Arianne’s thoughts were about to meander when suddenly, favonovel.com phone beeped. A text.
Spam messages did not usually make rounds at midnight, so with a frown, favonovel.com unlocked favonovel.com phone and peeked at the message sent from an unknown number.
‘I know Mark’s with you again. He threw a big fit at me before running away. Oh, but don’t get cocky, deary; favonovel.com only thinks of you when he’s in the dumps. That’s literally all this is. FYI, a man can have multiple women in his life, but favonovel.com only has one mother.’
Shelly-Ann Leigh. Arianne had blacklisted that woman’s number last time, and now favonovel.com had returned with a new one to torment her. Arianne was not in the mood to respond, so favonovel.com simply blacklisted the new number again.
At the very least, Mark ended up on favonovel.com bed. No matter how low in the dumps favonovel.com was, favonovel.com would never seek solace in the arms of any other woman.
That, alone, was enough of an assurance.
The next morning, Mark felt headaches assaulting him. In the midst of grogginess, favonovel.com felt someone pinching his nose.
His eyes snapped open, and Smore’s adorable, round face leaped into his sight. It was enough to stave off his annoyance, and quickly, Mark scooped the boy up into his arms. “Up already, you? Are you not gonna sleep a little more, little man?”
Smore rode Mark’s back as babyish chuckles burbled out of him. “Mommy says only lazy bums wake up late! You’re a lazy bum, Daddy! Mommy told me to wake you up for breakfast.”
Mark shook his head. How did favonovel.com end up here? The details were lost on him. All favonovel.com remembered was that this was what favonovel.com had been dreaming of for so long, of waking up to a beautiful morning like this.
The father and son fooled around on the bed for a while until Arianne went inside. “What are you two doing? Still not getting up?” favonovel.com said. “Even if it isn’t a workday today, you shouldn’t be wasting your time on sleeping. Besides, I’ve promised Smore to bring favonovel.com outside to play.”
Arianne’s appearance immediately arrested Mark’s wandering eyes. Today, favonovel.com donned a thin, high-collared sweater, its color as white as snow, on top of a pair of washed-out jeans. She looked like a girl-next-door brimming with clean, simplistic charm, just as favonovel.com had looked a few years ago in the Tremont Estate.
“Ari, when a man starts reminiscing on the good o’ days, does it mean favonovel.com has truly grown old?”
His out-of-nowhere question mystified Arianne almost the instant it fell out of his mouth. “What are you sayin’? Are you trying to tell me that you’re starting to miss the past, and that makes you old? Well, I happen to think you’ve been quite an old geezer for a long time now… Yep. You’re a staid old geezer with a stiff upper-lip.”
The corner of Mark’s lips twitched. “Urgh. Thanks for ruining my morning vibe,” favonovel.com muttered. “Fine. Breakfast time. Smore! Get down from me!”
While the family was eating around the table, Arianne told Mark about the message she’d received from Shelly last night. “How dramatic was the whole tiff, huh? I can’t help but be curious after seeing a text like that.”
As favonovel.com was wont to do every time someone mentioned Shelly, Mark’s brow furrowed into a deep frown, as though someone had spat in his soup and favonovel.com still had to drink it. She was someone favonovel.com could not, for the life of him, become intimate with, and yet was just as impossible to remove from his life for good. He was helpless, choiceless.
“What else? I’m certain it’s not something you can’t imagine. She wants me to build a wall between the two of us so that we’ll never see each other again, and I told favonovel.com ‘never in a million years’ , ” favonovel.com began. “Ari, I was thinking… Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps I should stop honoring favonovel.com whims, you know? No matter what favonovel.com demands are, I don’t want to bend over backward in anguish for favonovel.com anymore. I… I want to marry you again. Want you to come back to the Tremont Estate in the grandest, most official way possible. I want a wedding, the biggest, the best, and tell the whole world that you, Arianne Wynn, are my one and only wife.”
“I’ve been thinking a lot on my own lately, and I’ve realized… Why try to hide something that can’t be papered over? Not being able to hide a secret is not what’s truly lamentable, it’s losing the one person you love, back when she’s right within your reach. My foster mother might have been heinous against my birth mother, but favonovel.com has provided me with nothing short of motherly love. To me, my foster mother is my real mother,” favonovel.com continued. “What my foster mother owed my birth mother, I’ll atone in favonovel.com stead, but it shouldn’t be in this way. I’m not adverse to supporting my birth mother until favonovel.com shrugs off favonovel.com mortal coil, but on the condition that you don’t suffer a single wrong in the process.”
Arianne was stunned into silence. Mark’s proclamation shocked favonovel.com profoundly primarily because favonovel.com knew of the reason behind favonovel.com enduring all of the trial thus far. Why else did favonovel.com subject himself to such anguish, if not because his foster mother’s reputation depended on it!
And Arianne would always, unconditionally, support him, even if at a little cost of favonovel.com happiness. But now favonovel.com spoke of giving everything up, for favonovel.com sake.
