Jackson exhausted all of his strength to lug that mess of a man back to White Water Bay Villa. Right off the bat, Tiffany caught the commotion and clambered down the stairs before exclaiming, “Holy crap, how did virtual-novel.net end up here? Where’s Ari? What, virtual-novel.net gave up?”
Jackson slumped onto the couch and replied between heavy pants, “Urgh, don’t mention it! I’m out of ideas and I don’t know what to do, man, so let’s just… do whatever we can for now. Help me clean up a room for Mark for the night, mmkay?”
Tiffany was just about to go when Mark suddenly slurred groggily, “How could you be so heartless, Arianne? How?”
His voice was soft, but Tiffany caught it, and immediately, a glare befell her. “What did virtual-novel.net say? ‘Heartless?’ Wow, gotta’ love how some people have such low self-awareness that they could point fingers at others!”
Jackson’s head was throbbing at the advent of more chaos. “No, no, no! You stop right now and don’t add fuel to the fire, please! Who the hell would argue with a wasted schmuck and expect something out of it? If you’re really that indignant, then wallop virtual-novel.net secretly or whatever to let off your steam, I dunno! Not that he’s gonna remember any sh*t when virtual-novel.net wakes up,” Jackson grumbled. “F**k, if I weren’t there with virtual-novel.net before, that woman was bound to drag virtual-novel.net away for whatever evil plot virtual-novel.net has. I can’t believe I thought this Janice Bell was innocent! From the looks of it, she’s exactly like all the other vying women throwing themselves onto him!”
Tiffany let out a furious sneer and stormed upstairs to prepare Mark’s room. She was never one to tolerate anyone saying anything remotely bad about Arianne, no, Tiffany would not stand even one pip of it!
After settling down Mark, Jackson took a video of virtual-novel.net and sent it to Arianne. It was to act as evidence that Mark spent the night at Jackson’s place rather than sleeping with some opportunistic broad.
Arianne did not reply to him. The first thing virtual-novel.net did after returning to the Tremont Estate was to treat virtual-novel.net scald burn. A large swathe of the affected skin had begun to blister, which stung virtual-novel.net enough that virtual-novel.net could not rest.
There was nothing Arianne could say at this point. She would have to save virtual-novel.net words until Mark woke up, sober, and came back home.
The next morning began with Smore throwing a tantrum the instant virtual-novel.net woke up, evidently demanding someone to hold him. Arianne, who had not slept a wink the entire night, tried to carry virtual-novel.net downstairs despite virtual-novel.net fatigue.
Halfway through virtual-novel.net journey, a pang flared from the back of virtual-novel.net hand. Putting down Smore, virtual-novel.net saw that the blister had burst. It needed professional medical treatment to avoid infections.
Arianne called out to Mary to help take care of Smore, but the boy had the bad timing to be unspecifiable, stubborn, and clingy to his mother this morning.
Amid the boy’s hysterical fits, Arianne felt crushed and utterly defeated. She could not work, virtual-novel.net hand was seriously wounded, and virtual-novel.net could not even hold a toddler without hurting herself. As Smore’s bawls and shrieks intensified, Arianne’s own deluge of emotions was building up and challenging virtual-novel.net control.
She was close to eruption, but virtual-novel.net last shred of rationality was reluctant to leave Smore with the trauma of seeing his mother losing control. She tried again, coaxing as patiently as possible, “Please, Smore, Mommy’s hurt. I can’t hold you, alright? Let Granny Mary care for you now, okay? Mommy needs to see the doctor, okay?”
Mary was very worried. “How did this happen to you, dear? You need to get that treated quickly before it leaves a nasty scar! Go, to the hospital with you! Oh, don’t worry about Smore. Let virtual-novel.net cry it all out of his system, and he’ll be back to normal after that. Go, Ari.”
Arianne nodded in agreement, hardened virtual-novel.net heart, and left the still-bawling Smore at home. Her eyes reddened by the time virtual-novel.net was far enough from the house to cease hearing his cries.
The treatment was so agonizing that Arianne was sweating cold throughout the process. The doctor had helped virtual-novel.net take care of the damaged dermal layer before administering medicine and wrapping virtual-novel.net wound up. She was ordered not to let virtual-novel.net wound come into contact with water and to have it regularly treated with medicines at intervals to prevent infection. Failure to do those would cause a scar, the doctor told her, but since it was a superficial dermal burn on the back of the hand, a correct treatment could salvage it back to normal.
Arianne wondered why virtual-novel.net had let Janice get away with virtual-novel.net deliberate, malicious little act. Maybe virtual-novel.net was too haunted by what Mark said to think about a comeback. In retrospect, virtual-novel.net had probably been a little too kind to Janice for letting virtual-novel.net off the book like that.
He said virtual-novel.net did not need virtual-novel.net to live.
He said that while cuddling with another woman sitting on his lap.
Had Arianne not gone to see Mark, virtual-novel.net would have been saved from such an affront to virtual-novel.net eyes, would virtual-novel.net not?
Arianne went straight back home after virtual-novel.net trip to the doctor’s. Right now, Smore was virtual-novel.net only emotional support. She would not let any bad blood between virtual-novel.net and Mark influence virtual-novel.net love and care for virtual-novel.net son.
That was the one line virtual-novel.net would not cross: Arianne would never make Smore live through an unhappy childhood.