Daughter-in-law Strikes Harder

“Get that bitch down here from her room! Drag her hair and make her crawl on her knees to this place, right now!” Mrs. Eleanor Miller ordered furiously as she stood up and empathically slapped the table with an open palm, which ended up stinging her palm painfully more than she had expected it to.

Dalton, who had watched the dining table feast go in disarray once again because of the same person, picked up his phone and texted Alex to bring the CCTV footage from the afternoon as fast as possible.

Immediately Alex phone beeped a message notification and saw what it was about, his nerves which seemed to be at rest initially had all started to tie up to one another in anxiety.

“How did this happen?” Dalton demanded to know in a calm voice, which seemed to take everyone aback that he was getting involved in their affairs, which he rarely did.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

“I don’t think we should be asking for what has happened first,” Mrs. Eleanor said in a calm tone to Dalton and then continued on her words, “With what she had done, that low life bitch is leaving this mansion today!” Eleanor utterly declared, as she picked the translucent glass of water on the table and chugged the contents down her throat.

She had shouted more excessively than she should have, and it seemed to have caused some heating up in her throat.

“Let us hear from you, Ellen,” Dalton asked his sister again, without minding what his mother had said. They could all evidently see on his stoic face, that he was serious about listening to Ellen’s side of story first. Their minds were in a big stir up of what was going on.

“It was. It was. This afternoon. Aria was.” Ellen paused and closed her eyes tight, while trying to inhale all the air she could, to prevent her from crying any further. Hailey who was sitting by her side pulled her closer to her own self, as she patted softly on Ellen’s back to console her from the pain that she was feeling.

“I went into the kitchen, and Aria was boiling water. She… was boiling water on the fi.. re…” She paused again from her extremely slow narration, and broke into more uncontrollable tears this time around, which was going to eventually prevent her from speaking any further.

“This is the footage sir,” Alex, who had entered the dining room through the main door, matched smartly to where Dalton was sitting. He presented to him with the computer tablet, where he could watch the footage play according to their time of occurrence.

With uneasiness getting the best of him, Alex really hoped that Dalton would only be interested in what had ensued between Ellen and Aria, and not suddenly want to know what had happened before the incident happened.

“Come and interpret what I am watching in this video,” Dalton signaled to his assistant to come forward, as Alex moved closer to him and joined in what his boss was watching, like he had not seen the video footage minutes ago.

“Mrs. Aria is seen boiling water. Miss Ellen makes a move to hit her, and she.” Alex paused from what he was saying, and drew in air from the suffocating atmosphere around him, “And she burns her hand.”

“She cursed at me! Your damn wife confidently cursed at me and called me names, without any regard for the position that I hold in this house. Aria intentionally left the boiling water open, so I would ruin my hand in it when I came closer. She is evil!” Ellen stated bitterly in a well comported manner, and started crying again while sniffing nonstop.

She could never risk annoying her brother, by the slightest show she would put on. As usual, she would have expected that blaming Aria for everything, was just the perfect thing to do so that she would get punished. Dalton was never the one to mind those things.

Eva just kept mute and gently watched how the scene would keep unfolding till the end, as she used her knife to cut a piece of huge steak that was still in her plate, and put it in her mouth without making any noise.

Mrs. Eleanor just kept drinking the iced water that was in her glass cup at intervals, as she was really angry that Dalton wasn’t allowing things to go the way she wanted.

“Did she pour the water on you or not?” He asked calmly again, with his right hand fiddling on the golden fork that was still in his left hand. He really detested the fact that he had to be solving such cases, even if it was never his to do so. He never cared.

“Why does this feel like the victim is being interrogated here? Why does it seem like you are beginning to have that bitch’s back? And just why exactly, are you not divorcing her even if she has asked for a divorce?!” Ellen who had allowed her emotions to get the best of her demands, with her lips trembling in hurt and guilt at the same time. She had just messed up real bad.

Ellen’s actions and manner of talking made Hailey gasp so softly, which also had her mother squeeze her eyes tightly closed in disappointment.

She could not believe that her daughter had finally acted like a fool in the presence of her brother, and ruined everything by asking such questions in the wrong way and at the wrong time. Eva just shaked her head.

Dalton, who didn’t mind what was going on the table anymore, selected the footage from before the incident and seemed to glance through them. He sure had heard how his sister had spoken, but wasn’t even bothered about it enough to anger him. Alex figured out what his boss was finally doing, and he knew that there was no way he could wiggle himself out of the mess.

They could all feel the temperature in the room drop, when Dalton raised his eyes from the tablet he was looking at seconds ago. Their throats could barely swallow a drop of saliva even with their itching throats, now that Ellen had acted like the dumb fellow that she was, and ruined everything for them.

Little did they know that he was like that because he discovered that Aria left the house, for more than four hours without any sight of her during the day.

Standing up from where he sat, Dalton moved away from the dining table and strolled out of the room. Alex, who already knew what was happening, hesitated for a few seconds, before following behind his boss whose steps shook fear into the hearts of the people he had left behind.

The worst of his punishment was whenever he said nothing, and just allowed the scene to pass without an immediate judgment. Ellen could totally see doom writing before her face.

Alex knew he didn’t have to be told about the next thing to do, as he ran to Aria’s doorstep and pressed the bell receptor as deep as he could. The good thing that Dalton was still not asking him about his knowledge of her short absence, was more than enough grace for him not to mess up the order of things this time around.

Lying on her bed in black shorts and a matching sports bra was Aria, whose resting position was more than unlikely to view. There was a bottle of whiskey still left unfinished with its contents half by the side of the bed, and a glass cup that was rolled sideways to the foot of the lamp stand.

The air conditioner in the room seemed to be at an extremely low temperature, but still she could not stop breathing restlessly like pure heat was oozing out of her.

Digging into the bed were her nails with both arms clutched to her side, like her life depended on her against the bed cover grip for survival.

Even in her unconsciously conscious mind, she could hear the doorbell ring from outside and transfer the waves into her room. There was no way she would have the strength to get up from the bed, and open the door for whoever it was that was disturbing her.

Dalton, who was standing impatiently in front of the door as Alex pressed the bell, almost shoved him out of the way and resorted to knocking hard against the door. He hated the fact that she was deciding not to open the door, even if she probably had no idea of who was knocking on her door.

“Go and get me the master key to this room!” He ordered Alex arrogantly, as he sniffed furiously with every breath hot as magma, and his angry stares dark as ink.

Aria could hear it shortly after she was relieved that the person had stopped knocking, the writhing and forceful unlocking of her door to her room without her permission from outside of the room. She knew it could not be anyone other than Dalton, who would pull that kind of stunts since he owned the house.

‘She totally had limited time to act fine. What would she do?’

The door swung open immediately the key unlocked it, as Dalton proceeded inside and closed the door behind him. It was the first time he was entering the room after she occupied the space, and he could figure everything out because it had similar structuring to his own room.

The room space was so incredibly big, that it took a minute to get to the location of the bedroom itself.

“And why are you in my room?” Aria’s voice cut his steps short before he walked to the turning corner of her bed space, as he turned sharply to see where she had suddenly popped from.

He was really surprised to see what she was wearing, and appeared to be carried away by what never amused him. The pale swelling of her breast in the small piece of clothing that held them firm, was the first thing that had his attention the moment he turned to her.

“Why did you not come down for dinner?” His brain changed what he wanted to say, instead of asking about where she had gone in the afternoon with an authoritative voice.

“How did you get into my room, Dalton?” she asked him, with a barely audible voice that was trying to keep up its usual intensity, “Because you are the owner of the house, does not give you the right to barge into my room however you like. I mean we are not even married!”

Like her last sentence had surged some kind of anger in him, he asked with an unfriendly tone this time, “What do you mean not married?”

“I don’t care what you think, Dalton. But I think you should leave now. We would talk tomorrow morning,” she urged him, trying hard to stand properly on her feet without bending. The pain that was twisting her stomach was really unbearable, that she was trying not to cry or groan in his presence.

“Why do you look so pale?” He asked her again the moment he could notice how her appearance looked, like she was back to her normal self in the past. She looked so white and lifeless with chapped lips, which were things that he would never even have observed in his usual self.

“Can you just go? Please,” her eyes pleaded so desperately, that he had never had to see her in that kind of position for the past weeks. She seemed different from being so hell bent on messing up with him, which had some place in his heart touched by the sudden way she was acting.

“What is going on with you? You seem to be in a bad state,” he finally asked even if his ego had almost prevented him from doing so, because she seemed to be clutching to her stomach now like she would lose it soon. Her groan had become loud and evident, that she felt like she would slip out of consciousness soon.

And there she had it. Her body fell back to the floor so unceremoniously after she let out the last painful screaming, which made Dalton sure that he heard his heart drop, when he watched her collapse before him. His hands grabbed around her slender body quickly, as he lifted her up from the floor and pulled her closer to his chest. His mind was totally out of his head.

‘Was she dead?’