Mark, growing suspicious, shouted in the direction of the kitchen, “Ari, get over here!”
Arianne pretended not to hear him, which prompted Mary to admonish, “Say something, dear. Before Mr. Tremont gets all miffed—”
Arianne tossed the vegetable in her hand into a pool of water that formed in the sink. “He can be pissed off all he wants; I’m not scared! In fact, I’m the one who should be pissed! If he wanna, he can scram the hell back to the Tremont Estate and throw his tantrum there and save me from his stupid show of dominance! You might be scared of him, but I’m definitely not!”
Her voice was so sonorous that Mary panicked at the thought of Mark hearing her. “Jesus H. Christ, turn down your boombox! What’s gotten into you? All I’ve been seeing is how normal Mr. Tremont has been acting—for Pete’s sake, he still buys you and Smore all these nifty knickknacks! How can something like that miff you at all? Gee, you’re crabbier and crabbier, aren’t you?”
Not about to subject herself to another one of Mary’s nagging, Arianne turned away and marched into the living room. “What do you want?”
Mark’s eyes searched her face for a moment. “What exactly is wrong with you? What is it in my conduct that pisses you off?”
He had been asking the same sort of questions with different phrasing, so she reacted to it by ignoring him completely. She took up Smore in her arms and went into the bathroom. “Wash your dirty hands before meals; we wouldn’t want you to swallow some icky germs in there, now would we? From now on, please remember to wash your hands after coming home from outside, okay?”
Smore’s eyes had never left Arianne’s, even as he replied with a babyish drag in his tone, “Mommy, you’re not gonna be angry with me because you’re angry with Daddy, right? I’ve been very good. I didn’t make Granny angry…”
Although Mark had been bumping her mood down, Smore’s innocent question did provoke an earnest chuckle from her. “What are you talking about? Do I look like that sort of person to you? I’ll take out my steam on the person who infuriated me in the first place. I’d never take it out on innocent bystanders, would I? You’ve been so good, Mommy has no reason to scold you, does she? Come, wash your hands clean and then go back to playing.”
It was then that Mark’s coldly-unamused voice blared from behind her, “Take it out on who, exactly?”
Arianne jolted in shock before she hastily put on a calm front. “No one in particular!”
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