Dangerous Love: You Are My One and Only Bride novel Chapter 1345

The party’s attention had turned to the stairs. A feminine silhouette crossed into their line of sight, her hair disheveled and blocking half of her face.

But Arianne knew who she was. It was Janice Bell—again.

The first thing that came to Arianne’s mind was her annoyance at meeting that woman yet again. But when she noticed the blue-black spot at the corner of Janice’s lips, a new understanding—that things might not be as simple as they were last time—dawned on her.

Janice’s injuries, barefaced as they were, prompted Seaton to drag the strange man upstairs by the collar, his well-maintained image abandoned in the midst of his fury.

No one knew what happened next up there, as Seaton had not emerged since then. Quickly, whispers began to fill the hall.

Janice remained still on the stairs. Even when the guests murmured among themselves, stealing glances and pointing fingers, she stood as wooden as a marionette, her unblinking eyes trained on Mark, as though they were never going to move away from him.

Thanks to the unknown party-pooper, the evening was over sooner than planned.

En route to the Tremont Estate, Arianne noticed that Mark was still wearing his frosty glare from the party. Gingerly, she tried to soothe him.

“Hey now, don’t be mad with Melanie, okay? She only said it out of goodwill and decorum. It was nothing malicious—certainly not enough to enrage you for real, right…?”

“No, it hasn’t reached that level yet,” Mark replied flatly. “I just hate seeing Alejandro’s stupid face.”

Arianne closed her hands around his. “Hate the man, but don’t hate his poor wife, okay? Melanie’s a very decent woman—she isn’t Alejandro. She doesn’t deserve your ire. And hey! It was supposed to be a fun gathering between old friends, wasn’t it? Look alive, Mark!”

Arianne’s double-whammy mollification tactic—using both reason and emotional appeal—softened Mark enough to crack out a forced smile. “I’m smiling now, okay? Happy?”

His softened attitude emboldened Arianne enough to ask, “Why was Janice there in his house? What happened to her? And what’s Seaton’s relationship with that weirdo?”

Mark came up to her from behind and wrapped his arms around her curvaceous waist. “The problem is, I don’t want to cool down…”

Arianne could feel her body suddenly weakening. “C-Could you at least wait until I shower? Let me change into a fresh set of clothing. It’s not very comfortable to do it in an evening dress—”

He scooped her up into his arm anyway.

“No, I can’t wait any longer! That little rascal finally isn’t here anymore! I can go wild and play harder now, can’t I? Heh, this evening dress is perfect for you. So perfect, in fact, watching you in it feels…”

The gale of yet another autumn storm bellowed outside the window. Heavy raindrops fell onto the windowpanes, eliciting a sonorous symphony of pitter-patters in sync with the creaking bed on the other side of the window.

A while later, the storm stopped, and Mark went into the shower. Arianne, worried that the thunder might have jolted Smore from sleep, went into the nursery several times, her heart only relieved when she saw that her son appeared to be fine.