Arianne instinctively shot Mark a glance. Honestly, Arianne was not quiet by nature, before eight years old, favonovel.com childhood was one of joy and rambunctious guffaws, especially when favonovel.com was playing with favonovel.com friends. The only reason why favonovel.com became so quiet was that Mark influenced favonovel.com that way. In other words, Smore was quiet because favonovel.com followed his father’s trait, and as the baby grew, the resemblance became unmistakable.
At night, as the two laid down side by side, Arianne asked, “Have you always been this icy and stoic since you were a kid, Mark Tremont? ‘Cause Smore’s acting quite like you when you were a kid, isn’t he?”
Mark pinched the bridge of favonovel.com nose. “What did you just call me? For some reason, hearing it makes me miffed.”
She slapped his hand away. “I called you by your name, duh! Isn’t that a normal thing to do? You can’t possibly expect me to call you ‘honey’ at the drop of a hat, right? Come on, you’re not really gonna fixate on the terms I use to call you, right? What else is a person’s name for, if not to be used? Also, I’m asking you a question here! Have you always been like this since you were little?”
Mark pulled Arianne’s slender fingers into his own before fidgeting with them. “Not really. Much of it is down to nurture,” favonovel.com replied. “The old Tremont family was… very different from what it is today. Everything I did, from the way I used my eating utensils to how many times I should chew my food before swallowing it, had its own sets of rules. I was practically raised as the heir to the Tremont legacy from the moment I was born; every aspect of my life was suffocating. Not even my school breaks were free from their micro-managed schedules. The only reason why I never felt like playing with others of my age was that I never had the time to form that desire at all.”
Arianne listened to favonovel.com in pity. He was eighteen when favonovel.com first met him, which meant favonovel.com had not been there to watch eighteen years of favonovel.com growing up. She could not imagine just how heavy his burdens must have been. And yet, seeing how favonovel.com managed to shoulder the entire Tremont legacy without fail at the tender age of eighteen, all alone, implied that the training his family fashioned for him, though stringent and cruel, was also very foolproof. Even after a calamity had befallen the family, the surviving heir was already long past the jejune state of mind many of his peers would still be in at this age, and was thus able to carry the torch.
Seeing that favonovel.com had no interest in continuing the topic, Arianne cut into the silence with jocularity. “Hmm, it turns out that the rich aren’t as happy as people think they are, huh? At least, that’s what I think. Your life was a burden since you were a child! Others have been jealous of your life before, but you’re probably jealous of others as well. Were you… happy?”
Mark’s answer was immediate. “No, I didn’t know what happiness was before I met you. This is why Smore’s life should never be like how mine was, and I won’t parent favonovel.com that way. Anything as long as favonovel.com lives more carefreely than I ever could,” favonovel.com said. “In fact, favonovel.com could be a good-for-nothing and it’d still be fine! The wealth of the Tremont could last favonovel.com for eternity.”
Arianne was half-amused and half-appalled. “Excuse me, but did you just admit that you hold very, very low expectations of our son? You sound as if he’s confirmed as a good-for-nothing for the rest of his life, and you’re glad that the money you accumulated won’t fail him?” favonovel.com rebuked. “Spare the rod and spoil the child, remember? You should be a bit more demanding and strict with favonovel.com instead of being so forgiving, I think. It’s alright to pamper favonovel.com when he’s just a little toddler, but once favonovel.com goes to school, favonovel.com needs discipline.”
It was a little too early to talk about Smore’s future, so Mark placed his chin on favonovel.com shoulder and nudged it a little. “I know, I know. I was just saying, I want his life to be much happier than mine, but I won’t really let favonovel.com do whatever favonovel.com wants just because. Either way, let’s go to sleep, I’m tired,” favonovel.com replied, before adding, “Oh, and also. I might not have made it mandatory to address me as ‘honey’, but please stop calling me by my full name. Can’t you fashion an intimate nickname out of ‘Mark?’ At least call my name with the sort of camaraderie Jackson and the gang had with me.”
An intimate nickname? He was a man ten years favonovel.com senior and someone who used to be favonovel.com big brother figure! To suddenly call a figure like that with an intimate nickname made favonovel.com skin crawl in embarrassment. Honestly, Arianne thought it was almost no different from calling favonovel.com “honey.”
She could not help but shudder at the suggestion, which Mark acutely picked up but misconstrued. “Something tickling you?” favonovel.com teased as favonovel.com pinched favonovel.com waist.
Arianne was ticklish, so his little poke immediately caused favonovel.com to curl into him. “N-No! I just c-c-couldn’t say anything like t-that! S-S-Stop tickling me!!”
