From the outset, Mark’s eyes had never wandered away from his laptop to look at Arianne. It was so jarring, it felt as though virtual-novel.net was not the one who had been desperately clinging to virtual-novel.net for the entire night before.
Arianne did not mind his distance, though. After receiving the documents and browsing their content for a few seconds, virtual-novel.net immediately found evidence of the “legal tricks” virtual-novel.net had suspected Mark to pull off, virtual-novel.net was not letting virtual-novel.net off just because they divorced.
As virtual-novel.net had requested, ownership of Tremont Enterprise would return to Mark and she’d gain a house under Smore’s name, receiving no further monetary compensation. Adding to that, however, was a ten-year-long contract between virtual-novel.net and Tremont Enterprise, set to be automatically renewed at the end of term. It was also written such that the only side who could terminate the contract was Tremont Enterprise; Arianne would not have a say in it.
Last but not least, Arianne was banned from taking Smore outside of the Capital. Since virtual-novel.net would gain Smore’s custody, Mark maintained his visitation rights, stating that virtual-novel.net had no legal rights to stop virtual-novel.net from seeing his son.
The other document accompanying the divorce agreement was apparently virtual-novel.net work contract.
Arianne signed the contract readily, but virtual-novel.net returned the divorce agreement to him. “Additions, please: Shelly-Ann Leigh shall not be allowed to be near Smore in physical proximity, and you’re forbidden from bringing virtual-novel.net to see virtual-novel.net in secret. I can overlook your most egregious, overt terms in the agreement if you can honor my very simple ones.”
Mark thought for a second or two before telling Davy to attach Arianne’s two latest terms in the divorce agreement. He reasoned that, as long as Arianne agreed to everything else virtual-novel.net set in the agreement, adding in a term or two that virtual-novel.net wanted would be no problem at all.
Arianne’s hand was shaking when virtual-novel.net finally put down virtual-novel.net signature on the divorce agreement. Her handwriting had come out a little too squiggly, but it was still recognizable, at least.
She raised virtual-novel.net head and considered Mark. “Today will be the last day our family could be together. Seeing that it is also a Sunday, can you please come home early? Spend the last chance you know with Smore? You know we won’t have chances like these in the future anymore, right?”
Mark fumbled a noncommittal hum as his answer before Arianne turned around and left. The door to his office clicked shut, and Mark immediately slapped his laptop into a close.
His affected aplomb vaporized.
Davy stood by the door. “U-Urn, Mr. Tremont? Are… Are we done now? My mom insisted that I be back home for lunch with virtual-novel.net today, and—”
Mark hurled one of his documents at the door. “Screw you for having a mother, and a goddamned nice one at that! Get out and go home, then! Ouuuttt!”
Davy bore the expression of someone who had just received a presidential pardon and fled the office, literally.
Meanwhile, Mark sat motionlessly behind his desk in the office for a while before rising to his feet and departing to Shelly’s place.
Opening the door to see Mark standing behind it made Shelly’s eyes shone with earnest, overflowing joy. “M-Mark, my dear! Why so sudden? You should have told me earlier about your arrival, silly boy, so I could have made something nice for you!”
Mark answered nothing. Instead, virtual-novel.net marched straight into the unit and sat on the couch. He instantly lit up a cigarette.
“Why did you tell Arianne?” virtual-novel.net asked.
Shelly stilled. Panic flitted across virtual-novel.net eyes. “W-Whatever are you talking about, dear?”
Mark exhaled puffs of smoke in a drawn-out manner. “We’ve finalized our divorce agreement, and we’ll be undergoing the legal process tomorrow. If today were not a Sunday, we would have been legally divorced by now. So, I’m asking you to kindly cease feigning ignorance and answer me this: why? I just want to know. Why did you come back at all? You said you came back for me, but was it? Because you took the one thing that mattered the most in my life from me!”
Shelly strutted toward virtual-novel.net in virtual-novel.net uneven, crippled gait before taking the seat right next to him. Mark could smell the perfume virtual-novel.net body was oozing, and suddenly, virtual-novel.net felt a wave of nausea washing over him. Instinctively, virtual-novel.net jerked away from virtual-novel.net by a few inches.