The sounds of water splashing in the shower prevented Arianne from going back to sleep. She sat up and began fiddling with her phone. Aristotle, who was next to her, was fast asleep. He had a set of imaginative sleeping positions, which was why the little one took up so much space on the bed.Mark emerged from the shower and found her sitting on the bed. “What’s wrong? Can’t sleep?” he asked in surprise.She looked at him and continued playing with her phone. “Mm, I’ll go back to bed again later. Aristotle and I slept much earlier, so I’m not that tired at the moment. I think it’s about time to feed Smore soon. He won’t be able to sleep through the night if he sleeps too early. By the way, what happened between Tanya and Jackson? How did Tanya manage to do it so flawlessly? And she actually managed to get pregnant too. Who’s the father?”Mark shook his head. “I’m not sure. Jackson asked, but Tanya refused to say. It doesn’t matter whose baby it is, as long as it’s not Jackson’s. Tan
As they drew closer and closer together, Arianne completely surrendered. Her son would grow up someday, and the family of three wouldn’t be able to share a bed for too long. She didn’t want to lose this chance to stay close to Aristotle so soon. If she refused, Mark would really take him back to the baby’s room.The next morning.Arianne was woken by Mark and Aristotle. One was reminding her that it was time to leave, and the other stared hungrily at her, asking for milk.She was still very drowsy when she fed her son. Mary carried him away after his morning feed, and she finally felt energized enough to get showered.She wasn’t the drunkard last night, nor was she the one to exert herself, so why was she more exhausted than Mark? She grumbled under her breath when she saw how energized Mark looked, as if he was perfectly fine.She put on some light makeup to avoid looking too tired. She had gotten her figure back after giving birth, and she could wear her old clothes again. She s
Morning light shone into the hotel walls, which made everything seem brighter. Temperatures were slowly rising from the summer weather, but the light was dimmed when they stepped into the hotel lobby, the heat diminished as well.Aristotle sneezed when they walked into the elevator, and Arianne held him closer against her body. “The temperature in this hotel is too low. It’s a little cold.Mark reacted instantly. “This hotel belongs to us. I’ll tell them to fix the temperature.”‘This belongs to us?’ Arianne was shocked. The hotel exterior alone seemed rather prestigious when she arrived. It was obviously a five star hotel… Mm, the Tremonts really did have a lot of business ventures and generally covered every industry. She had to get used to this.She paused in her footsteps when they stepped out of the elevator. “Is it really possible that Ethan has returned? You tried to kill him, so he’d never leave us alone. When will this end? It’s different now that we have a baby. I don’t w
‘That’s not important.”Arianne’s reply allowed Mark’s tensed nerves to relax. He only needed her forgiveness. No one else mattered. He only cared about her opinions. Hearing those words from her was good enough.“It’s not that we don’t have a conscience,” Zoey objected weakly. “It’s just that... that kidnapper said that… your grandmother died after Mark visited her, that… he was behind it. I was wondering about that myself; it was only pneumonia and shouldn’t have caused her death. Besides, it was such a coincidence… Why? Of all the times for her to die… I’m not trying to imply anything. After all, I’m not sure what exactly happened. I admit that it was my idiot husband who caused your grandmother’s illness. I’ve always wanted to divorce him, but I couldn’t do it… My son was kidnapped this time. I was left with no choice. Wouldn’t you have sent the letter too, if you were in my shoes? What parent would want to watch their child die?”Arianne was speechless. She stared at Zoey, her
Zoey’s husband eyed Mark warily, gathered his courage, then said, “This is just my opinion, but shouldn’t your aunt have a share in the old Wynn Mansion? Doesn’t sound appropriate for you to take it all for yourself, does it? Besides, you have everything you want now. You could have half of the capital at the flick of your hand. It’s different for us, as we’re poor. Your aunt carries the Wynn name too. You shouldn’t be too cruel.”She knew that this would happen. Arianne carried Aristotle and sat on the couch. She squinted her pretty eyes and stared calmly at the family of three. “You’re right, I have everything I need. However, the Wynn Mansion is special. It’s priceless to me. It’s true that my aunt carries the Wynn name, but granny left the mansion to me. How could I share it with you? Perhaps… you should ask granny yourselves for her approval?”Zoey’s face turned ashen with fright. “No no no, we don’t want it! Your grandmother’s left it to you. We won’t take it from you!”“You’v
Mr. Harris grew increasingly unsatisfied. “Why? We’ve always been the old woman’s caretakers. But did she give us anything in the end? Did you see the look on Arianne’s face? She’s disowned us as relatives, just because we’re poor. The Tremonts have more than enough money, yet they’re still hounding after the Wynn Mansion. Who knows what she’s thinking? She’s a woman. She’s married. So I guess we’ll have to change the Wynn Mansion’s name in the future then. That mansion should belong to Harvey. Giving the Wynn mansion to her father’s murderer. What a novel idea!”Harvey felt absolutely disgusted by his parents when he overheard all of this. “Will you stop talking? Everything in the Wynn family should belong to her anyway. Let’s set aside the fact that we’ve been caring for grandma all these years. If I remember correctly, you’ve been asking my brother-in-law for a lot of money, haven’t you, dad? At least a few hundred thousand? Mom and I haven’t seen a single cent. They’re already bei
Henry was not alone when he entered the house, for following closely behind was Helen. The surprise appearance was not planned, however. She simply met Henry by the gate.Arianne, with Smore in her arms, stepped forward to greet her. “Sweetie, say hi to your grandma.”The look Helen cast on Smore was absolutely brimming with affection, yet she made no mention of wanting to hug or hold the baby, perhaps wary that Arianne might not like it. “What a beautiful baby! He looks like you but has Mark’s expressions.”Arianne smiled. “Take a seat, please. So, finally having some free time, huh?”Helen made herself comfortable on the living room couch and muttered thanks to Mary when the latter passed her a glass of water. “En route to running an errand. Then I remembered that you might be at home right now, so I thought of visiting.”“En route?” There was no way the Tremont Estate could be “en route” of any trip because its location was not along any freeway or oft-traveled roads. It was su
Arianne tried to snatch the pendant back from Smore, but the baby’s hand somehow turned into a stubborn lobster’s claw and refused to let go, no matter how hard she tried to pry it open. Fearful of accidentally hurting him, Arianne gave up and relented. “Fine. It’s not returning to us until he gets bored with it. Oh, that reminds me… Uh, how’s, well, Aery?”Given a choice, Arianne would have rather not mentioned Aery at all, but she was desperately running out of topics. She could not possibly turn the rest of their “chat” into a staring competition, right?Helen, for her part, did not expect her to mention Aery of her own accord. After the shock passed, she answered, “Well, she’s currently studying abroad. To my relief, she appears to have gone back on track. See, I found her a host family whom I’ve established a close connection with so that I can monitor her every move and situation from here. Honestly, as long as she could put her mind to educating herself and not ruining her own
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