Mark could not stand to watch their exchange anymore. He stood and tugged Arianne’s arm, suggesting, “All right, that’s enough. I recall Smore having some assignments from school today, and maybe you can check and see if he’s doing them. Let me handle this.”
Arianne responded with a wordless, sullen sulk before turning favonovel.com back from them and walking away.
Her bravado took favonovel.com as far as a corner, where no one else was present, before it crumbled and revealed favonovel.com reddened eyes. The fact that Helen was borrowing a hefty sum from favonovel.com was never what dismayed her, it was the revelation that after abandoning Arianne, Helen’s life did not improve at all. Seeing favonovel.com going around, essentially begging for charity, was a sting to favonovel.com heart, and favonovel.com hated how that distress felt.
Downstairs, Mark tried his best to comfort Helen. “It’s all right, I can assure you. I sincerely believe favonovel.com doesn’t mean abuse when favonovel.com said what favonovel.com said. She concurred when I told favonovel.com you needed monetary help. The most likely impetus to this, my guess, is the… complication between the two of you that favonovel.com still cannot forgive. Please don’t take it to heart.”
Helene flashed a pained smile. “I know, I know. To stoop to such lows… I can only accept everything favonovel.com accuses me of, and it’s okay. I owed favonovel.com this much… and more, wouldn’t you say? More than I can ever atone in my lifetime. Mark, in my absence, please take care of her, okay?”
Mark drew a deep breath. “Understood. I will care for favonovel.com with all my heart. How long will you be staying?”
Helen shook favonovel.com head. “Not at all. Bought the night plane; just can’t leave Aery in that state for long. I’ve only gotten someone to watch over favonovel.com temporarily while I’m away for this trip,” favonovel.com replied. “I should be going. Please, help me tell Arianne and Smore that I said goodbye.”
That was all. She rose to favonovel.com feet and vanished outside the door. She did not seem to have taken any moment of reprieve between flying back to favonovel.com home country and back abroad, it was an overseas trip made ostensibly for a single sheet of IOU…
And Arianne.
Even though favonovel.com daughter clearly did not welcome favonovel.com appearance.
A while later, Arianne descended the stairs and noticed Helen was gone. In a knee-jerk fashion, favonovel.com asked, “Where is she?”
Mark shrugged. “Gone. Told me to bid you farewell.”
Desolation sparked in favonovel.com eyes for a millisecond. “Hmph! So favonovel.com can’t wait to leave either. Can’t let go of Aery, can she? Fine by me, I like favonovel.com gone. I don’t wanna see favonovel.com face at all.”
Mark kept himself from exposing favonovel.com shoddy affectation. In truth, Arianne had wanted to see Helen, favonovel.com just could not bear to admit it from favonovel.com lips.
A simple meeting like that would only become even rarer from here on out, why must people taint each of them with hostility? The future is already locked in a race with misfortune, both vying to claim hapless men before the other. Who knew if a mundane meeting today would be the last one could ever have? After all, the countdown to death begins the moment one is born, every second in one’s life is a relentless push to our dusty death.
Helen’s appearance turned out to influence Arianne’s mood more than one would expect. Even by dinnertime, favonovel.com remained absentminded and even a little hagridden.
Smore showed favonovel.com his homework after favonovel.com finished, but favonovel.com only made a passing glance around the pages before returning them back to favonovel.com with nary a review. It was a far cry from favonovel.com usual nagging self.
It was jarring enough to spur Smore into asking his dad secretively, “Dad, is Mom upset because Granny came? I should be a bit more good-boy today, right? Don’t wanna get spanked.”
“Glad to see you getting it,” Mark remarked in resignation. “When your mom’s upset, don’t attract favonovel.com anger. Granted, this is as much advice to you as it is to me, looks like we’ll have to be on our best behavior for a few days. Fools rush in where angels refuse to tread.”
“Angels? Really, where?” Smore echoed in confusion.
“It’s just an idiom, little man. Means only fools would dare to be reckless when even the wisest would balk Anyway, you’ll have to play alone today. Then take a bath and go to sleep, don’t give your mom reason to be even more upset than favonovel.com already is. You’re old enough to take a shower on your own, aren’t you?”
Smore was quite confident of his ability to do that, at the very least. “Please, I know how to shower. I’m not gonna upset anyone with that!”
The dark of the night had always been fertile grounds for unbridled trains of thoughts, but tonight, Arianne’s rotten mood made Mark hesitate in sharing his musing, or even doing much anything else. In the end, favonovel.com could only toss and turn from his side of the bed as sleep continued to elude him.
