Daughter-in-law Strikes Harder

Right from the elevated height where he was standing firmly, Collin could watch the night beauty of the entire city light up, through the glass made walls of the building that he was gazing through.

Exposed to the cold air that swerved around the atmosphere in the room, was his bare chest that the buttoned black shirt that he was putting on barely covered.

His left fingers were wrapped around the stem of the wine glass he had in his hand, as he slowly sipped on the contents that were in the glass. The meeting he had earlier in the day had occupied a large part of his heart, that he could barely concentrate on his own personal work throughout the remaining hours of the day.

It was barely possible to even be in the right state of mind, just after meeting the person he had yearned to see for so long. He was absolutely stunned when he watched her appear before him, which was much different from anything he had ever seen on her in the past. His mind was totally blown away.

However, the thought that something was certainly not right with her seemed to bother his mind, even if she had appeared in the most luxurious dress, matching shoes and even in a mind blowing car. It portrayed the high standard of life that she seemed to be living, even without uttering any word about her financial status to him.

While watching with so much keen interest her pretty features throughout their discussion, Collin could notice the conscious fact of her eyes wandering around them constantly.

It was as though she was looking around for someone she was expecting, or hoping not to meet anyone that she would not expect. He could not really understand what it was all about.

All he could just point out was that so much had changed about her, but he couldn’t understand what or why she had changed that much. She still had her usual tight-lipped personality and kept up with it during their conversation, but he could see deep scantiness in her eyes that was far different from her past self.

She didn’t go into details about her present life that told if she was married, or answered the question if she had fulfilled her dreams. The most reasonable thing she had given him an answer to, and that he could pick out from the entire conversation was, “I have a different dream now, and it is quite difficult and demanding to achieve. In the worst case, it is pure endangerment.”© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

There was tension and heaviness in her voice as she spoke, that he knew that it was more than just wanting to achieve something. It seemed more like some kind of some desperate quest, that she really had to accomplish no matter what. He could not even understand or comprehend properly in his head.

‘Why would someone go ahead and choose a dream that would endanger their lives in any way or another? Just what was going on in her life that was bent on breaking her so much?’

He could not also explain the look she had in her eyes and her stiff laughter, neither could he fathom what it was all about.

If it was pain, dejection, desperation, loneliness that had made her look that way. His heart wasn’t at rest at all. The only way was for them to meet again, and discuss more beyond what they had talked about.

But first, he needed to call someone he knew and trusted, to help him run a research on some few things. If there were no details about her life and how she had lived for three years, then he needed to start doing more digging than he had hoped to do. In the manner that it would not become a crime, or anger her if she ever found out about it.

‘Had she by any chance stained her hands with something heinous?’

~•`•~ ~•`•~

“And how many times do I have to tell you that the mere grazing of our lips disgusts me, to the extent that it crawls up to my nerves? Do you not get it, billionaire?!” Aria yelled so derisively at him, and gave him a wild backward push with the last bit of strength that was left in her.

Although it didn’t do much because of his manly body frame, it passed the information that she was really pissed off by what he did. He began to wonder if something was wrong with her sexuality, that no one had ever told him about initially before they got married.

‘What kind of woman was she? Never in his life had he heard that someone would be disgusted by a kiss? Had he not studied humans or women enough to know their deceitful nature?’

“And do you think I am doing this out of affection? I am curious to know why I, as a man, do not affect you! Are you gay?!” He questioned in a deadpan voice, that had begun to show how ruined his good mood was getting.

There was no way he was going to believe that bullshit of hers, that she was not in any way attracted to him since their marriage.

“I, do, not, care, Mr billionaire. I am now very much interested in men, even if I had not really been in the past before this marriage. And, I would end up dating as many as I can, after I get out of this wicked family. I will cover up every good thing that I had failed to see until now. Now if you don’t mind, I can gladly send the divorce papers again by tomorrow, now that you know that this marriage is not even worth anything.”

Dalton had given a try to confirm if she was actually kidding and putting on a guise, but she really was totally hellbent on what she had told him before, which made him almost look stupid for thinking he would get her to respond to him.

That would really be a failure on his side, if he failed to smite the only one person who had the opportunity to get to him so closely. No woman had treated him in that way before.

‘Wait, was she gay before and now interested in men? What did she mean by she wasn’t interested in men in the past? Why was getting to know her more complicated than he could have ever imagined? He had given her a chance to have a close contact with him, and yet she was what? Disgusted by his touch? He would rather go and cover himself up under the sand.’

Alex could not understand what had gotten Dalton so mad and raged, ever since he left Aria’s room even with almost thirty minutes passed.

He had made sure to order maids to take every delicacy and treat that she would like to her room, and also instructed them according to Dalton’s orders that she must eat a handful before they would leave.

‘It showed that he still cared about her well-being, but what could she have said or done to rile him that much? And why was he suddenly caring so much about her?’

The next morning at the mansion was so cold and ghost-like with barely a sound around, with only the maids working around the mansion in places they were assigned to.

Alex had a rather peaceful morning when he went to Dalton’s room, to see him fully dressed for work without having anything to complain about. It was almost like it was back to the old times, when the atmosphere was too rigid with no drama at all.

Alex could have thought that Dalton’s anger had ended with Aria’s matter the previous day, as he drove the car with him sitting at the back seat straight to the company.

He realized that he was totally mistaken the moment Dalton raised his gaze from his phone, that he had been staring at for about twenty minutes which was very unusual.

“Summon Mrs. Miller by evening today, to the Aldertano towel today. Purchase and send to her, the limited edition of dress that came into the country today, with matching heels and jewelries,” Dalton instructed him, while focusing intently on what he was doing on the phone.

He could not believe that he had texted Aria’s number to know if the doctor had arrived at the mansion, but she replied to him saying she did know who he was, and that she does not receive text messages from strangers. She dared to call him a stranger while sitting comfortably in his mansion.

His eyes kept on twitching in boiling fury of his blood, as he watched the black coloured typed letters that she had sent back to him, appear in form of text to his phone, ‘I do not consider you a member of my family or someone I know, so I have definitely deleted your number.’

The confused assistant knew that he had never seen his boss in that manner, while typing on his phone for more than five minutes without any reason for it.

He could not also understand why Dalton would want to invite his wife to the most expensive sight towel, and make sure she wore extremely luxurious accessories that were worth millions of dollars.

‘He also seemed so serious with the phone he was pressing on. What was really happening? Was there something that Dalton was not telling him?’

~••|••~

Aria regretted that she had kept her phone near her while painting, only to listen to her phone notification ring so many times like they were musical short clips.

Dalton would have expected her to be in her bedroom as she instructed the maids to make sure, but she ended up bypassing them back to the library where she had an unfinished portrait.

It was a relief that she didn’t find anyone in the kitchen or the passage, when she took the route down to the library without making eye contact with anyone.

She could not allow them to see the ugly bags she had under her eyes, due to lack of sleep throughout the entire night as she was just restless. To make things bad for her, they had taken away every trace of alcohol from her room.

The wine cellar had been locked too because of her, as no one in the family would be able to get something from the room without Dalton’s permission.

And he just had to make things more complicated for her, by stressing the dim eyes that were just supposed to focus her portrait, while texting her nonstop about irrelevant things.

“That fool! He thinks he is doing me good by taking away my drink, then now my eyes will have to be open all night because of that. Even those darn pills do not work!” Aria muttered in aggravation, as she ignored his last text message and switched off the phone. Her headache was going to get worse soon.