Mark knew she was right, but did that mean his heart would listen to reason right now? No, his heart continued to believe that he was losing Arianne forever, that she was never coming back, and his body answered his heart by hugging her even more tightly without showing signs of letting go.
Not knowing what to do, Arianne gave up and let him do whatever he wanted. A while later, however, they both heard a series of impatient rapping on the door to the bathroom and Smore’s voice exclaiming, “Mommy, Daddy! What are you two doing in there? Smore wants to bathe too!”
Arianne quickly shoved Mark away from her and opened the door, letting Smore in. “You’ll give him his bath later, alright? I’m close to finishing mine. Oh, and you’re completely wet, Mark. Take care not to catch a cold like this.”
Mark crouched to Smore’s height and looked at him carefully. “Smore, my little man, now that you’re gonna live with just Mommy… know that Daddy will continue to see you often,” he cooed gently. “Don’t ever think that Daddy… that Daddy has stopped loving you…”
Smore tilted his head sideway, his expression solemn. “Granny told me all about it. Grandaunt hates Mommy, so I hate Grandaunt. Don’t be sad, Daddy, ‘cause Mommy and I both like you very much.”
Seeing how perceptive and precocious Smore was gave small but significant comfort to Arianne. Did Shelly not insist that Smore call her ‘Granny?’ Too bad, because Smore clearly saw Mary as his true grandmother. Just thinking about how livid Shelly was going to be for having her grandmother privilege revoked multiple times gave Arianne several jolts of glee.
In the silence of the night, Mark completely gave up on any form of restraint and lost himself over and over again in her. He would not stop until he had drained both himself and Arianne to their limits.
Arianne waited until Mark fell asleep before leaving to pack up any remaining belongings. She was going to move out tomorrow, after all—if she accidentally forgot to take any of her things from the estate, she would have to come back again.
There was no way Arianne was going to subject her eyes to Shelly’s sickening face if she could help it.
As some of her things were left in Smore’s nursery room, Arianne walked out of the bedroom.
She promptly found Shelly standing outside the bedroom, her ear to the wall.
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