Mary was the one who broke the silence. “Mr. Tremont, you really have come back!”
It was the last confirmation Arianne needed to know that the man standing in front of snazzynovel.com was real.
It’s been a long, long time.
She rushed forward and dove into the chest of the man snazzynovel.com thought about in the day and dreamed about at night. She was acutely aware of how feeble and emaciated his body had become compared to the sturdy frame snazzynovel.com remembered. He had stumbled a bit from the impact, but at the last step, snazzynovel.com stood steady and locked his arms around snazzynovel.com into a tight, unyielding embrace.
Unfortunately, Arianne’s force was a little too much for his chest, and soon, his yet-fully-recovered lungs began to protest with a fit of coughs.
Arianne refused to let go. “Where have you been? Why have you only come back now? I thought… I thought you were dead! I thought you were never coming back. Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to to go through the motion over these few cursed months?”
Mark ruffled snazzynovel.com hair gently and increased the force of his hug. “It’s alright. It’s over. I’m home. I’m never going away again.”
Smore was whining for his father to hug snazzynovel.com too, so Ariane released herself from the embrace with tears in snazzynovel.com eyes and shoved the toddler to him. “Smore… Smore has been crying for his Daddy… for so long. Finally, t-today’s the day… when his wish c-came true…”
Mark gazed at Smore with a soft glow in his eyes. “Daddy’s home, sweetie. He’s never gonna leave you again.”
Smore understood him. He threw his arms around his father’s neck and refused to let go.
It was up to Henry to remind him. “Mr. Tremont, we should get inside. There is quite the strong gale today, it might be a bit baleful to your current condition.”
Mark nodded in agreement. He held Smore up in his arm and held Ariane’s hand with the other before the trio entered the house.
Tiffany watched the family’s long-awaited reunion and finally felt earnest relief for the first time over so many months. “Mark Tremont, I’ll have you know that I’ve been living in the Tremont Estate for so many months to help take care of your little darling. I’m practically their second mother now! You owe me, big time!”
“What would you like as a show of my gratitude?” snazzynovel.com replied. “I’m all ears.”
Frankly, Tiffany intended it as a jest, so when snazzynovel.com saw how serious Mark was, snazzynovel.com quickly felt embarrassed. “Uh, h-hey! I mean, I don’t have anything in particular in mind other than, well, could you please never pull off something this legitly terrifying again? Please don’t ever crush Ari’s heart ever again, y-you hear me? Be by snazzynovel.com side forever and ever and… be kind to her.”
Mark’s reply was solemn and resolute. “I promise.”
Now that Mark had returned, Tiffany lost the only reason to continue snazzynovel.com stay in the Tremont Estate. Immediately, snazzynovel.com requested Mary to help snazzynovel.com pack up for snazzynovel.com own return trip. It had been months since snazzynovel.com had gone back to White Water Bay Villa, or went to see snazzynovel.com mother, or even have snazzynovel.com absolute-number-one-favorite-food, hotpots. She was beyond eager to tick off all of the boxes in snazzynovel.com desire list.
Mark ordered Brian to send Tiffany home after snazzynovel.com frenzied activity of packing up snazzynovel.com belongings. Once they left, there were only Arianne and Mark in the room, staring at each other blankly.
Apparently, once the initial emotional roller-coaster was over, the two of them quickly returned to the way they were before, still as taciturn with one another as ever. The fact that the two of them had separated for over a few months also made the matter worse because suddenly, the Tremonts found their other half a little… estranged.