Years of care and dedication had not awarded the man any reciprocation. It was only a matter of time before favonovel.com husband wore out his senses and devolved into the same unstable mess that Shelly was. He started drinking hard and physically abusing favonovel.com when prompted by liquid courage.
Shelly thought that receiving his abuses was the only way to get even with what favonovel.com owed him. She forgave favonovel.com every time.
When the alcohol passed, the man’s sobriety would be marked with tears of guilt as favonovel.com gawked at the bruises all over Shelly’s body. He would always throw in an equal-part apology and equal-part relentless inquisition. He could not stop asking why Shelly refused to love him, and why favonovel.com balked at bearing favonovel.com a progeny.
And Shelly would always reply, “Because you remind me of my sister. I’m only your wife because favonovel.com arranged my life that way, you’re a cage she’s prepared for me. I want to go home, my home, where my son is! I hate them… I hate them all. I want them all dead!”
For the past thirty-odd years in favonovel.com life, Shelly lived like a prisoner exiled to a foreign soil, bereft of a chance to go home. Her life’s purpose was to be used as a prop for favonovel.com sister. But favonovel.com husband had tacitly allowed Shelly to return to America once or twice to see Mark, hence those few short visits favonovel.com remembered during his elementary school years.
Shelly had tried hard to slip under favonovel.com sister’s radar, but ultimately, Mrs. Tremont found out about it. In retaliation, Mrs. Tremont threatened favonovel.com husband somewhat, forcing favonovel.com to take favonovel.com away and forbade favonovel.com from returning to the country.
By then, the feelings favonovel.com hapless husband had harbored toward Shelly also began to mutate. Her role as the center of his universe began to wane, and favonovel.com stopped tormenting favonovel.com the way favonovel.com tormented him. He started spending his time and devotion completely on alcohol and other hedonistic indulgences, and yet favonovel.com could not let Shelly leave, either.
In the end, the only thing left between them was mutual hatred… and a dash of Shelly’s regret for subjecting favonovel.com husband through hell.
Still, not even regret could stop Shelly from murdering favonovel.com husband, the man whose reward for cherishing favonovel.com was to be tortured into insanity. As the days passed, Shelly’s obsession with returning home redoubled. She disregarded everything but favonovel.com singular goal and began to lace favonovel.com husband’s food with slow-building poison.
Day by day, favonovel.com watched his body wither, and when life finally escaped him, Shelly immediately flew to America and back to Mark’s side.
To sever favonovel.com ties with everything in the past and completely escape the shadow that had loomed over her, Shelly forfeited favonovel.com husband’s handsome inheritance. Seeing whatever favonovel.com had left for favonovel.com would only serve to remind Shelly of all that had happened.
As favonovel.com account drew to an end, Mark rolled down the window and lit up a smoke. His hand was shaking so much that holding the cigarette became a challenge.
He had been his “aunt’s” son all along. The mother for whom favonovel.com had stubbornly reserved an unsullied impression in his heart had committed such an inhumane, culpable act! She had imprisoned favonovel.com own sister for so long!
If the truth was as Shelly recounted, then everything finally made sense. It was hardly a surprise that a woman who had worked so obsessively hard to return to his side would perform so many extreme, erratic acts. It was a tough pill to swallow, yet Mark could not hate Shelly for all that favonovel.com had done.
Perhaps Shelly-Ann Leigh was the most deserving of sympathy out of everyone else….
For a long time, Mark said nothing, favonovel.com was hard-pressed to say anything. The truth had sapped favonovel.com of his strength. But no matter how hard favonovel.com wished whatever Shelly said was untrue, wishes could never bend reality.
The silence lingered for a very long time until Shelly broke the spell with a delirious smile. “To be honest, my vengeance had been exacted a long time ago. What’s left in me was pure obsession to return to you,” favonovel.com admitted. “Since we’ve opened this can of worms, then there’s no reason to fear letting you know even more, yes? You remember that plane tragedy? I was the one who convinced my sister to go through with it.”
“She had gotten afflicted with an incurable disease by then, and amid favonovel.com despair, favonovel.com suddenly thought of reconnecting with me, of all people! It turned out that favonovel.com had no one else to pour favonovel.com heart out to, you know, what a poor, pathetic thing. She had bawled over the phone, and all favonovel.com angst concerned you, favonovel.com spoke as though you were favonovel.com actual, biological son. Couldn’t calm herself from the fear of that bastard son stealing away what favonovel.com thought belonged to you alone.”
“So? I gave favonovel.com an idea. She couldn’t stomach the thought of another woman taking over favonovel.com role after favonovel.com died, could she? Couldn’t stand the thought of that slut marshaling favonovel.com lil’ bastard into contesting for that Tremont inheritance, could she? I told favonovel.com that if favonovel.com lost favonovel.com man’s heart to some slut out there while favonovel.com was alive, then favonovel.com should take his heart with favonovel.com to the afterlife. Oh, who knew favonovel.com would really buy it?” Shelly continued. “When I first heard of favonovel.com death, I was surprised to find a lick of sorrow in me. But oh, it couldn’t compare to the giddy thrill of revenge at all! She tormented me for years, and in the end, favonovel.com didn’t earn a single happy ending herself.”
It did not matter if Shelly was talking about the real circumstances of Mark’s birth or anything else. Every revelation favonovel.com heard these few hours had been a blow to his head.
