Shelly, gleaming the subdued aggravation in Mark’s eyes, decided to stop. “Alright, alright. Go ahead. Brian’s gone home, hasn’t he? Be careful while driving, okay?”She looked out of the window and watched Mark’s car vanish into the distance, the softness in her mien gradually receding. Finally, she summoned Mary to her.The housekeeper balked at any interaction with her, so she made no attempt at hiding her irritation. “What is it, Mrs. Leigh? I’m in the middle of cleaning duty.”Shelly sized Mary up before exposing her guise with a deadpan expression. “Please, you’re just looking for a way out of talking to me, aren’t you? All you do all day is take care of Smore for a while; you’re not even required to do much actual housekeeping. But of course, that is neither here nor there. I just wanna ask you something, so why don’t you take a seat?”Mary reacted by straightening her back and standing tall. “No, I’m not gonna,” she declared in a steely tone. “I’m just a lowly worker who ha
By evening, Mark returned home to Shelly waiting by the door with her cane. She smoothly tucked Mark’s hair—blown astray by the breeze—into place. “You’re gonna wanna take a bath, right? Go quickly, dinner’s waiting.”Mark was still unaccustomed to Shelly’s affectionate gesture. In reply, he hummed uneasily and hurried upstairs.Arianne watched their interaction, unperturbed. The only thing she was thinking about was how excessively Shelly doted on him. Honestly, Arianne was a little jealous of Mark having an aunt who loved him this much.It was time for dinner. Everyone was having medium-rare steaks, Arianne noticed to her dismay, except Smore, who had tender, well-done steak.She was not a fan of steaks with any pink in their middle. The longer she looked at her pinkish slab, the more her appetite waned. Arianne found steaks any less than well-done to be too gross to eat, but another part of her insisted that she should not waste food by throwing it away. In the end, she decided
Shelly dropped her fork and knife to the table with a bang. “No member of the Tremont family shall ever deign themselves to someone this uncivilized,” she declared. “Whoever Smore’s bride may be, she will be nothing short of being prim, cultured, and of a standing befitting the Tremont prestige! She will not do anything close to what you’ve described!”The undertone in her exclamation was that Arianne was the opposite of prim and cultured, and at all not a status-fitting wife to Mark. Naturally, Arianne pouted and offered a quick rejoinder. “Slow down. That depends, though. What happens if Smore loves someone who isn’t of ‘equal standing’ or whatever? Mark and I are definitely not gonna stop him from marrying whom he loves, that’s for sure. We’re democratic like that.”Any retort from Arianne was automatically fuel to Shelly’s fire. “But you’re not the one in-charged now, are you? As long as I’m still alive, your personal opinion does not matter. Honestly, who gave you the right to d
Mark was at the verge of a breakdown. “Please, Aunt Shelly, I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry, please stop crying! I shouldn’t have worded it that way, alright? It’s my fault. Stress from work caught up to me, so I sounded harsher than I really meant. But really… I just want you to stop attacking Arianne for once, please?”Everything he said had been for Arianne! The longer Shelly listened to him, the livider she became. She cast her voice as far into the direction of the dining hall as she could, shouting, “You heard that, Arianne Wynn?! You must feel soooo pleased with yourself, don’t you? No matter how much hell you put him through, no matter how much you plot against him, he’s completely head-over-heels for you! Everything he says to me has been nothing but a defense of you! Look at him, tell me you don’t feel a single stab in your conscience!”Mark’s hand shot straight to his forehead, rubbing his temples as the headache assaulted him. Christ, women were a different beast from even the
“Maybe it’s time you get yourself admitted, Aunt Shelly. We’re all very worn out.”Mark's sudden remark hushed Shelly into stunned silence. A few seconds later, she recovered with an indignant murmur. “Wha… What are you saying? You’re… You’re not seriously suggesting institutionalizing me, are you? Are you?! You think I’m mad... You think I’m insane? No, you don’t understand! You don’t know what Arianne’s doing behind your back, do you? What kinda juju did she put in you, my poor Mark. Why can’t you wake up and see the truth? I’ve done everything in my power devoting to the singular goal of coming back to your side—how could I let them harm you under my watch? No! Come hell or high water, I’ll eliminate all of them, all these pesky threats! They will never harm a single hair on your head, never again, never again, never…”Something left Shelly’s eyes, leaving behind two hollow, unfocused pools as she mumbled to no one in particular.Arianne caught the most unnerving part in her mono
“No frickin’ way. Mark’s sweet little aunt again?” Tiffany teased. “Look at the tortured state she has put you under, gal! He’s gotta be blind to not see this!”Arianne’s body sagged like a deflating balloon. “Oh, blind he is not. The problem is, he doesn’t know what to do with his aunt! No normal person would seriously consider reasoning with a psycho, right? —That’s right, I totally agree with you now. She’s a complete fruit loop and an utter nutcase. Doesn’t matter how terrible her transgression is, or how much venom’s in her words; you’re supposed to forgive the insane after she said she’s sorry! So what if I had enough of her? As long as Mark can’t say the word, I still have to put up with her all-day, every single day!“Like what. The. Hell, Tiffie! You should have seen that never-before-seen puppyish docile look on Mark’s face when he’s with his aunt. It was that exact moment when I knew the only way forward for me is to endure her forever! I mean, for crying out loud, she’s h
Looking up at the ceiling stretching way above her head, Arianne imagined the light plummeting from its spot and felt a surge of terror bubbling in her mind. Shelly was lucky that the light did not kill her right there and then.The women took a complete round, strolling within the show hall before heading to the surveillance room.The languid security present had been close to napping, but seeing Arianne shocked him awake. Arianne ignored the question on whether the security was doing his job and went straight to her motive. “The footage for the accident that happened here; do you still have it?”“Y-Yes, you bet!” the security answered hurriedly. “Um, it was quite the accident, and we worried that Mr. Tremont’s gonna ask for it some day or whatever, so we didn’t dare delete footage of it, as well as a day before and after the accident happened. Would you like to take a look, Madam?”Arianne nodded. The security guy began to hammer away on his computer and launched the surveillance
Melanie’s statement was verified. Shelly had indeed been staring at the chandelier for a long time before the incident happened. After realizing this, they rewatched the surveillance recordings and discovered that from the moment Shelly entered the ballroom, she kept on subconsciously glancing at the chandelier. Initially, Mark wasn’t walking under that chandelier, but he only did so after Shelly said something to him, pointing towards the chandelier’s direction while she was at it. Arianne’s entire body shivered down to her spine when she thought of something. However, she could not say too much since the security guard was standing next to her. Instead, she saved a copy of the surveillance recordings and left, but not before she made sure that the security guard had deleted all the surveillance recordings from their servers. The matter was serious; it would be better if less people were to learn about the fact. After they left, Tiffany suggested, “Why don’t we go to my house? The