Dangerous Love: You Are My One and Only Bride novel Chapter 1832

It had been more than a decade since she was bound to him.

Whether Mark would ever begin the spiral into domestic abuse—Arianne knew from the bottom of her heart.

Comforting Smore later, she started toward the stairs to where Mark was.

The shut door had become less of an entrance to the study, and more an impenetrable stone wall forced between the two of them, separating them—plunging them into oppressive gloom.

Downtrodden, she pushed it open. Her arrival was greeted by a pungent stench of cigarettes. It choked her so hard a fit of coughs began to seize her.

Hearing her sputters, Mark furtively crushed the ember on his cigarette to snuff it out. “Why are you here?” he bristled. “Leave me alone.”

Arianne willed herself to acclimate to the mire without letting out another sputter. “I’m… sorry… I admit… I suspected you… B-But I just want to be… honest with you! I’ve hoped against hope that it isn’t you, and c-compared to my suspicion… the amount of my faith in you is more!” she proclaimed. “So please… Don’t act like this! Y-You’re scaring Smore…!”

Frustration, strewn with guilt, quickly crossed his eyes. “Damn it, you think I’ve wanted that to happen?! If those Rodriguez bastards continue to incessantly vex us, I won’t hold back anymore!” he fumed. “If Mateo Rodriguez turns out too dead to come home, then maybe I should help his idiotic parents reunite with him in the afterlife, then! They’ve clearly branded me as the culprit no matter what, anyway!”

Arianne was just about to counter him when her phone rang again.

She looked up at Mark. Then, instead of walking away, she answered the call right in front of him.