Dangerous Love: You Are My One and Only Bride novel Chapter 454

”Purposefully choosing a time when I’m not around to come back... Are you that eager to avoid me? If you’re going to leave, you should at least say goodbye. “

It was difficult for her to distinguish the emotions in his tone, but great suffering lay beneath the undercurrents of his calm facade.

She did not turn around, as she was unsure of how to face him. How was she supposed to speak frankly to him, acting as if nothing had happened?

After a bout of silence, he took her luggage downstairs.

This surprised her.

She thought that he would stop her from leaving, restricting her in every way, like the madman he was in the past, and force her into staying with him. She was afraid of that, if she was being honest. However, to her surprise, he seemed perfectly calm. She heaved a sigh of relief. At the very least, she could bring herself to say a few kind words to him.

Arianne tucked her hair behind her ear as she followed him down the stairs. Lowering her head, she mumbled, “I’m only taking what’s mine, I’ve left everything that belongs to you on the bed. Would you and Mary be so kind as to take care of Rice Ball for me? You can just pretend that it doesn’t exist if you’re not happy about it. Will you give it back to me when I come back in the future?”

Mark nodded and did not answer. Underneath the calm facade in his eyes lay a billowing storm of waves. He had no way of communicating with her, aside from pretending as if everything was fine, even as he sent her on her way. He could only bring himself to say a few words to her.

He placed her luggage into the back of his car, “I’ll drive you.”

Arianne wanted to reject his offer, but she did not. She considered it to be a way of making one last memory with him, this one filled with gentleness. This type of gentleness did not come easily, and she had longed for it ever since she was a little girl…

Mary and Henry held Rice Ball, standing at the doorway and watching them leave. In the end, Arianne could not hold back her tears. She stretched her hand out the window along the secluded roads. Leaves were falling from the tree branches amidst the autumn wind, briefly swirling in the air before landing on the ground. C’est la vie.

In the end, those leaves would turn into fertilizer, and accompany the larger trees through the bitter winter season. Then, by spring of the next year, a new seedling would be born.

Mark glanced at her through the rear-view mirror from time to time, stealing short glimpses of her for his memory. The yearning in his gaze deepened as they drove further and further away from Tremont Estate. So many words that he wished to say lingered on the corners of his lips, threatening to slip out, but he swallowed them back down. He knew that he could never change her mind.

With everything going on now, he had no right to make her stay.

He was once everything to her. Now, she wanted nothing more than to throw everything connected to his world away and head towards a new beginning. She didn’t know if a beginning without him could even be considered a beginning, however, or if it was just a tragic attempt to escape and muddle through life.

She placed her hand over her mouth as Mark’s car drove out of sight and looked away. Her throat was choking with unvoiced cries, sparkling and translucent pearls of tears forming damp droplets on her pure white dress.

On the day of Arianne and Tiffany’s departure, Mark, Jackson and Eric went to a nightclub again. They huddled together and there was a silent consensus not to call for a bar hostess.

Three eligible bachelors, all of them practically royalty, would be enough to draw anyone’s attention, regardless of where they went. The women in the nightclub were drooling, some even gathering up enough of their courage to hit on them but were quickly chased away by Eric. Once they had gotten drunk as they could, Eric stared at the alcohol in the liquor glasses and asked, “I understand Mark’s actions, he should be depressed right now. But why on earth are you following suit, Jackson? You’d usually be high by now, with one woman on each side.”

Jackson chuckled, “Can’t I keep Mark company? It’s not appropriate to get high when my brother is frustrated. We’re only here to drink with him. Quit trying to make gossip out of me.”

Mark glanced at Jackson but did not call him out. One thing was certain — Jackson was about to turn over a new leaf.