A Ruling Passion – Chapter 1543

Mark let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, so that’s why! In that case, it’s fine. Go ahead and rest. I’ll be off to work.”

Everything added up, Shelly’s fib about her buddy-buddy relationship with his mother excluded, of course. Everything else made enough sense, and if Mark was being honest, he did not care to dive deep into the age-old drama between his mother and his aunt. Whatever that was, it was a feud of a generation before him. There was no need to drag it out from under the dust.

Besides, what sort of catastrophic enmity could possibly be bred between an ordinary pair of sisters like them?

En route to the Tremont Tower, Arianne asked while in the car, “So, what did your aunt tell you? If it involves anything that I’m not supposed to hear, you could skip that part.”

Mark turned to face her. “Why do you think there’ll be such a thing? You’re entitled to hear everything, Arianne. Anyway, it turns out that her capriciousness and predisposition for extreme actions are all products of her past trauma. She’s legitimately mentally-unwell, so I’ve left Brian to drive her to the therapist today. The gist? Her actions are born out of her mental illness. She also wanted you to know she’s sorry she can’t really control her behavior. I honestly don’t know just what sort of hellish nightmare her last marriage was, but to warp her mind to this degree alone is pretty... well, spine-chilling,” Mark recounted, “And finally, the wedding photo. She destroyed it out of an intense grudge toward my father and pity for my mother’s fate. It’s why she couldn’t stand looking at a piece of memorabilia that reminded her of their union.”