Dangerous Love: You Are My One and Only Bride novel Chapter 1707

When dinner was ready, Mark tactfully told Smore to get his mother. With Smore taking up this quest, he was not the slightest bit worried that Arianne might not want to come out.

Reality proved him right. Defenseless against Smore’s surfeit of Cute Tactics—babyish singing, dancing, all things an adorable toddler does—Arianne subsequently opened the door and came out. When her eyes met the smugness and provocative beckoning in his, she retaliated by eye-rolling in his face before filtering him out of her sight.

Mary watched them wordlessly, adding no commentary about the whole situation except a tentative question, “Looks like you ain’t going nowhere later, huh? It’s pouring cats and dogs out there.”

Mark nodded. “You’re right; I’m bound. It’s pouring.”

Arianne was not going to believe that excuse in a million years, so she turned to the window and looked on skeptically—and realized that they were right! For some reason, a downpour had loomed over them since she-had-no-idea-when. But wasn’t the weather just a few minutes before this all bright and peachy? What sort of coincidence was this?

“You drove all the way here, genius. It’s not like you’re gonna get wet,” she said, deadpanned. “You’ll only need to walk a few steps at most; use an umbrella, for God’s sake. Aren’t you the busiest man alive? Wouldn’t want us plebeians squandering a second more of your precious time—you’re welcome to leave after dinner.”

Mark pretended to misunderstand her insinuation. “Hmm? Oh, I’m not busy at all tonight. I’m in no rush to leave.”

Arianne did not try to mince her words anymore. “You’ve got your spacious luxury estate waiting at home, don’t you? A crappy shack like this is too below your impeccable high standards in comparison!” she mocked. “If you insist on not leaving, then have fun sleeping on the couch. It’s all yours.”

Mark turned to Smore. “Hey, little man, this house is yours, isn’t it? Would you like your dad to stay?”

If something felt weird, then it must really be weird! Arianne was sure of it. He must have done something behind her back!

After dinner’s clean-up, Mary took Smore with her and went to sleep, leaving just Mark and Arianne in the room. That was when Mark finally dropped his erstwhile flippant act and leaned closer to her. “Hey, what has really got into you? You cannot possibly be enraged without rhyme or reason.”

Arianne was quiet for a second before she decided. “Why were you asleep when Tiffie called you? What were you up to last night? I know you well enough to know that you don’t do catnaps. These days, you leave the office immediately after work with this excuse of being super-busy—like, what’s keeping you busy, huh? Are you really so busy that you don’t have time for Smore anymore? At least it used to be because someone was stopping you from coming. But there’s no excuse now, is there? This is just you, not caring at all. Look, I’m not at all obsessed with resuming our marriage, okay? I just think Smore can’t grow up without love from his father, so you should, at the very least, keep him company more often.”

Mark finally understood her. “…That’s why? This is the reason? God, you’re overthinking. I might have gone out of the company after work, but I’ve always stayed at home. I haven’t gone out anywhere at all. I’ll admit, there has been something occupying my time lately, but I did make an effort to visit you and Smore, didn’t I? As for the naps… I haven’t been sleeping very well these nights, so I guess I’ve been compensating for that through oversleeping. But how on Earth did you come to those conclusions? You weren’t thinking about something salacious, were you? Well, if you find it hard to believe, you’re welcome to check security footage from Henry’s side. See if I’ve been spending my time outside.”