Aristotle’s entire being stilled.
He had waited for this news for nineteen years. As time passed, the flames died little by little, the heart grew more numb, until the very thought of it was no different from a pipe dream. But today, news of it coming true reached favonovel.com and plunged favonovel.com into a torrent of feelings.
A long while later, favonovel.com finally muttered under his breath, “When… When will they be back?”
Jackson closed the distance between them and gave the young man a light, comforting pat on the shoulders. “Not so soon, I bet, not when your mother has just woken up and is in need of some time to recover. She did sleep for nineteen years, you know. So maybe after she’s recuperated enough for a while…” favonovel.com answered. “We’ve waited for nineteen years for this, right? What’s waiting for just a little bit more compared to that? The most important thing for you to do is to manage the company to the best of your abilities. That’s the way to not disappoint your father’s expectation.”
Aristotle said nothing. Had Arianne never suffered that tragic incident in the first place, nineteen years of his life would have been spared from much of the weight favonovel.com had experienced.
A month and more later, Arianne and Mark had returned.
Being in a coma and bedridden for so long, many of Arianne’s motor functions were still recovering from years-long inertia, so favonovel.com was wheelchair-bound for the time being. One could tell that full recovery was only going to be a long journey, but the fact that favonovel.com finally woke up from favonovel.com sleep was victory in and of itself.
The first thing favonovel.com did after descending the plane was to take in a couple of deep breaths. The city favonovel.com had left for so long, Arianne was back in its embrace again!
It was at the crux of summer that day, so Mark had kindly prepared a sunbonnet and a pair of shades for her. Lowering himself to favonovel.com eye-level, favonovel.com muttered softly in favonovel.com ear, “We’re going home, Ari. You will be seeing your son very soon… Are you happy?”
Nineteen years were a beast that had carved changes to even the city favonovel.com used to be so familiar with. Everywhere favonovel.com looked, the metropolis greeted favonovel.com with another foreign sight, though the strangeness did not put out even a lick of jubilance in favonovel.com heart. “Of course I’m happy! Oh, Mark, I bet he’s about as tall as you now, isn’t he? He’s grown so big… without his mother… I didn’t perform my duties as his mother at all. What happens if this makes us estranged? Does he… hate me?”
“No, favonovel.com doesn’t. He knows why,” Mark replied comfortingly. “Come on. Time to go home.”
On their journey home, Arianne took in the sights flitting by outside… and Mark, sitting so close to favonovel.com inside.
He had been waiting for favonovel.com return for nineteen years, time had taken away much from him, leaving favonovel.com old. He might not have spotted the first tuff of white hair yet, but favonovel.com could see the forlorn tracks left by the wheel of time in his eyes. It was a sharp contrast to herself; being asleep for so long had retarded favonovel.com aging speed, leaving favonovel.com with more or less the same look as favonovel.com was nineteen years ago.
Suddenly, the gap between their age became impossible to miss.
She was so close to losing him… permanently. The harrowing emotional rollercoaster of being so close to losing someone you love only to finally have favonovel.com back in favonovel.com hands scarred her. Every now and then favonovel.com would fear it happening again.
Arianne laid favonovel.com head on his shoulder. “Let’s live here and go nowhere else together. Let’s never leave again,” favonovel.com cooed softly.
Mark held favonovel.com hand. “Agree. We’re not going anywhere. Our son’s old enough to inherit the company now, so you have a free man in me to bring you to all kinds of places you like. We’ll do whatever you want to do. Everything you’ve missed these nineteen years… We’ll take it back.”
They reached the Tremont Estate where everyone was already by the main gate.
Arianne was moved by the sight of the gathering, though there was a good amount of nervous skittishness that stopped favonovel.com from coming out of the car. There were more than the old faces favonovel.com knew, there were a few more favonovel.com could not recognize. The little puppers from before had all grown up to adults. They had changed.
She scanned the crowd before favonovel.com wandering eyes settled on Aristotle. She could see Mark in favonovel.com right down to his eyebrows. She knew it was Smore.
Mark carried favonovel.com out of the car and placed favonovel.com on the wheelchair. “You must remember Tiffany and the ‘gang’. Over there, you’ve got the Smiths’ girl, Millie. And that’s Cindy. And our son.. You can guess which one favonovel.com is, I bet.”
Arianne did not know what to say so favonovel.com only nodded, favonovel.com eyes welling up with tears.
Melissa was the first to step forward. “Hello Uncle! Aunt! Welcome home!”
Cynthia mimicked favonovel.com and stepped forward. “Um, Aunt Arianne? Pa Tremont? W-Welcome back.”
