Daughter-in-law Strikes Harder

Aria sat still in front of her dresser mirror for many minutes, running a bright red lipstick over her lip over and over again with stopping. Her eyes had wandered away from the mirror and what she was doing, with only her subconsciousness only performing her before action.

She was somewhat lost in the thoughts of what Dalton had said the day before, even if it was not meant to bother her in any way. Though she didn’t read the meaning of it or take his words seriously, her mind kept on flashing back to the brief action and words memory that had taken place in Dalton’s room.

The fact she had kissed him back even when the thought of that used to disgust her before, was a thought on her own to ponder upon. She enjoyed it in a way, even if she hated to admit it. But his words at the ending sounded so sincere, even when she was trying to tell herself that Dalton was not to be trusted.

He had done too many things to hurt her, both voluntarily and involuntarily in many ways. Even through his negligence and the way he had presented her before the family, which made their exploitation and mistreatment of her so easy.

The manner at which he had evidently showed his hatred for both their marriage and her, was what everyone who lived in the mansion saw and could testify strongly to. Then all of a sudden he started caring and minding everything she did to him. It was beyond her to understand the reason.

‘Was he suddenly enamored by a woman who was being constantly rude to him? Or did he have a fetish for women who made everything he planned to do tough? Or was it a plan to make her fall for him, and achieve some kind of superiority over her?’ She definitely could not comprehend no matter how much she thought of it, but she would not give him a chance to get to her with his new silly schemes.

“People do not change that easily. Get a hold of yourself!” Aria snapped herself out with words, and stood up from the chair she was sitting on to change clothes.

She had planned to go to the mall to buy some things for herself, but changed her mind to go for a yoga class instead and then to the gym. Her body and mind had been too weak, and she needed something to help her feel better. At least before things would probably start to fall apart.

In her heart was still the unsettling feeling of the dancer that had texted her, and the fact that she replied to the person with some leading questions. She really hoped that the IT professionals or whatever they called themselves, would not see a big issue to it at all.

If things went wrong and they probably wanted to get rid of her once and for all, they could even connect her to the person she was still trying to get their identity.

Aria knew that they seized her phone in that manner and also checked her room, probably because they were suspecting her involvement with the masked dancer and events. But even if she was, she had some kind of conviction in her heart that Dalton could not get rid of her even if he wanted to.

She knew not the reason why he was still keeping her when she was already acting out of control, but she was strongly sure that he could not just let her go because of something that would surely benefit him. Then if he was going to use her in that way, she would also play him in his own game.

She would remain in the mansion to finish cracking the case with how the incidents against her were connected, while he would get whatever he wanted probably after the marriage would end, because she would make sure they got divorced at the end.

But before then, she would request him to sign the rights of the company he told the press about, and to make her the CEO of the company he promised. It was going to be a win-win situation, and she would get the most of it in every way. If not, she would threaten him, and just with the right thing.

~.. ~..           ~..~..           ~..~..             ~..~..

“Snap out it, Dalton. This is not you and it doesn’t suit you either. Do not stop being selfish like you have always been. That is only what’s right,” her loud fretful voice rang heavily in his head again, as he studied the improvement graphs of his companies stocks for the past months.

His eyes only seemed to be on what Alex expected his focus to be on, but his mind was deeply immersed into another thing which was totally different from office issues. It was the question he asked out of the blue, that made the firm assistant realize that his boss had his mind elsewhere.

“Do you think I am not man enough? Like I lack the real good qualities of a man?” Dalton asked his secretary, with an obvious agenda, to get an honest truth from him.

“I think you are a very capable man, sir. Many ladies would do everything they could to get you into their lives,” Alex answered, omitting the most important word that Dalton would have probably wanted to hear.

His boss was a really impressive and dignified man, but really sucked in human relations that didn’t pertain to his work or business. He didn’t think he could answer honestly. Especially not to Dalton.

Not convinced by the slightest, Dalton continued,” No! Not that. Like a man. Apart from his wealth, looks and power. Is Dalton Miller a good candidate?” He asked again.

On hearing the billionaire’s next question, Alex suddenly became stressed in his heart. He wondered how he was going to place the words rightly, in such a way that Dalton would not end up getting angry at him. It was really difficult to sound politely honest.

“I think, sir, that you do not really have good communication skills as a man to a woman. Patience, understanding and love is, a necessity, in any sailing relationship,” Alex said slowly in an understanding tone so that he would sound really refined, but Dalton’s highbrows furrowed into a displeased one immediately.

“Did I say this was about any relationship?!” He almost yelled.

“I am sorry sir,” he apologized immediately.

“Hmmm,” Dalton cleared his throat again, “If women would really like someone like me. Why then do you think Aria really hates me? I can feel the great rubbing off of disdain from her on me,” he mouthed to himself, which was evident that Alex needed not to utter anything.

“What about the doctor? The one that was going to carry out the test,” Dalton suddenly remembered, after time had passed since he was determined to make Aria take a test.

“Your mother seems to be visiting the doctor again, sir. He had been really busy with her frequent request for diagnosis,” Alex explained.

“Mother? What is that for? I thought she had her own doctor,” Dalton paused for a while to think, “And they are actually the major reasons why Aria had become like this,” he stated, like he did not play a big role in the entire issue.

“Should I look into another doctor…..”

“Wait. When did Aria’s sudden change start?” Dalton turned to Alex, when that question he had never put much mind into occurred to him.

“The week you came back from the Singapore board meeting. That was…. A week after the family was on a picnic sir,” Alex tried to recollect really fast.

“Did they do anything really bad to her? Or did she see something that started giving her thoughts of retaliation?” The young billionaire questioned himself, as he pondered on things that had happened after that time.

Talking about the fact that he was on a trip when his family went on a picnic together with her, made him realize that something had probably gone wrong with his family or her. No one said anything to him though.

“She even came back in separate vehicles many hours after they had arrived, and did not come together with them,” Alex informed him.RêAd lat𝙚St chapters at Novel(D)ra/ma.Org Only

“Why are you just telling me that now?!” Dalton demanded. He was getting suddenly furious that he was left out, in whatever situation that had gone on in her life without his knowledge.

“Because you have never been interested, in, Mrs. Miller affairs, sir,” the baffled assistant reminded.

“Find out if anything happened during the trip. With the family too. Especially with her,” Dalton instructed.