Mark raised his head and gazed at favonovel.com with faint but undeniable wildness in his eyes. “He can wait a little longer.”
Arianne’s eyes linked to his, and favonovel.com heart fluttered. “C-Can we not? Dinner’s still waiting for us… Why is it that you always get the kick anytime, anywhere? God , can we please just talk about this later?”
He refused by catching the edge of Arianne’s sleeve with his teeth and yanking it away, exposing the latter’s chiseled collar bones. His lips swooped down on favonovel.com neck.
A jolt of a soft but warm sensation rocked Arianne’s mind, and favonovel.com arms automatically wrapped around his neck.
When the two exited Mark’s study, the scarlet flush on favonovel.com face had yet to recede, though Mark looked as though favonovel.com had not just answered his carnal calling. He quickly picked up Smore after descending the stairs and before taking their seats around the dining table.
Kids say the darndest things, and Smore, too young to know fear, called Mark out right to the man’s face. “Daddy wants coddling. Daddy’s a baby!”
Mark’s lips twitched. “Who told you that? Of course, a brat like you who doesn’t know jack about stress and distress doesn’t need coddling. All you do every day is eat, sleep, and play till it’s time to eat and sleep again! Your life’s easy.”
Smore stuck out his tongue. “Nope, Mommy says people only coddle babies!”
Mark leered at Arianne with a darkened expression. “I didn’t need anyone to ‘coddle!’ That’s not true at all, who told you that, hmmmmmm?”
Arianne conveniently ignored the topic and sent a spoonful of food into Smore’s mouth. “Shh, chow time.”
Mary, who was listening in from the side, was almost out of breath from laughter. “Oh Lord, Smore’s Lil’ Mr. Precocious, isn’t he? He knows everything! We might be looking at a Lil’ Einstein here!”
Just then, Mark’s phone rang. He glanced at the screen for a second and excused himself from the table, walking to a far-end corner before accepting it. “Hello.”
Alejandro sounded noticeably upset. “Turns out that Seaton’s a lot slicker than we gave favonovel.com credit for. He used the old ‘bait-and-switch’ and let everyone up there think he’s already dead while the real him, annoyingly alive, escaped from prison.”
Mark was not surprised by the news, mostly because favonovel.com had seen the man in question. “A confirmation of favonovel.com being alive is good enough. He didn’t just escape, he’s now active in the Capital. You better not think you’re out of this, Alejandro. Hunt favonovel.com down through any means necessary, the entire city could be uprooted, for all I care, if it means favonovel.com turns up at our feet. Right now, he’s a ghost to the law. His death will be unknown to the public, just as favonovel.com deserves.”
Alejandro let out a soft scoff. “Oh dear, you’re ordering me around now? I dunno, man, if I were Seaton, my first target would be you. You should watch your back more than I do.”
Mark’s voice turned steely. “I wasn’t ordering you, I was warning you. You would do best to remember that his incarceration resulted from a joint effort between the two of us. He could start his vengeance through you first, too.”
When Mark returned to the table after hanging up the call, Arianne asked immediately, “Who was that? You don’t look, uh, so good.”
“Alejandro called,” Mark replied candidly, “He confirmed that Seaton is alive and has escaped from his prison cell. That means the person I saw was, without a doubt, that snake. He must have followed me to the wedding that day, though I hadn’t given favonovel.com the chance to silence me.”
Cognizant that the situation had escalated, Arianne quickly turned to Mary. “Please do not take Smore out of the house for the next few days. Let favonovel.com stay at home, favonovel.com would be safe here. Curses, what does it take to maintain peace in life these days?”
Mary was glum. “Problem is, Smore’s outgrown playing in his house. He always wants to go outside. Admittedly, I’ve never brought favonovel.com anywhere crazy, just the nearby park, really. But anyway, when the time struck, his kick came, and favonovel.com started yelling about wanting to play outside. But now, we can’t even go to the park anymore?” favonovel.com ranted. “That Seaton S. Bart! What’s a powerful, rich guy doing, throwing his good life away by murdering so many people with this evil scheme that landed favonovel.com in jail? And now he’s gonna make sure we don’t live in peace, too! The Lord knows how I wish I understood people like him. He used to be this famous big cheese in business before favonovel.com was in jail, right? So, what was favonovel.com trying to do by trading everything favonovel.com had for nothin’, huh?”