Daughter-in-law Strikes Harder

The car pulled in front of the huge art gallery that was Aria’s destination, as she stepped out immediately and made her way to the gate.

When she was about to be thoroughly questioned at the gate the normal way they usually did to visitors, Aria used her affluence as Dalton’s wife and even asked the people there to confirm it.

They apologized for making her wait, and informed her that the head of the gallery was out of seat. Aria just told them that she wanted to take a look at some art, especially the ones from the last exhibition that she was unable to attend.

As she made her way into the building, her mind remained so restless and she wondered what she was really going to do inside the gallery.

There was nothing that she was most thankful for, than the fact that she would not have to see Eva whom she usually never spoke to.

She was the most aloof of all of them, cold and impassive, which usually made Aria pissed anytime she saw her. Even if Dalton was always the same way with people, it was more comfortable with him.

They had never spoken to one another on a personal note, except the day that they met at the stairs. And for the masked dancer suddenly asking her to come to Eva’s own company, was really something she should have questioned even if she didn’t know the person.

Yet, in search of answers and clues to the incidents that had been surrounding her, she had no choice but to obey instructions even if she hated the idea of it.

There were quite a number of staff that were moving around since it was just time after lunch, into their offices or directing people that had come to watch the arts there. However, the number of people that were present around that hour were really low, compared to what Aria would have expected to see.

After she had moved around for a while in confusion of what to do next, she pulled out the new phone that she had just purchased on her way and logged into her email account immediately.

Aria messaged the dancer again, inquiring about what she was trying to make her know, as she sauntered to the second stairs to see the arts that were displayed there.

It was quite a show of different sculptured art works that were mounted in different positions, as the pieces fascinated Aria, who had never had chances to enjoy shows like that before. There were so many things that she had never gotten to do in her life, and it probably had not bothered her until her present moment.

Forgetting what she really was there for, Aria moved to the third floor of the ML gallery which had its walls covered with art. There were beautiful paintings and murals, which made her feel so much better by looking at them.

Into another space on the same floor, were different mosaic pieces, pottery and other forms of art found in another room. It really made Aria feel glad.

It was when her phone dinged aloud from a notification alert, that she realized that she had spent quality time getting lost in the pieces of arts without realizing. It was MAS and she had replied to her.

‘Try to think and look for every clue.’ she texted, which made Aria’s eyes lit up in irritation of what the reply turned out to be.

“Can you imagine this brat just telling me to look for clues? Something like searching for a needle in the ocean,” Aria hissed exasperatedly, and went downstairs again to check every part of the gallery.

She watched around the surroundings and moved to see if there was anything conspicuous, but everything seemed all normal and fine except that the place seemed awfully quiet.

Back into the building again, she tried to read the meaning to every art piece that she could, wondering how it would provide answers to finding out the person that had been making her life miserable. After a while, she tried to reason again.

‘What if someone was just intentionally playing pranks on her to make her look insane and hallucinogenic? At least that was what Dalton thought of her already.’

Aria just decided to take a look at some of the arts before she left, because the only thing that had been fun for her since she had been looking for cluelessness. She understood the messages that the work of arts were communicating, and could relate with some of them. They brought back memories of when she was an artist.

She had painted only one painting in her life that had the chance to be auctioned, which was placed on high value because of Dalton even if he ended up pissing him off anyway. And right there, she remembered that Alex had brought her painting to the ML gallery instead of throwing it out.

Quickly, she picked up her pace and went back to the third floor where there were art paintings, and checked to see if her own was there. When she found out that she couldn’t find it, she moved to the fourth floor which was the last to check for anything positive, but most of the doors in there were locked.

The only one that was opened had art paintings in them too, and they were tagged the most expensive arts in the gallery. She checked to see if it was there too, but there was nothing that resembled her own painting.

With the assumption that someone must have bought it or something, Aria rushed down the stairs in happiness to check with the manager of the art gallery.

After she had spent her time describing the art piece extensively, one of the workers there finally recognized the painting and said that she was really amazed that such a piece was bought at that price.

But then she said that she didn’t remember anyone buying it, because most expensive artworks were not usually sold except on a few occasions. And that they had not not sold any art piece of such recently.

It made Aria wonder what could be happening, as she wondered if there were any possible places that the piece could be. The lady informed her that she must have seen most of their art pieces up there, and that there was no more except it was in the boss’s office.

“And it cannot be there either, because Eva never hangs any painting in her office. Nothing attractive,” the manager said and rolled her eyes as she focused on what she was doing initially, like she was talking out of spite and hatred for her boss.

Aria went back to the stairs to search for the painting, and sent another email to the masked dancer to confirm if that was what she meant. From the exhibition rooms, Aria suddenly had a clue and ran down the stairs to get out of the building.

She had seen some things packed to the side of the building when she had gone out before, and they looked like pieces of condemned artwork packed up in a spot for recycling. There was no reason for her artwork to be there anyway, but she suspected it could be there probably because of Eva’s resentment for her.

‘None of them had really liked her that much anyway.’

Without minding her pretty dress, Aria pulled off the heels she was wearing as her feet were hurting already, as she walked over to see if her suspicions were right. She rummaged carefully through the broken pieces, and fading arts to check if hers was there as the sky got darker.

After minutes of checking and checking as it was already evening, something familiar finally caught her eyes under the second luggage. It was definitely her piece, and she recognized the luxurious brand of canvas she had used.

Her heart shattered to see the painting damaged already, as she turned it from the back that was facing her to see how much had been done to the surface. She was shocked beyond her bones by what she saw, and she had to flutter her eyes severally to be sure that she was really not hallucinating.

On the painting itself were words written in red paint, and it read DIE! DIE!! DIE!!!. It made her really shocked about what could be happening, and why someone would damage her painting in that manner. It wasn’t only damaged, but evil words were written in it.Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.

She was still trying to fathom the situation of what was going on, as she slowly turned away from the place and walked back with the painting in her hand into the building with a shuddering body. That was when she realized that the workers had all closed from work, when she checked to see that time really flew so fast.

As she turned around the first floor in confusion and weakness of the body with the painting still with her, something suddenly rolled inside to the place she was standing and a shadow flew by after locking the door.

She made to run towards the stairs for safety, when she realized that something had been disseminated beside her. But it was too late already, as the gas had started to work immediately in her system and rendered her weak on the spot.

It was choking her, and contaminating the blood in her body through breathing.

‘Maybe death would be real this one time, and she would finally rest in peace. But who would take care of Ariana?’