Daughter-in-law Strikes Harder

Stacks of photos laid on the office table where Dalton sat behind, in which he seemed not to mind as he checked out some business proposals on the tablet he was holding.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

He wanted to act like he didn’t even care at all about it, but it was almost too impossible to ignore because he did really feel bothered.

“Mrs. Miller had traveled long miles to an orphanage today. She did nothing much but tour around and had a talk with the manager there, spending approximately an hour and half,” Alex reported. That has been his new job for like couples of days watching Aria, and he totally hated it.

Dalton’s gaze fell on the photos which had Aria in every one of them, dressed in the same outfit at different locations and time. She looked so alluring even from the pictures, that it felt like she had not always been that radiating until now.

No one noticed the sick clothes she wore in the past and boring aura she gave, but could definitely not help but take another glance at her state of entirety.

“She proceeded to the mall with a black card, bought a lot of goods and spent approximately…”

“Anything out of the ordinary?” He asked grumpily.

It was irritating to hear Alex drag out the reports, by telling him everything that had happened in perfect order. Knowing Aria didn’t have anything sneaky up to her sleeves, was a way to get rid of the unnecessary bother he suddenly developed.

“No, sir. Not at all,” he answered immediately.

Alex really hoped Dalton would not ask him questions like, where Aria had seen the black card she used at the mall to purchase the countless luxurious items that were packaged. His boss sometimes asked stupid and already known questions, just to frustrate his thinking and his efficiency as a capable assistant.

Alex further dropped two photos that had the image of a girl in both, who sat in the park as she smiled happily in the pictures, “This is one of the children that lives at the orphanage. Her name is Anna, and I think Mrs. Miller is more involved with her. She has a pulmonary disease,” He explained.

“You think?!” Dalton questioned, almost yelling with a very pissed off tone.

Everything that centered around Aria seemed to stress him more than usual these days.

“She has a connection. Sir. We will get more information about that.

~-•-~ ~-•-~

Sipping gently on her the iced coffee she had ordered from the counter, Aria watched the outside view of the cafe she was sitting in through the translucent glass walls. Her right hand instinctively dropped the cup of iced coffee, when she heard her phone ringing from the bag she put on the empty chair opposite her.

Her mood switched abruptly immediately she brought out the phone from the bag, and saw the name of the person that was displayed as the caller. It was so infuriating for her to see him call her phone again, after she had put him on voicemail for longer than she could even remember.

‘What could he want to say now? Shamelessly demean his daughter? She could make sure to serve him his piece of cake so clean cut.’

She wanted to block his number to put an end to his influence on her mood for good, but had a change of mind just at the moment to do something satisfying.

On picking the call, she placed it inches away from her ear on the farthest part of the table, in case he yelled first before he would rant noisily. Prevention was better than cure.

“Are you out of your mind? Have you been ghosting and ignoring me for days now? What was all that news about you requesting for a divorce without informing me? Do you know who you are playing with, Aria?!” He went on and on in fury, ready to tear Aria into pieces with his words like he had always done. He couldn’t not believe where she had the nerves to even do that.

Ignore him?

“I guess your source would have informed you about the latter too. And why are you so worked up about my divorce? Are you the one that is married?” She sassed irritatedly, as she picked up her phone from the table and brought it close to her ear, so as not to distract the people that were around her too.

Her eyes watched her beautifully polished nails in admiration as she smirked, leaving Mr. Hamilton in a state of shock. He almost gasped when he heard her manner of speaking, as he checked the phone caller again to be sure if he was really talking to Aria.

She could feel that he wasn’t even breathing normally because of his worked up situation, which made her so glad that she had made him dumbstruck to words.

“Do you know who you are talking to? Have you lost your mind, you stupid brat?!” He yelled, making her squint slightly to the left because of the sudden loudness of his voice.

She took the phone away from her ear again and hissed, as she returned back to the initial position and used an earpod instead.

“Save your tears for another day, Mr. Hamilton. I do not have a stinky ass father, who uses his daughter for his own greedy gains. And from now henceforth, delete my name from your mouth. I’ll meet you in jail!” She hit hard against him, words that was most polite to use.

“You must be drunk! Bitch. You have forgotten who your father is. You would not dare speak to me like…..”

“I would appreciate it if you never called ever again, else, I am suing for child trafficking, child violation right and harm to mental health of me!” she cut into his words, and ended the call immediately.

She immediately blocked his phone number in every way, from being unable to call or even text her. He had done too much already.

Mr. Hamilton had always been a possessive and controlling father in Aria’s life, ever since she had grown in her teenage years as a young child.

Knowing fully well that he could get her to do anything because of her soft heart, he isolated her from meeting friends by homeschooling and taking online courses.

Once she was of age, he always tried to set her up with wealthy men, or mafias who could pay the price well for getting married to her beautiful and pure self.

She had never disobeyed what he wanted, because doing that would only call on trouble for her which was never the solution. He had her movements restricted and her entire life monitored, making the young lady confined to a limited opening about the world.

And just one day out of the blues without prior notice, he handed her over to Mr. Mark Miller who was very interested in her humbleness and dignified behavior. The old billionaire believed that a young and beautiful soul like herself, would be the perfect placate for his tyrant and arrogant grandson.

In his own opinion, she was going to be better than the spoiled and potential elite daughters, who were mostly being pushed for their parents’ desires or theirs.

That was also when he made a contract personally for Dalton that if he could stay in the marriage for three years, he would give to him every one of his left possessions to make him acquire the greatest height ever gained.

The old man believed that was enough time for him to get to know her true nature, and fall in love with her gentle character and good person nature.

Despite Aria’s pleas not to get into a loveless marriage, and considering the fact that she was already in love with someone else, her father had arrogantly pushed her into marriage and threatened to break her, if she ruined his plans of becoming a wealthy in-law.

When the marriage became hard and dreadful for her in the first months of living in the mansion, she told him about how terrifying the experience was which even resulted into a more emotional drain from her father.

He had cursed and blamed her for being an irresponsible and dull-spirited wife, when she could let go of the boring and tactless way of life.

“I would hate you too, if my daughter-in-law acted that way,” he had taunted her painfully.

She could not even imagine how others would treat her well and love her, if her own father never even did wholeheartedly and just treated her as an object.

She certainly was thinking of paying him back bitterly in his own coins, but not until after she was done making Dalton, Mrs. Eleanor and her daughters, miserable.

The first step was to shake the best reputation they have built for years, which would require so many variables put in place to make a perfect puzzle.

It was never going to be easy at all because the Millers could easily control the media, without having to bat an eyelash.

She needed better strategies to carry out her plans that were still in thought but before that, she planned to drive Dalton mad and crazy enough to want to divorce her so much. Then she would reject his offer to divorce finally, and drain the life out of everyone.