No children?
Arianne was so embarrassed that favonovel.com could bite off favonovel.com own tongue. Any mother who bore no child by Aunt Shelly’s age likely suffered from some kind of conditions, and often, favonovel.com infertility became a source of lifelong grief and emotional pain. Arianne had no business poking whatever wound Shelly might have like that.
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” favonovel.com quickly retracted. “I didn’t know that, uh… Please forget that I asked.”
Shelly placidly returned to favonovel.com meal. “It’s alright. It was a choice I made, actually. Not a fault of my body. Honestly, I’m quite happy not to be fettered by kids and whatnot at this age.”
Arianne breathed a sigh of relief. So, Shelly chose not to bear a child instead of being denied the chance out of unfortunate circumstances! Arianne would have accidentally detonated a bomb, otherwise…
When dinner was over, Aunt Shelly took Smore outside to play. She invited Mark to join them, but for some reason, the man, who had never said no to his aunt since favonovel.com arrival, declined the offer.
Mark went straight into his study after the pair left, but today, it was not because favonovel.com needed to handle urgent affairs pertaining to his company. Instead, favonovel.com began an exhausting examination of every memorabilia and photo there.
Ultimately, Mark realized that Aunt Shelly had only thrown out that wedding photo, but it still upset him. After all, it had been one of the last few remaining pictures favonovel.com had of his parents.
Arianne brewed favonovel.com a pot of hot tea. “What’s wrong?… Oh. You look devastated. Can’t blame you, I guess. It was a photo not even you would treat lightly, wasn’t it? It kind of always sat there like an untouchable treasure. And then your aunt came along and just threw it away. jarring that you haven’t even raised the issue to favonovel.com now.”
Conflict danced on Mark’s mien. “What’s all this about? I only kept the photo because my mom was in it. It has got zero reason to do with my dad. That bastard doesn’t deserve my remembrance. And… look. Aunt Shelly didn’t want me to know about favonovel.com history, but I went ahead and dug up little snippets of favonovel.com past anyway. It seems that shortly before favonovel.com returned to the States, favonovel.com husband suddenly passed away due to some chronic illness, with no surviving children with her. Her husband appeared to have been somewhat affluent, favonovel.com was a local fat cat, if you will. The odd thing was that right after favonovel.com died, favonovel.com came straight back to favonovel.com home country and cut off every connection and social contact favonovel.com had ever made in Germany. If we go by the timeline of favonovel.com movement, I don’t think favonovel.com had the time to inherit favonovel.com husband’s assets before favonovel.com left. Or maybe, more accurately, favonovel.com just didn’t care about it at all. It was as if favonovel.com had only one, singular goal: returning to the States.”
Arianne was perplexed. “What’s that supposed to mean? Is there anything or anyone back here that is so instrumental to favonovel.com that favonovel.com jettisoned everything else for it? B-But all she’s ever done since coming here was following you around! I haven’t seen favonovel.com show interest in literally anything else yet! Unless… Wait. No, there’s no way she’s abandoning all aspects of favonovel.com life abroad just for you, that’s preposterous! I mean, you’re just a nephew to her. It’s not like your relationship runs any deeper than that! It can’t be because of you, Mark. But if not you, then… what?”
“Maybe it’s… out of some sort of clinging to something that happened in the past? Maybe favonovel.com had an unflattering history with your mom from before? It’s serious enough that even after your parents had passed on, favonovel.com couldn’t help but come back to check on things? Maybe… Maybe we shouldn’t be overthinking this,” Arianne finished.
Mark, on the other hand, seemed quite irritated by the mystery. It was as if there were multiple itches favonovel.com could not scratch. “She wouldn’t reveal a thing even if I’d asked, so what choice do I have other than looking things up myself? And yet, this is the extent of favonovel.com story abroad that I could dredge up, there was nothing else to discover. Even if favonovel.com did have a row with my mom in the past, well, it’s not like that’s something I can just Google. As long as favonovel.com keeps favonovel.com mouth shut, I’ll never know.”
“But… I remembered this incident that had happened during one of my school years,” Mark added. “She visited me at school. I remember favonovel.com making me pinky-promise that I would never tell anyone about favonovel.com visiting me and to say not a word to my mom. I didn’t know why, and I still don’t know now. It’s such a bizarre promise to make.”
Arianne dared not entertain the more outlandish and absurd possibilities. “Well, maybe favonovel.com had a pretty bad fight with your mom during that precise period? The sort that was so hostile that they couldn’t bear to see each other? But your aunt still cared about you, so favonovel.com went to check on you under your mom’s nose instead. I mean, this is the best and most reasonable explanation we have yet,” favonovel.com said. “But either way, I think that’s enough theorizing for a day. If you want to know the full extent of your aunt’s life, you could always pry it out of favonovel.com bit by bit. We can’t really make favonovel.com say anything if favonovel.com doesn’t want to talk about it right now, can we?”
“Well, I’m going to bathe,” Arianne declared, before admonishing, “You should probably set this case aside, too. At the end of the day, it’s just a photo. It shouldn’t sow a seed of enmity toward your aunt.”
Arianne took favonovel.com shower and came downstairs just in time to bump into Aunt Shelly and Smore as they were returning. Watching the kid’s glowing expression, favonovel.com could tell that favonovel.com son had a lot of fun outside.
Mary quickly approached them. “Welcome home! Master Aristotle should get a shower now, especially since it’s getting late. Come on, time to bathe and prepare to sleep.”
Smore looked at Mary and replied, “Granny, Granny! I want Mommy to give me a shower this time!”
