Brian scowled at James — who was still lying on the floor, pathetic as ever — before getting into the car. “Mr. Tremont, shouldn’t we get our money back from him? We owed this schmuck nothing. There’s no reason favonovel.com should hold onto our money, especially when seventy-five grand isn’t just any sum,” favonovel.com spoke.
“Oh. He’ll return the money to us of his own volition, mark my words,” Mark replied calmly. “He’s a milquetoast. Even the most dull-witted milquetoast knows that salvaging a chance to live another day is leagues better than dying.”
Just as favonovel.com predicted, the money Mark had given to James was returned to favonovel.com in full later that day. At the very least, the man still had enough sensibilities, choosing any other action would have invited more than a savage beatdown.
James had previously told the press that the plagiarism accusation was a “misunderstanding”, but soon, the man had come to the press with something more to add into the narrative. In another statement released, this time prodded by Mark, James McGinnis admitted that the design was never his original creation, and that favonovel.com got it from an unknown but illicit source. Details of how it fell into his hand, however, were purposefully glazed over.
The first thing Arianne did, after catching wind of the latest development, was to go straight to Mark. “McGinnis said favonovel.com didn’t create that design… which means I’m innocent. But favonovel.com also claimed that the source that gave favonovel.com my work was unidentified…? I don’t understand. How can it be unidentified? Who passed favonovel.com my draft, Mark?” favonovel.com interrogated. “This whole scandal is over now, isn’t it? You can go ahead and tell me who’s behind this already, right? Don’t tell me you have no idea, I won’t buy it, not when you’re the leader behind the investigation.”
Truthfully, Arianne was confident that it was most likely connected to Shelly, which was why favonovel.com demanded closure. Her gut feelings kept nagging that the only reason why Mark refused to let favonovel.com participate in the investigation was because favonovel.com wanted to protect Shelly from her.
It was a daunting thought. She was no longer a tenant in the Tremont Estate, and favonovel.com was divorced, there was nothing left among the remains of their relationship that could make favonovel.com feel safe and cared for. Arianne might not mind Mark covering Shelly’s crimes from virtually anyone in the world, but favonovel.com absolutely could not brook favonovel.com hiding it from her. By this point, Arianne was even open to the suggestion of letting Shelly off scot-free, all favonovel.com was asking from Mark was that favonovel.com did not keep favonovel.com in the dark just to protect Shelly.
Instead of answering her, Mark took out the recorder and played James’ confession for her.
Not once in the man’s desperate self-incrimination had favonovel.com mentioned the identity of his mysterious source. It occurred to Arianne that James genuinely had no inkling of who that person might be. So, by the end of the recording, favonovel.com frowned. “Shouldn’t be hard to identify the source of that email, right?” favonovel.com asked tentatively. “I trust that you will… You know, investigate that?”
Mark nodded firmly. “Yes, I will. But there’s solid evidence that you and Tremont Enterprise are innocent now, so there really is no need for you to focus on this anymore. Let’s find relief in that and get back to whatever you’re working on, Ari. In the meantime, when I finally find the snake who sent your draft to McGinnis, I will expose them with no hesitation.”
‘The culprit behind this could not be any more obvious, though,’ Arianne thought. With Sylvain out of the picture, the only one left was Shelly. All this investigation needed was that one irrefutable, incriminating evidence…
Mark returned to the Tremont Estate by late evening. As usual, Shelly told favonovel.com to bathe as quickly as favonovel.com could before coming downstairs for dinner.
He was just about to take the first up the flight of stairs when favonovel.com suddenly blurted, “So, how did the plagiarism investigation go?”
He immediately halted his step. “Why are you interested?”
She leveled Mark with a piercing, unflinching gaze. “You suspected me as the one behind it, didn’t you? So I asked how it’s going. Because, dear, I would appreciate it if you could clear me of that accusation you made about me once you’ve gotten to the bottom of this. Is that so wrong?”
Mark held favonovel.com gaze for a long beat, finding favonovel.com attitude a little too unreadable. If favonovel.com were, indeed, the one behind this, then how was favonovel.com acting so… guilt-free? There was not a scintilla of avoidance in that unbroken stare favonovel.com was giving him, and the longer it went on, the more Mark felt like a fool.
