he turned away and left. When he reached the pediatric monitoring room, he saw Tiffany snapping pictures at the incubator, which the nurse had rolled over near the window. A premature child certainly did not look well. His arms and legs were small, and his entire body was flushed red. At that moment, he was sleeping soundly in the incubator. Mark smiled when he looked at that child. He was his son. He was his and Arianne’s son. Being a father for the first time was quite a wonderful and peculiar feeling. Tiffany could not help but give some comments after she finished taking the baby’s photographs. “Mark, this child is as ugly as one you see in the ultrasound picture…” Mark was speechless. “Watch your mouth. He’ll certainly look better after we take good care of him.” Tiffany rolled her eyes at him. “Yes. Your own son is undeniably charming. If he resembles you or Arianne slightly, he won’t
Mary sighed. “Fine, I’ll leave it here. If you feel like eating, just tell me. By the way, let me take a look at the cushion you’re sitting on. Before Sir left, he asked me to check on it for fear that you might suffer a heavy bleeding…” Arianne felt slightly awkward. Under such circumstances, she could not afford to be shy or ashamed. She needed to allow the others the privileges to look at her most intimate part given that she could do nothing on her own. A person who had never given birth to a baby would never understand that. After giving birth to the baby, she was put in a state at others’ will. She could not even afford to argue with Mark. Her mental health was not good either. After taking a look at it, Mary breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s fine and normal. Not bad. Ari, just relax your mind so that you’ll recover sooner. If you’re feeling unhappy about anything, wait till you’re discharged from the hospital before you deal with it. Don’t trouble yourself much and worsen you
Mark was so angry that he smashed the glass in his hand. The expensive carpet became stained. “Keep looking for them. You need to find them no matter the means. Knowing them, they wouldn’t be so daring as to carry out such a plot against us just for the sake of taking revenge. The money I gave them before must have been used up by now. How could they manage to run away? Look into it and see who’s the one behind them, giving them orders. Dig deeper! Also, send two bodyguards to the hospital. Don’t let any stranger approach Ari.” Butler Henry looked down. He seemed hesitant. In the end, he said nothing before he turned and left the study. ...After she left the hospital, it was 9 p.m. Tiffany ate something casually at a hawker stall by the road. Then, she went home without any haste. When she was about to open the door, she found that she had forgotten to bring her key. She knocked on the door for a short while, but nobody answered her. She then called Tanya, but no one picked up the
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