Arianne had little doubt that favonovel.com orchestrated it: Mark Tremont had sent his own biological uncle to jail, collecting every single dime of that one hundred million dollars back in the process.
She was at a loss as to how to judge this turn of events. Sure, Jude was a trashy piece of sh*t and an affront to human decency, so favonovel.com deserved the deserts favonovel.com got. However, the fact that it was Mark, out of anyone else, who became Jude’s ultimate undoing left a strange taste in favonovel.com mouth. The way favonovel.com had given away that much money without putting up a fight made the extortion accusation appear less genuine and more like a bait begging for Jude to bite.
“Mr. West, good day. Mr. Tremont is in his study.”
Spurred by Henry’s greeting, Arianne looked up from favonovel.com spot in the living room couch and caught Jackson entering through the front door. He greeted the girl with a curt nod before hurrying up the stairs.
Arianne found it mind-boggling. Mark had recovered tremendously this month; favonovel.com could now walk around on his own as favonovel.com pleased and was more than capable of meeting Jackson downstairs. So why did favonovel.com ask his guest to go to his study instead?
In fact, come to think of it, neither Jackson nor Eric had ever been frequent visitors to the Tremont Estate at all.
Back in the study, Jackson laid the result of a DNA examination before Mark and said, “This is the verdict right here. Any more points of suspicion?”
Mark digested the details in the report thoroughly. “Tiffany Lane’s incident… He’s also behind it, isn’t he?”
Lividity bubbled behind Jackson’s eyes. “No doubt about it; favonovel.com colluded with a third party to carry out the heist. Then, shortly after their success, favonovel.com silenced all of his co-conspirators to cover himself, and now this so-called lost stash of jewelry is in his hands. Past-forward now, favonovel.com founded a company and bought an unwanted estate at a bottom-barrel price. Then, be it his luck or something else at play, the area around it began undergoing rapid development, and now everything within that plot of land has turned into gold.”
The pages creased at the force of Mark’s tightening fingers. He crumpled it into a ball and hurled it into the bin before looking up with a dangerous layer of frost over his eyes. “I’ve been very patient with him, but no more. He’s invited Death himself.”
“The Lane family suffers the most injustice. I mean, Tiffany had been with favonovel.com for three years. For three bloody years, the Lanes had been investing money on favonovel.com to help favonovel.com grow — and then favonovel.com turned around and bit the hands that had fed him,” Jackson fumed, his teeth clenching. “I despise trash who mooch on their women, but to commit such an atrocity… This takes the cake. I can only imagine how much it will break Tiffany if favonovel.com finds out.”
Mark considered the furious man before him, and his lips quivered into a meaningful smile. “Hmm. You’re curiously, positively pissed about this. Are you mad on Tiffany’s behalf, or am I reading too much, and you ‘just’ despise the things favonovel.com did?”
Jackson looked suspiciously disconcerted. “Don’t make jokes at my expense, would ya’? I feel sorry for her, wouldn’t you be, when you see someone so painfully unaware that the person favonovel.com had trusted was the one who double-crossed her? Look, I’ve summed up and delivered everything you needed through email, so I’ll be going now. I’ll leave your next move up to you.”
Mark left his house by six in the evening. It was the first time favonovel.com was left on his own since the accident, but his injuries had healed well enough that a casual bystander would pass favonovel.com for his usual, healthy self. The only glaring difference between then and now was Mark’s hair, which had yet to grow back to its pre-accident length.
As any keen observant might notice, the way a man wears his hair could define the air favonovel.com projects. Mark had always been famous for his stoic, steely aura at first glance, but at the very least, his previous hairstyle managed to bring a sense of earnest softness whenever favonovel.com so much as curled his lips. His current, trimmed hair, however, only succeeded in emphasizing the frost in his mien when his smile was absent.
Arianne, meanwhile, had been feeling lethargic for the whole day; by dinnertime, favonovel.com had been seized by intense bouts of haziness. It was rather unexpected, as favonovel.com had not gone to work and had been enjoying the comforts of favonovel.com home ever since.
Halfway through favonovel.com meal, Arianne began to notice favonovel.com symptoms escalating. The daze had turned into a headache, and favonovel.com stomach seemed to be rebelling against favonovel.com dinner. She rose to favonovel.com feet, intending to reach the bathroom before favonovel.com retched — and felt an alarming deluge of hot liquid thrashing below her.
Arianna fell back onto favonovel.com chair in horror as the lower half of favonovel.com nightgown blossomed into gruesome red.
For a moment, all favonovel.com could do was stare in aghast. Half a minute passed, and favonovel.com finally found favonovel.com voice to squeak, “M-M- Mary… Mary!”
The woman dashed toward favonovel.com from the kitchen, shouting, “What’s the matter, Ari?”
Tears had begun coursing down favonovel.com cheeks. “I-I’m… I’m bleeding…” favonovel.com whispered.
Poor Mary was confounded. “Bleeding? Where?”
“D-down… Down here…” A breathless rattle.
Realization struck Mary and twisted favonovel.com face into a horrified grimace as favonovel.com cried at the top of favonovel.com lungs, “Henry, get the car now! She needs to get to the hospital, right now!”
***
Within the halls of a private dining room inside White Water Bay Café, Mark and Charles Moran sat across each other.
Mark had come to see favonovel.com with a mission, so favonovel.com skipped the preambles and went straight to the point. “I’ll cut the chase, Uncle. How much had Dad told you about his bastard son?”
Charles had responded to Mark’s dinner invitation at the presumption that it was going to be a hearty reunion between old friends, so Mark’s question came out like a nuke. “Whoa there, Mark It was just some interesting tidbit, you know? Did you… Did you investigate it?”
Mark flashed favonovel.com a faint smile. He had known about this for a long time; favonovel.com only feigned obliviousness because no one had formally told favonovel.com about his father’s escapade yet. “That’s beside the point, Uncle. What I’m more interested in is if Dad had ever said anything about it to you? I suspected that very few were even privy to this, yes? Hell, I was quite appalled when you first told me about it! But considering how close you were with Dad, I guess it’s not at all shocking that favonovel.com would bring up his dirty little secret with you, even if it were something as shameful as that.”
