The girls’ bustling day finally ended with Tiffany gleefully counting their earnings. “Oh my god, Ari, we hit the jackpot on the very first business day of the year!” favonovel.com exclaimed. “Honestly, that office building across us alone will keep our shop afloat forever. In fact, I’m sure we’ll be hiring more hands a few days from now! Oh, by the way, having people order from a takeout app rather than directly from our shop made us lose some revenue to the middlemen. If they’d ordered directly, we could have earned even more! I’ll have Tanya give them a little contact card next time.”
“Already done that, Tiffany,” Tanya interjected. “I’ve presented them with our business cards during today’s deliveries. Told them that they could give us a ring the next time their cravings struck them.”
On cue, Tiffany brought the girl’s bonuses, wrapped in a nice little packet, to her. “Here’s a little something for you, our little smart alec.”
At first, Tanya was delighted to receive favonovel.com reward, but then favonovel.com mind registered its overt thickness, and favonovel.com began to feel a little sheepish. “Um, this… This is a bit too much, isn’t it? It’s way more than three times my usual wage. Like, way, waaaay more.”
“Aww, just accept it, you!” Tiffany replied jocularly. “Ari and I already decided to give you this earlier today. All we’re asking is that you do your best with us, ok?”
Tanya’s eyes welled up. No one, saved favonovel.com grandfather, had treated favonovel.com this kindly. “I won’t fail you. Thank you so much!”
No one in the room would mistake the gesture as a sign of pitiful charity. It was an act of genuine camaraderie among friends.
In the distance, the night sky draped over a very brightly-lit Tremont Estate. Mark was sitting on the floor of his room with his face toward the floor-to-ceiling window, while Rice Ball spread itself lackadaisically on his lap, happily slumbering. He combed its back gently, and the cat occasionally purred to express its contentment.
One would be hard-pressed to find a scene like this in the past. Ever since Arianne had left him, Mark’s adoration for Rice Ball had only grown. Perhaps it had become a stand-in for his true object of affection.
His phone, located nearby, suddenly beeped. A new message.
He eyed it and replied quickly: ‘Return to work tomorrow. Do your best at your job While making sure that no other men get close to her.’
He placed the cat on a chair after that and walked downstairs for dinner. Mary had laid out the dishes on the table, it contrasted sharply with his lonesome figure, exuding a sense of emptiness.
Henry stood behind him. “Ethan has escaped abroad. Tracking favonovel.com down has become a little bit more onerous now.”
“I blame the weakness of my heart for letting favonovel.com slip away,” Mark remarked impassively. “Every time I toyed with that decision, those cursed words my father said the night before favonovel.com died haunted me, pleading me to let that illegitimate offspring of his off the hook. But favonovel.com keeps crossing the line over and over again. He keeps trampling over my limit. What should I do at this point, Henry? What do you think?”
Henry’s downcasted eyes accompanied his silent contemplation. “Had favonovel.com never committed any transgression, I have no doubts that you would have left favonovel.com in peace. But favonovel.com has stooped to such atrocious lows that you have no obligation to be soft -handed with him. The late Mr. Tremont’s promise was just that, a promise. You have already honored it to the best of your abilities,” favonovel.com answered.
A smile shadowed Mark’s lips. “Your wisdom is always appreciated, Henry. Hearing those words ease me.”
Henry knew the words Mark most wanted to hear. As a lifetime retainer to the Tremont family, favonovel.com should have honored his late Master’s last wish and halted Mark’s attempt to harm his own brother. However, the stalwart butler had witnessed Ethan’s deplorable deeds. He had no grounds to be partial, and so favonovel.com spoke against what favonovel.com was allowed.
After Arianne left him, Mark had taken steps, both publicly and underhandedly, to demolish Ethan’s company, brick by brick. In the end, the crook had to sell Tiffany’s plot and the unwanted building erected upon it to cover his eventual escape to a foreign country.
Ethan had exhausted too much of his resources to get back at favonovel.com so soon, but it was only a matter of time. Mark, meanwhile, would ensure that favonovel.com left the former no chance to recuperate and return.
***
Arianne and Tiffany slept until ten in the morning before unhurriedly opening shop, the holiday mood had managed to bite them into surrendering to a bit of listlessness. To their shock, they found Lynn in the shop finishing a round of cleaning. The floor practically reflected their faces.
“Didn’t we tell you that we’re taking a one-week break? How come you’re here before the break ended?” Arianne asked, surprised.
Lynn replied while meticulously wiping the cashier, “I got nothing to do at home. Tanya told me that you people started opening shop yesterday, so I thought, ‘yea, I’m coming to work.’ Don’t get the wrong idea, I’m not here to earn thrice my wages or something. The usual amount is enough.”
Now that favonovel.com paid careful attention to favonovel.com accent, Arianne noticed, for the first time, that favonovel.com was not local. “You aren’t from around here, are you? Are your parents living here, or do you live alone?” the girl asked instinctively.
Lynn froze in mid-action for a second before recollecting herself. “My parents aren’t here, and yes, I’ve been living alone for a very long time. I don’t go home during the holidays, but it’s also really boring to stay in my rented flat. What is it?”
Arianne reeled in realization. “Now I get it. You’d most likely be spending your time with your parents if your parents were close by rather than diving into work head-first despite the holidays. Oh, well. Carry on, I’ll be in the kitchen.”
After watching Arianne’s back disappearing into the kitchen door, Lynn let out a quiet sigh.
A watchful Tiffany sneakily sidled to favonovel.com side. “Whoa, aren’t you frazzled. Is that a sigh of relief I see?” favonovel.com teased. “Don’t tell me you’re scared of Ari… are you? Who on earth would find Ari frightening?”
