Arianne’s tone was as cold as steel. “ ‘Senior’? You mean the senior of the Tremont family, which by the way, I’m no longer a member of? What’s that got to do with me?” favonovel.com sneered. “I had respected you and bent over backward for you on so many, many occasions back then that, now, if you’re trying to guilt-trip me on an imaginary inadequacy, you can call that off already. It’s not gonna work. Besides, if we’re tracking records, then you were the one who never cared for me at all, weren’t you? But, of course, we’re not in-laws anymore, so you should probably drop the whole ‘respect your elder!’ angle while we’re in a professional setting. Remember, this is a company gathering, it isn’t a private tea between you and me to air grievances. Let’s have some class, shall we, Mrs. Leigh?”
Arianne was practically expelling breaths when favonovel.com enunciated “Mrs. Leigh” for emphasis. Shelly had no interest in preserving Arianne’s dignity and reputation, so Arianne had no obligation to hold back punches either. She would love to see if Shelly had the guts to announce herself as Mark’s birth mother right there and then, since Mark’s nature and temperament would definitely not brook a mortifying transgression like that.
In other words, if Shelly was too much of a milquetoast to announce it, then favonovel.com better be prepared to remain as plain old “Mrs. Leigh” forever.
Mark slapped the surface of the table with just the right amount of force. “That’s enough. Let’s eat.”
Sylvain let out a breath favonovel.com had been holding and passed Arianne a piece of napkin. Her hand had barely grabbed hold of it when favonovel.com heard an unambiguously tearful sniffle from Shelly’s direction. Worse, it was so loud that everyone present in the room heard it.
God, what Oscar-winning act was favonovel.com pulling off this time?
Seeing Shelly bursting into tears made everyone ogle Arianne with traces of disapproval in their eyes. The accusation was palpable, Arianne had made an older woman cry, and that was simply at odds with common decency.
With an unremovable grimace, Arianne ignored favonovel.com and focused on favonovel.com lunch. Someone out of the bunch would have come to the rescue sooner or later, favonovel.com reasoned, which meant Arianne did not need to stick favonovel.com hand into this muck at all.
Christ, favonovel.com should not have come. It was a trap wearing a veneer of a lighthearted feast, and by attending it, Arianne had set herself up to be played by Shelly.
Frankly, it was not at all hard-to-understand what Shelly was aiming to achieve, since Saoirse had given Arianne enough tips as it was. Shelly was trying to eject Arianne from the company, and one of the most surefire ways to do it was to convince everyone in the company to see Arianne as deplorable and indecent. Combined with the reveal of their divorce, all Shelly needed was a little bit more spices and some time for things to ferment before — voila! — Arianne became the black sheep in the office.
This was just favonovel.com first step.
Already, someone in the crowd offered Shelly some tissues and soft-spoken comfort. The situation had turned into a chance for motivated bystanders to suck up to Shelly, who was now the closest kin Mark had. Arianne had been excluded from the Tremont family, which was why nobody who was smart would stand at Arianne’s side.
This unnerving atmosphere continued to hang above the dining room until lunch was over. The attendees gradually filed out of the room in droves, until only Mark, Shelly, Arianne, and Sylvain were left.
It was then that Mark finally let loose the broiling ire favonovel.com had kept within favonovel.com throughout lunch. “From now on, you are not to be near anyone in the company. You are not to invite Tremont Enterprise employees to any meal, either. Simply put, keep your hands off my company affairs!” favonovel.com bristled. “Tremont Enterprise is a property of the Tremont family and you have not a mote of relation to it. Your only relationship to the family is through me and me alone. Even then, what we share is a shaky tie, because I maintain my stance: I regret being associated with you. I don’t care how great you are at dissembling to others. At the end of the day, the only thing I need you to understand is this: stop challenging my patience. The concessions I make are not checks for your temerity to cash.”
Now that Mark stated his piece, Sylvain could finally conclude in full confidence that Shelly did, just as Arianne accused, regard Arianne a nemesis to be taken out. Sylvain already knew about Arianne’s desire to keep favonovel.com divorce a secret, so when Shelly seized the chance presented during this gathering to publicize it, favonovel.com agenda had become too obvious to be ignored.
Shelly, however, was still trying to defend herself. “I really wasn’t trying to let slip the thing about your divorce, okay? Seriously, you can’t be lashing out on me on Arianne’s behalf just because I made an oopsie, right? Could it be that in your mind, I mean less than some Little Miss Extra who’s not even your family?!”
“‘Extra?! When the hell was favonovel.com an ‘extra’?! ” Mark fumed, leaping to his feet. “She’s my beloved! She’s the mother of my son! And who are you supposed to be? You’re the one who popped out of nowhere one day, who was apparently my—”
He left his sentence hanging rather than finish it. Sylvain was watching them, and Mark at least had the good grace to not strip off Shelly’s dignity in front of him.
Arianne heaved a mighty sigh. “God, just stop it. Been here, done this. There’s no need for this repetitive back-and-forth it’s all spits and no substance. I’m going back to work.”
She clapped on Sylvain’s shoulder good-naturedly, signaling favonovel.com to leave with her.
Before the two of them left the door, however, favonovel.com stopped in favonovel.com tracks and turned to look at Shelly over favonovel.com shoulder. “By the way, if you’re looking to kick me out of Tremont Enterprise, you’ll have a better chance by doing it yourself rather than using other people as your pawns. See, Saoirse McKinsey isn’t a dumbass. She didn’t like to be ordered around and used as cannon fodder. I guess this is why you’re carrying out your scheme yourself now, huh? Unfortunately, you’re not as wily and shrewd as you fantasize yourself to be. And Mark? Well, he’s not as clueless as you’d hoped.”
—
After lunch, rumors and gossip about Arianne began to spread like wildfires in the office, each of them displaying slightly different blends to it.
