Chapter 34: Arianna, I Am So Disappointed
She rolled her eyes. This was the last thing she wanted to do, but she knew they would bother her about it if she did not go. With a sigh, she replied to the text message and went and prepared herself a hot bath.
Arianna was so relaxed that she nearly fell asleep in the water. She lost track of time and had to rush to get ready. The restaurant they were going to was very high-end, so Arianna wore a look that she would usually save for Travis.
At the restaurant, Arianna had a salad and some sparkling water. She remained quiet as the women gushed about office gossip and their personal lives. These topics of conversation never interested Arianna.
She excused herself from making a phone call in the hallway, but she simply used this as a reason to leave the table and get some peace. However, it was the opposite of peace that found her in the hall.
As Arianna leaned against the wall and was taking deep breaths, Travis Cooper casually walked by her. Though his eyes flickered towards her, he did not break his stride or turn his body. He really was a professional actor.
After receiving his note, it turned out that he wanted to have some wine with her at a lounge bar. Arianna figured she might as well get their meeting out of the way for the week.
The bottle he chose was an expensive red wine with a smooth texture and bitter taste. Arianna drank one glass after another, letting him refill it repeatedly.
Arianna quickly became drunk. She felt like she didn’t have control of her limbs, and the room was spinning.NôvelDrama.Org owns © this.
She probably would have panicked on other occasions, but when she was with Travis, she knew her situation couldn’t get worse. However, Arianna also knew that she was safe.
Arianna closed her eyes and leaned back in the chair. She was glad that Travis didn’t require her to be talkative. She had lost her sense of reality at this point.
When she woke up, she found herself lying naked d in Travis’s bed and had a pounding headache. He certainly would not let her go so easily, so Arianna bit her tongue as she tried to endure her headache and stomach ache while accepting his aggression.
However, she couldn’t hold it back anymore and threw up on the bed. Travis had suspected she was going to be sick and dodged the vomit just in time.
Though she felt good about vomiting on his bed, she was still embarrassed. Arianna did not want to recall the evening. She never expected the night to be re-presented to her by her grandfather in such a way.
Franco Sanchez, once so calm and poised, could not hide his trembling voice as he said, “Arianna, if the result of my investigation was correct, the owner of this car is Travis Cooper. Please swear on my remaining years and tell me that you do not know this guy and you have nothing to do with him.”
Arianna could see the tears welling up in her grandfather’s eyes.
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At the sound of his request, Arianna remembered a childhood experience. When she was walking in the woods, the winds suddenly began to rage, and dark clouds quickly rolled in. She was in the middle of nowhere and could not find a way to escape. Even though panic spread through her body, all she could do was wait for the storm to arrive.
Arianna felt like she was having the same experience now. The anger and frustration were raging in her grandfather’s eyes, and she could not contest a single word. The tears she thought she saw in his eyes were made up by her imagination. Her ears started to buzz, and she didn’t know what to say.
“Do you have any idea who he is and what this means?”
She lowered her head. She did not dare to lie to her grandfather.
“Ah, so you do know. His mother basically killed your uncle. And your own parents died because of him. You knew this all along, yet you still kept his company. Arianna, I am so disappointed.”
“Grandpa, it’s not like that….” She sounded like there was a fishbone jammed in her throat. She struggled to pronounce each word.
“Not like that? So your uncle didn’t die because of his mother? Your father didn’t die because of him? And yet, you are so content to be with him?”
Her grandfather was outraged. Arianna could see more lightning flashing in his eyes.
He had always been kind and polished before her, but that did not mean she had never seen his angry side. Franco Sanchez was not an easily irritated man; however, when he was livid, his fury could burn down a forest.
But he was right about the facts.
The legendary uncle that Arianna had never met was said to be composed of only exceptional qualities and bore all hopes from her grandfather. He died very young. The only stain on his short life was said to be falling in love with a beautiful but vicious woman. He tried to elope with the woman when the family opposed their relationship. And when she refused him, he was driven to suicide.
Arianna’s grandfather mourned the loss of his son. He tried any method to seek revenge on the woman and everyone around her. He was a nightmare.
And Arianna’s father died because a business deal went south. The Sanchez Group’s existence was embedded in the deal, so her father was forced to go to a meeting in the middle of the night. He and his driver died in a car crash on a muddy mountain road. They were going to meet with the members of Transcendent Jewels.
When Arianna put all the pieces of the story together, she felt sadness rather than hatred. As a man sows, he shall reap.
Her uncle’s death sounded more like an accident in Arianna’s mind. That woman may have truly loved him at a time, or maybe she was taking advantage of him, but she did not seem like she meant to harm him. However, her grandfather tried every measure to hurt the woman.