Daughter-in-law Strikes Harder

It was late at night and Aria was standing in the kitchen to make dinner by herself, with every of the maids still cleaning the space flocking around her, to help her pick anything she wanted to make the meal.

Since they had seen how power had changed hands in the house, they could not help but be more respectful to the wife of their boss.

She refused their help to prepare dinner which was different from the food on the menu, that was prepared by the kitchen chefs, and had been served to every member of the family who were present at the table to eat that evening. Her mind often wandered to what the bad guy had said to her earlier.

The tattoo he had on his neck bothered her so much that she took a break after dropping Anna at the hospital, to sketch out the detailing of the inked design in the best way she could.

After she had paid the balance for the job the investigator had done for her, she paid another advance for him to find everything about any gang that had that kind of group symbol.

As she grilled fish in the pan perfectly this time, she boiled some rice in another pot, made salad, and cut fruits into small plates in the exact cooking method she had taken her time to learn on the internet.

She surprisingly enjoyed the cooking more than she ever thought she would, while trying to keep her mind empty inorder to finish her food successfully without choking on it.

She served every food she had made into different plates, and carried the tray alongside with her without allowing the maids to do anything for her.

It bothered her so much. The fact that someone wanted to kill her, but was not executing their plans anywhere in the mansion.

Considering the odds of that particular point and observation, it meant that the person probably had no access to do anything to her in the mansion, or that there was a higher chance that the person was not even someone that associated her with the Miller family.

Her mind went to Damon again. She then speculated that it could not be him, because she would consider the fact that it was not the first attempt made against her. It had been a frequent attempt before Damon even came into the picture. And also for the fact that the bad guy that tried to attack her said “Closest people.”

For a plausible judgment, Damon wasn’t part of the family yet and no one knew that the last daughter of the family was planning to get married to someone, talkless of classifying him as family.

‘Did Ellen know that she heard her conversation with Damon the previous day?’

With so many thoughts, speculations and brain convictions, Aria climbed slowly on the stairs of many steps leading to the main rooms in the house, and there was suddenly a blackout.

She wasn’t startled by it, because she was used to things like that from the past. As she continued to climb the stairs, she could feel some kind of eerie feeling of someone following behind her.

In a state of unrest and lingering stress that Aria’s mental wellness was still engulfed in consistently, she picked at her heels even in the dark state and ran up the stairs immediately.

Her senses alerted the impending danger not caring even if it was her hallucinations, and flew as many steps her legs could fly up to the stairs intersection.

To the right after the intersection, her slippers lost its friction against the floor in an attempt to move quickly, and went into the open door of whatever room she saw open as the lights came on.

And face to face she came to the presence of the man she had not talked to for days, staring directly into her face with an amused expression on his own face.

‘Dammit. How would I get out of this now?’

“And what has the lady of the house come to do in the room, of the man she is about to divorce?” Dalton taunted with his voice, ignoring every pride and ego in him that was holding his mouth tight from saying anything. He instantly changed whenever he was with her.

“Brought you last dinner as being a couple for courtesy,” she shrugged and made her way into his room, not minding whatever could follow after the rash decision.

Her face tried to hide the agitation, that she had been in a few minutes ago that had influenced her decision to enter into his room so as to calm her nerves. She sat on the luxurious chair that matched the perfect design of his room, which was totally different from the setting she had seen the last time she was in there.

“Aria, what is wrong?” Dalton asked the shaken lady that was sitting before him after watching her closely, as she munched carefully on the food that she had brought. He could notice the bandage on the right side of her cheek, and her mind seemed to wander off from what she was eating.

“Nothing. Since when do you even care if something was wrong?” She tried to dissuade him from asking anything further by being nasty, but he was not letting go of what he was so curious about.

“Denying an overt truth, huunhh? Why can you not be true to yourself?” He asked her rashly, so that she would be tempted to talk back and spill what was wrong with her. The issue at the company from earlier was still bothering him, as his eyes darted to the color of her hair even if it was neatly packed.

“You are the one not being true, Dalton. You are not the kind to care or be sympathetic with others,” she fired back.

He walked to where she was standing and tried to yank her dress up, as she guarded against it so sharply with her arm and flung his hand aside, “What the fuck is wrong with you, Dalton?! Are you now a pervert?”

“Do you hurt yourself?” He inquired in frustration, kind of taking her aback by the sudden question he asked her.Nôvel/Dr(a)ma.Org - Content owner.

“And why would you ask me that?”

“You’ve got brutally cut marks and wounds on your thigh. Explain that.”

“So, does that mean it is self harming or whatever you call it? What are you trying to insinuate, Dalton?”

“Where were you today?” He asked again, the so many questions that had been roaming his brain, which needed an immediate answer. Alex had told him she was at the hospital, but Dalton demanded that he looked more into the issue.

“And why do I need to tell you where I was? We live our life separately and have rights to our privacy.”

“Answer me, Aria!”

“Was at the hospital if that is what you needed to hear. Anna needed her checkup! Why do you keep interrogating me? My life is a mess because of your family already!” Aria yelled at him in a livid state, trying as much as possible not to let the outburst of every of her stress and frustration release tears.

“Why are you so concerned about this Anna of a girl? I mean she is just someone you do not know and is from an orphanage.”

“What would you know about that? Your family’s wealth does not even matter because it is going to the wrong places,” she uttered, with a hurt tone that made him divert his questioning to another thing entirely. He hated to see her in distress.

“Why did you come into this room? You are not the kind to set up such cliche settings of last dinner, as married couples that are going to divorce soon.”

“So, you are finally figuring out the kind of person I am. Yeah, I didn’t come for any dinner, and I am leaving right now,” Aria said in anger and made to leave the room at the end of her words, as Dalton’s arm grabbed her waist so fast and pulled her closer to himself. It was now hard to watch her in that kind of messed up position.

“Get your hands off me, Dalton, before I break them!” She threatened.

~••••~. ~••••~.

Dalton, who had decided to miss family dinner the previous night, saw the food that Aria left on the table, and decided to take a bite from the tempting dish.

Not minding his high standards of food and eating, he picked a few pieces of the fish and he totally liked it. From the salad to the rice and fish, he finished the bowl he could never eat on a normal day in minutes.

The next morning was a bright one with Aria sitting in the jacuzzi since the early hours of the morning, to get a sleep because her night was totally restless, and it was difficult to close her eyes all night.

The water shots soothed her body and relieved her tension, even if she could not escape the incessant thoughts that kept invading her brain.

Minutes later, she stepped out of her room in a pants trouser and shirt with a matching bag. She made her way down the stairs and as she looked around, Aria noticed the confusion and disorientation in the mansion which was unlike usual. The rowdiness among the servants was evident, and the angst in the air was palpable.

Entering into the kitchen to make a cup of coffee for herself, Aria heard something that she could grasp immediately the maid said it. She relaxed her body and tried to comprehend the message, to be sure she heard the forbidden word that didn’t sound so believable.

“What happened yesterday?” Her voice found its sound as she turned to the maid, who was cleaning the side that she was standing around, in preparation for the chefs that were going to use the place for food preparation very soon.

“A maid fell and died yesterday,” the terrified lady answered.

“Where did she fall from?”

“We do not know. There was blood everywhere and her head seemed to split open, from the heavy impact of the hard floor.”

“When did that happen and who is she?” Aria asked again, wondering when such a bad incident could have happened.

“Her name is Martha. We saw her on the floor after the blackout.”