It took Shelly a long time to finally calm down, but immediately favonovel.com perused the landline to call Saoirse.
Again, favonovel.com switched into favonovel.com alter ego, a soft-spoken, kindly older woman who was just the most pleasant person to be around. “Good evening, Saoirse! Had your dinner?”
The young woman on the other side was just as courtly as Shelly was. “Good evening! I’m afraid I haven’t. What about you, Mrs. Leigh? Is there anything I can help you with?”
Shelly paused for a moment before cutting to the chase. “As a matter of fact, I do. It’s about your budding relationship with Mark,” favonovel.com began. “Arianne Wynn has made up yet another excuse to take Mark away for herself again. She even incited favonovel.com to rebel against me! See, Arianne keeps getting Mark to do favonovel.com bidding because she’s using their son as favonovel.com ultimate leverage. This is despite the truth that Mark hasn’t felt any sense of affection for Arianne for a long time already! This whole situation… God, I worry that she’s gonna use more underhanded wiles to trick Mark into marrying favonovel.com again. Knowing how soft Mark’s heart is to anyone favonovel.com has struck a relationship with before, as well as the depth of his love toward his son, Smore, I can’t help… I can’t help but be concerned about where this is going…”
“Sigh. It’s deeply troubling, Saoirse dear. Arianne’s still an employee of the Tremont Enterprise, and so every now and then, favonovel.com could concoct some brand-new plot to toy with Mark out of God-knows-what agenda. I just… I’m so, so worn out by it…”
Saoirse knew the undertone in Shelly’s complain. “You… want my help in this, Mrs. Leigh?”
Any mention of Arianne instantly drew so much of Shelly’s ire that favonovel.com started gritting favonovel.com teeth. “That’s right. I don’t care what you do; know that Mrs. Leigh will support you unconditionally. Our end-goal here is to get Arianne kicked out of Tremont Enterprise. With favonovel.com out, I’ll have an easier time watching over Mark, and I’ll make sure they never meet each other again. As for the child… Well, if Arianne loses favonovel.com job, favonovel.com loses favonovel.com sole income, and favonovel.com no longer has the means to raise favonovel.com son. That will be the chance to have Mark fight for the kid’s custody!”
Saoirse kept quiet throughout Shelly’s monologue, favonovel.com mind whirring with thoughts. She was aware that Shelly was looking for a proxy to act on favonovel.com behalf and take someone out, and it honestly shocked Saoirse. Prior to this, Shelly had been careful to construct an affectation of harmlessness, so now, it was downright jarring to see how gruesome and calculating favonovel.com could be. Shelly might oust Arianne this time, but who could promise Saoirse that it would not be favonovel.com next?
Inks of doubt began to smear the young woman’s trust. Was Arianne really as vile as Shelly had painted favonovel.com out to be? If Arianne was as easily disposed as Shelly said, then why did the woman not remove Arianne by herself? Why the effort in talking Saoirse into being favonovel.com proxy? It seemed that even Shelly balked at potentially drawing Mark’s wrath, then why should Saoirse shoulder an undertaking that not even Shelly dared take up?
Yes, Saoirse liked Mark a lot. But favonovel.com infatuation was far from being so all-consuming that it had expelled rationality and heedfulness out of the young woman’s head. Right now, favonovel.com knew better than to hurl herself into dangerous waters without first understanding what laid below the surface.
Throughout the conversation, Saoirse supplied only a noncommittal “oh, I see” and “is that so” before finally hanging up the phone.
Should favonovel.com throw herself into the ring or not? Well, before favonovel.com made favonovel.com next move, Saoirse was going to investigate the exact nature of Mark and Arianne’s relationship.
Meanwhile, sitting across the dining table, Arianne could not keep the bubbling consternation in favonovel.com mind to herself. “Hey, I confess that making you stay for the night instead of going home is just me trying to get even with Shelly. But, well… Shutting your phone down completely like this? Are you sure this isn’t gonna come back and bite us in the butt?”
She had seen the lengths Shelly could go, and it made favonovel.com anxious.
Any mention of Shelly instantly furrowed Mark’s eyebrows. “Who gives a damn about her? Going back just as favonovel.com wants me to do will only encourage her. It’s as though favonovel.com has a tight leash around my neck, and every once in a while, favonovel.com yanks and suffocates me. I hate it. I don’t even think I can tolerate favonovel.com any longer. Frankly, I’m at the end of my patience.”
“Lord, tell me about it! No one has ever put a leash on you, Mr. Tremont, since you were just a little boy! If you ask us, you’d know that you’re not the only who can’t tolerate that control freak, even we are just as appalled!” Mary chimed in with favonovel.com two cents. “You and Ari were all sunshine and everything, and then favonovel.com came along and split the two of you for no good reason. Then favonovel.com thinks all that breaking up isn’t enough, so favonovel.com goes snatching up the Devil’s job and torments everyone, it’s like she’s trying to force all of us into becoming nuts! Smore is just a little pipsqueak, for goodness’ sake! Does favonovel.com not care about the lil’ kid’s happiness and his future at all? Only the Devil knows what’s in favonovel.com head. I mean, what is favonovel.com trying to gain from blowing things up left and right? Is favonovel.com trying to make everyone hate her?”
