Daughter-in-law Strikes Harder

Flashback

Years ago, sometime in winter.

From the uncompleted old house that was covered in dust and surrounded by dirt, a man rushed out of the building with some scrunched-up clothes in his hand. He threw it angrily into the dust at the swing of both hands, as a woman rushed out after him to rescue the luggage from him.

“You should not do this. You shouldn’t split the family like this!” The weak woman tried to make her intentions known so loudly with all her strength, as she held the man tight by the waist in an attempt to beg him.

In anger, he flung her away from his body with disgust, and she fell to the other side immediately. Her body, which would have hit the ground in the rage of his force, was held to pause the arms of her daughter who was in time to hold her tight.

That was how he usually hit her every time she did something displeasing, and had been so violent throughout the years of their marriage. He had never seen anything good about her or the kids, and had made their lives even more miserable in poverty, by gambling with every money they managed to make from working at bars.

The second daughter Ariana couldn’t take his bad attitude of beating their mother and exhausting their money anymore, and she talked back to her father in a very obnoxious manner that drove him crazy. All his attempts to beat get up too failed, because she skillfully dodged every one of the hits.

She had been learning martial arts ever since she turned thirteen, intending to defend her meek sister and mother from their father. But he ended up doing the unthinkable that evening, by throwing both of them out of the house.

“Now, leave with this useless daughter of yours, and do not come back here. I will take mine, you will take yours. I will not raise a bitch and vagabond under my roof!” He raged angrily and threw the last bag he felt was theirs, out of the tiny room they were managing.

“Is she not your daughter? We both gave birth to these girls. Stop trying to separate them,” their mother begged so badly with tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Father, please do not do this. We promise to be obedient from now on,” Aria cried so much as she pleaded with her father, who was not ready to hear anything.

“Do not beg this heartless scoundrel! He wouldn’t listen. His drunk mind is made up. Let us go!” Ariana yelled at her father’s face and glared at him.

“See the bastard you call mine. Just see how crazy she is acting. The only sensible one here is Aria, and she is staying with me,” he declared again with an impassive look, “Enter into the house. Right, now,” he commanded his timid daughter, who had been wailing so profusely.

“Mum, let’s go. We can find a better life, and come back for Aria,” Ariana tried to make their mother leave as fast as they could, knowing that Hamilton could do something crazy if they stayed any longer.

“How would I leave this place without your sister? How?” Catherine cried so profusely again and again while rolling her body to the floor.

“If I come back here to find both of you, I’m setting you ablaze!” Hamilton threatened from where he stood as he came out with a keg of gasoline. Ariana dragged her Mum alongside with her as fast as she could.

The scene of the family’s painful separation played again and again before Aria’s eyes, who was broken to see her father cast her sister and mother away.

She was traumatized by it and became a shadow of herself, while he tried to fit her life into what he called a perfect daughter. He made them move away to finally cut contact with his wife, and changed all their contact information.

Years passed, and the young, vibrant girl who was loved that way by her only family, became the worst version of herself as a result of extreme confinement. Her father wasn’t doing any better to make her life better, and one day she met Damon.

She fell in love with his personality, and kept it a secret from her father. He was a traveler who was always all over the towns, but he stayed around because he seemed to feel something for Aria who was so innocent.

But her father made things even more difficult for her by trying to get married, and her life was falling apart due to depression, fear, and panic disorder. One day, she received a call.

~•~

Aria stared at her sister for a long time when they first met after years had passed, and it was not the one she knew years back. The one she was looking at looked so merciless and brutal, that her eyes were so dark and cold. She couldn’t believe that they would ever meet again, because their father tried his best to make sure they would never connect any longer.Content bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.

Nevertheless, Ariana pulled her into a hug when she saw how hesitant her sister was, and Aria ended up crying so much. It broke her heart so much more, when Ariana informed her that their mother was dead already.

Her world crashed once more.

“How did you find me? Dad made it so hard to do, and we have moved like four times now. We have settled in this town the longest, and this time around has been the….”

“I have my ways, darling. It wasn’t easy finding this place too, because he kept his house rentals and everything confidential. The only mistake he made was not changing your face, and changing names,” Ariana smirked maliciously, as she gulped a drink from the tequila that she had ordered for herself, “How have things been for you?”

“My life has been a mess. Dad has been trying to get me married to whoever would pay the highest bride price. I had to sneak out to come here. Things are so hard,” Aria lamented badly, as she continued to cry nonstop.

“Why are you still the same meek girl, Aria? It does not work for anyone! The world is cold and tough. The moment you let anyone mess up with you, it is over. I wished I fought back at that bastard!” Ariana cussed in anger, as she hit the table in so much anger.

It made Aria shudder in fear to see her sister even more fierce and crazy than she had been.

“I have been seeing some guy though. He is the reason why I have been doing better,” Aria told her sister.

“Guys?” Ariana huffed, “Stop being weak darling. Guys would make your world more terrible,” Ariana frowned deeply with a sneer, seeing how her sister was so vulnerable and so open. She could not believe her ears.

“I might run away from Dad, if he works out things for both of us. But I am really scared.”

“Come with me, then. We can leave this town together right now,” Ariana suggested immediately.

“I can’t,” Aria cried, “He is friends with every drug lord in this place, and knows every broker that takes care of border routes. They would find me out even before I can escape,” Aria explained how dire the situation was, and how far their heartless father was willing to go to make sure she never leaves.

“How much is the highest bidder offering?” Ariana asked.

“A million dollars. It is a crazy amount, and he is so confident that someone would pay that amount of money to take me away. I am so scared that one of those drug lords would change their mind and come for me. I will be as good as dead……” Aria cried again, as she talked so much in fewer minutes than she had ever done with any other person in one year. Her sister was the only person she had spent her best fun life with and shared every one of her secrets with in the past.

“I will get it, and get help from a male friend who will come and pick you up as a bride. We would set you free,” Ariana declared impassively, which made Aria widen her eyes in shock mixed with fear.

“Where would you see such an amount from? And no. You shouldn’t do that. You can never lose that kind of money to that kind of man. He is a beast.”

“I have my ways, darling. He would get the money, but wouldn’t be able to spend it. It would be a failure,” Ariana smirked, assuring her sister.

A few weeks later…….

“I have been trying to get across to you, Aria. What has happened?” Ariana tried not to sound so angry on the phone, as she called her sister who picked up after so many days.

“Ria. Things have gone wrong. Dad wants me to get married to a man that his family is offering even higher. I am doomed. They are setting up an arranged marriage, and I will be married in weeks. What do I do? He has seized everything that I can use to contact anyone, saying I should be getting ready for my new husb…..”

“Wait. What?! Calm down. What are you saying? You are getting married? Calm down, and talk slowly,” Ariana’s voice softened, as she tried to get her sister to talk audibly to her.

“Their family is so powerful and scary. They live in California, and I will be going there. I would become a slave my entire life. Dad is going to……..”

“Who the fuck are you talking to?!” Ariana heard the grumpy and heartless voice from the other side of the phone, and quickly put it off immediately and removed the sim card. She knew that it was their demonic father, and that he would try to call the number back.

And when he did try, the number was said to not be available no matter the number of times he called it. He asked Aria whom she was trying to call, and she lied that she was curious about the family she was getting married to. And that she wanted to form a good connection first by calling the number on the invitation papers in his room.

He dragged her by the hair, and cursed her that she wanted to say wrong things to the family that was willing to take her useless self. He locked her up in the house for days, booked a reservation at an inn in the next town, and locked her there so that no one would be able to get across to her till.

The next event in her life was the painful marriage that severed the communication between her and her sister. And that was also the point that her life took her miserable change with the family that didn’t love her. Before Ariana left town after she found out that her sister had been taken away a few months later, she caused Hamilton a loss that was hard to get over.

The funds that were transferred to him as a bride price for the marriage of his daughter, had all been put in a personal card for him to enjoy endlessly. The night that he returned home in happiness after a big flex in the city, it went missing before the next morning.

On his way back to California in agitation the moment he realized what had happened, he was kidnapped and locked for days to reveal the details of the account.

Before he was released, all of the money had vanished into thin air. When he was asked about the bride’s whereabouts, all he could mention were a few things, because even on the day of the wedding, the groom came in the night. He had not even cared to know much about the family.

Aria became the receiving end of his pain anytime she called him, because he believed that she had sent people to threaten him. He always cursed her for being a useless child till the very end.

She thought her life was going to end in pieces at the Miller’s mansion, until her sister who would stop at nothing to get her sister out of bondage found her again.